how to change item type

cheveigne
I'm new to zotero. I just added some pdfs to my base and I'd like to label them with 'author', 'title', etc. but the right-hand panel does not contain those fields. I suppose that that's because the item type is wrong. How to change the item type? I noticed that the 'retrieve metadata' function does what I want but only if appropriate metadata can be found.
  • anders_royce
    edited April 20, 2010
    PDFs can be attached to various kinds of items. You need to create a parent item for it. Either use the create new item button, and then drag the PDF into the new item, or try the "Retrieve Metadata" command on the PDF which automatically creates the parent item if the PDF has the necessary info.
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/library_items
  • cheveigne
    It would be nice to be able to create a parent for an existing item if needed. It seems a natural thing to do.
  • adamsmith
    what's planned is that a failed attempt to retrieve metadata will automatically attach the pdf to an empty item.
  • cheveigne
    Good! While you're at it I'd recommend making the 'retrieve metadata' function easily accessible from a menu in addition to the cryptic 'right-click' or 'control-click'. I'd never have discovered that very useful function if I hadn't chanced upon it in a forum discussion.
  • ajlyon
    Good! While you're at it I'd recommend making the 'retrieve metadata' function easily accessible from a menu in addition to the cryptic 'right-click' or 'control-click'. I'd never have discovered that very useful function if I hadn't chanced upon it in a forum discussion.
    Perhaps "Retrieve metadata" could be added to the right panel for stand-alone PDFs? A fair number of Mac users in the world don't use Ctrl-click / right-click, and Mac users often expect to find all major functions available via non-contextual menus or other means.
  • adamsmith
    I like that idea - regardless of Mac or not.
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