How to automate entry when there is no web page- the link downloads a pdf

anjelajohnston · February 25, 2023

Hi!
Several of the documents I need to add to zotero, usually from government sources, don't give me a webpage but just download a pdf when I click the link. They usually don't have any metadata associated.
Any best practices or suggestions for these types of files?
Much appreciated!

dstillman · February 26, 2023

See here, in particular "Standalone Attachments and Parent Items": https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#adding_pdfs_and_other_files

If there's no webpage and no identifier, you'll generally need to enter the metadata manually.

anjelajohnston · February 27, 2023

thanks, @dstillman. There's no way to force the browser to return a page with the information, instead of the pdf, is there? I mean, technically, isn't the browser retrieving the file from a webpage, right?
I've been entering these manually, but there are so many! I just wondered if there was a faster way. l love how fast it is to enter web resources into zotero.
I appreciate your help!

dstillman · February 27, 2023

Zotero can only save what's available. If there's no webpage with metadata, there's nothing to save other than the PDF. That's entirely common for reports and other documents — as that section notes, anything can be distributed as a PDF. If you type up a random document in Word, save it as a PDF, and upload it to a website, there's no reason to think Zotero would be able to save high-quality metadata for it.

As the linked section explains, if you can find another page with metadata that Zotero understands, you can save from there and drag the PDF on top of it.