Click on a PDF and it will open in Zotero’s own PDF reader. Annotate the PDF with coloured highlighters, snip an image, and add comments and tags. These are searchable and will be saved to the file whether you store that file locally or in the Zotero cloud. Toggle the left-hand pane to see all comments and highlights:
To export annotations so you can open the PDF in a different PDF reader click File>Export PDF option, which will convert any Zotero annotations into standard annotations. Similarly, when exporting metadata from your library, see the “Include Annotations” option under “Export Files”.
All items go into the Zotero Library by default, but it is important to consider how you will organise your library. Zotero has the following options:
Collections are traditional folders and are useful for filing items e.g., for a particular project or on a specific topic or section of your assignment for example. You can save items directly to a collection from the web connector, or drag and drop them from your library to the collection. Right-click on Library and choose New Collection:
You can add sub-collections as you would with any file system. Right click on a collection to create a subcollection:
Tags allow you to tag items based on their topics, methods, status, ratings, or even based on your own workflow. Items can have as many tags as you like, and you can filter your library (or a specific collection) to show items having a specific set of one or more tags. Be careful as some academic journals may pull through their own tags with the metadata, you can ‘Delete automatic tags’ in the bottom left menu to remove them:
Notes are free text spaces where you can leave meaningful information for your own use. These are visible beside the item in your library:
You might find you have downloaded the same items several times. To remove duplicates, click on the “Duplicate Items” collection in your library, this will show the items Zotero thinks are duplicates in the centre column, you can delete or merge from here.
Zotero can help you avoid relying on retracted publications in your research by automatically checking your database and documents for works that have been retracted. If you try to cite a retracted item using the word processor plugin, Zotero will warn you and confirm that you still want to cite it. If you’ve already added a citation to a document and it later is retracted, Zotero will warn you the next time you update the document’s citations, even if the item no longer exists in your Zotero library or was added by a co-author.
Zotero allows you to share a library of resources with any number of people in a ‘Group’. In Zotero Desktop click on the top left folder icon and choose New Group:
This takes you to the Zotero website, log in when prompted, give your group a name and choose a group type:
Think about what you want to control, you can change these settings at any time. You will see your new group listed in the Groups tab. To add people, click on Manage Members:
On the next page click Send More invitations and type members emails into the box:
Change member roles at any time in Members Settings:
In the desktop version of Zotero you need to click on the small green refresh button in the top right:
Then you will see your new group listed in your library:
Collaborate on PDFs: You can open and annotate PDFs in the Group library and see fellow collaborators comments. Toggle the sidebar to see all comments, here you can also choose to show comments from certain collaborators by clicking their name at the bottom of the pane:
