Upgrade StorageBringing everything together in Zotero (Personal Knowledge Management – PKM)
As a researcher, I’m bringing everything into Zotero: texts, books, random notes, web page screenshots, video links, and more. I’ve created a workflow that was initially efficient, but I’ve realized it’s now taking up a lot of my time.
My current process is: I capture and file everything in Zotero, then export the notes to Obsidian, where I link them by keywords, authors, concepts, and so on. But then I thought — what if these links between notes could be made directly within Zotero? That way, I wouldn’t have to leave Zotero, and everything would stay integrated.
I did some research online but couldn’t find anything quite like this. The closest option I found was the Better Notes plugin, but I found it somewhat complex and lacking good tutorials on YouTube.
It would be very interesting if the developers could create a plugin that mimics some of Obsidian’s features — not necessarily the graph view, but the ability to create internal links between notes and topics. Something similar to using tags, but within the body of the note. For instance, if I type something like [Keyword] (following Obsidian-style markdown), it could act as a smart link.
Then, every time I use that same keyword in another note, Zotero would automatically connect them — and if I click on [Keyword], it would filter and display all related notes. That would be amazing and extremely helpful when authoring academic articles.
If this is already possible or if a plugin like this exists, I’d be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. And finally, if anyone knows of a good Better Notes tutorial, please share it with me.
My current process is: I capture and file everything in Zotero, then export the notes to Obsidian, where I link them by keywords, authors, concepts, and so on. But then I thought — what if these links between notes could be made directly within Zotero? That way, I wouldn’t have to leave Zotero, and everything would stay integrated.
I did some research online but couldn’t find anything quite like this. The closest option I found was the Better Notes plugin, but I found it somewhat complex and lacking good tutorials on YouTube.
It would be very interesting if the developers could create a plugin that mimics some of Obsidian’s features — not necessarily the graph view, but the ability to create internal links between notes and topics. Something similar to using tags, but within the body of the note. For instance, if I type something like [Keyword] (following Obsidian-style markdown), it could act as a smart link.
Then, every time I use that same keyword in another note, Zotero would automatically connect them — and if I click on [Keyword], it would filter and display all related notes. That would be amazing and extremely helpful when authoring academic articles.
If this is already possible or if a plugin like this exists, I’d be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. And finally, if anyone knows of a good Better Notes tutorial, please share it with me.
https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/discussions
For a tutorial, you can start with the README page:
https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/README.md
The relevant sections for links would be:
- Note Link: https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/README.md#note-link
- Note Link Preview: https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/README.md#note-link-preview
- Magic Key: https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/README.md#magic-key
-> You can search for
linkin the Magic Key search box to access line or section links:https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u265723/lu0xggeqw9ieuwl6ri62.png
You can also automatically sync your notes between Zotero and Obsidian:
Syncing: Note Markdown: https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/README.md#syncing-note-️-markdown
I have not tested, but you can see if that works for you.
For even more customisation, you can also combine it with the Actions and Tags plugin, from the same developer (see the README also):
https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-actions-tags
For example, you can generate the note links more easily with this script:
https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-actions-tags/discussions/115
It even works with links to a collection:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/456483/#Comment_456483
Wow, what an amazing response! Honestly, I had no idea Better Notes had so many possibilities within Zotero. I was genuinely surprised by the richness of your tips and how clearly you organized everything in the tutorial — super helpful! I’ve already saved it and will take my time to read through each part, because I plan to put it all into practice over the next few days.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge so generously. Your reply will definitely help me (and probably others too) make Zotero an even more powerful tool in my workflow.
Really appreciate it!