How can I add a citation into Zotero manually?

Alexander_321

Dear Community,

I am going to start to use Zotero, but I cannot understand how I can add a citation into Zotero manually.

I have watched a video “Manually Input a Citation into Zotero” under the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW5l6eFCjLQ.

But in reality, it is a video about manual input of a REFERENCE (a source) into Zotero, not about a citation.

I have already created a description of the book from which I want to store a citation.

This citation is a paragraph in one of my files.

And how can I now insert this paragraph into Zotero and can link this paragraph with the description of the above-mentioned book?

Thank you very much in advance for your advice :)

adamsmith

By "citation" you mean a direct quotation from that book?

If so, you create a child note in to that item, paste the quotation (including quotation marks) into that note, then click the "insert citation" button [+] and insert a citation to the item in question with the right page number(s).
You can then cite that entire note in you word processor using the "Insert note" button in the word processor add-on.

Alexander_321

adamsmith

Thank you very much for your advice.
You are right - by "citation" I mean a direct quotation, i.e. a text paragraph from my book.

Today I have tried to add this paragraph into Zotero in the way you had described in your post and I have got some partially positive result.

But in order to get a really positive result I need some more help. Therefore, I describe step by step below what I have done. Please tell me what I have done incorrectly.

1. I created a new record in Menu File – this record was a book with the title “Example Book”; its author was John Brown.
2. I clicked on the menu point Note in the right column and then I clicked on “Add”.
3. In another program I took into the clipboard the text paragraph which I wanted to insert into Zotero.
4. In the Note window of Zotero I pasted the above-mentioned paragraph.
5. Then I clicked the "insert citation" button [+].
6. A long field with a red letter Z at the left and with a red border appeared on my screen.
7. I began to type “Example …” and the program Zotero showed me the title “Example Book. Brown”. I clicked on this title and then I clicked Enter. Now the quotation has the author’s name “Brown” at its end.
-----------------------

But I believe that I have made something incorrectly because the program Zotero had not showed me any field where I could insert the page number of this quotation.

Where can I insert this page number?

adamsmith

The red box works like the add citation dialog for the word processor, see https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#customizing_cites for adding page numbers and other locators.

FWIW, notes also work together with the built-in PDF reader to further streamline the process you describe, i.e. highlight the desired section, extract to note -- done.

Alexander_321

adamsmith

Thank you very much!
After I had clicked on the author’s name “Brown” in the red box, Zotero showed me a small window with parameters which I needed!