Last author out of place after export and import on different computers

Cdevenish

I installed zotero at my office today, synced my collection (stored locally on home computer) without files, and then downloaded and stored locally some new papers at the office. I exported these onto a flash memory and took them home. When I imported these records, with files, the last author on articles with relatively long author lists were placed as first author, in front of the true first author. The other information seemed to be OK. I'm using version 2.0.8 at home on windows XP.

(Incidentally, I also noticed after installing zotero at the office, with the word plug in, that when citing some records, in Harvard style, the first names or initials were being included in some in-text citations, but not all.)

I don't plan to transfer material this way very often, but it does seem to be strange behaviour.

adamsmith

how did you export them? Why didn't you just sync back from office? If you exported to RDF - could you paste one sample RDF that shifts authors here and say which should be the first author

for the parenthetical issue:
http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

Cdevenish

I didn't sync back because it was easier to export and import with the files, rather than syncing and then manually attaching each file to the corresponding record (I don't have online file storage).

I exported selected records with right click, to rdf format, with notes and files.

Here is an example, I'm not sure if this is exactly where it starts> but the first author is Baillie (as can be seen in the filename of the pdf), but was placed as Mace when imported (actually last author)

<dc:date>07/2008</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>
<dcterms:URI>
<rdf:value>http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2008.00009.x</rdf:value>;
</dcterms:URI>
</dc:identifier>
<dc:title>Toward monitoring global biodiversity</dc:title>
<dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="urn:issn:1755263X"/>
<bib:authors>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Georgina M.</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Mace</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Jonathan E. M.</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Baillie</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Ben</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Collen</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Rajan</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Amin</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>H. Resit</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Akcakaya</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Stuart H. M.</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Butchart</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Neil</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Brummitt</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Thomas R.</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Meagher</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Mala</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Ram</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:givenname>Craig</foaf:givenname>
<foaf:surname>Hilton-Taylor</foaf:surname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
</rdf:Seq>
</bib:authors>
<bib:pages>18-26</bib:pages>
<link:link rdf:resource="#item_1465"/>
<z:itemType>journalArticle</z:itemType>
</bib:Article>
<bib:Journal rdf:about="urn:issn:1755263X">
<prism:number>1</prism:number>
<prism:volume>1</prism:volume>
<dc:identifier>DOI 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2008.00009.x</dc:identifier>
<dc:identifier>ISSN 1755263X</dc:identifier>
<dc:title>Conservation Letters</dc:title>
</bib:Journal>
<z:Attachment rdf:about="#item_1465">
<dc:title>Baillie et al 2008 SRLI Cons Letters.pdf</dc:title>
<link:type>application/pdf</link:type>
<rdf:resource rdf:resource="files/1465/Baillie et al 2008 SRLI Cons Letters.pdf"/>
<z:itemType>attachment</z:itemType>
</z:Attachment>
</rdf:RDF>

adamsmith

OK so this happens during the RDF Export. huh - that's odd.

I wouldn't recommend using RDF for transfer because using export/import breaks the links for word processor integration.

Cdevenish

So is there a better format for export, or alternative to syncing and then re-attaching files locally?

adamsmith

nope. syncing is the only reasonable* way to work with one document on several computers. If you want the files attached on both computers you do indeed need to re-attach them (unless you use WebDav or Zotero storage).

*technically you can carry around your entire storage folder on a USB, but that only works for the entire library so that doesn't seem reasonable.

fbennett

This was fixed in the 2.0 dev version a few days ago. (What adamsmith says about breaking word-processor citations, though.)