Workflow for importing a large folder of PDFs, as links?

I have a large collection of new OCR'd pdfs that I'd like to bring into my existing zotero collection. I'm looking for a good workflow. A note: I keep all the PDFs associated with my zotero library in one master folder; my zotero library includes links to those PDFs. I don't keep PDFs themselves as attachments within Zotero. So the goal here is to identify the pdfs, create entries for them, and then have those pdfs all moved to my master collection -- each entry will also include a link to the appropriate pdf in the master collection.

Here is my (slow, one by one) workflow, currently:
Open as tiled windows the following: firefox, "new folder" and "downloads" ("downloads is my default directory where the zotfile plugin looks for the pdfs I want to add as attachments).
Drag a single PDF from "new folder" into the Zotero center panel. This creates a standalone PDF which is a copy of the one that still resides in "new folder".
Right click on the standalone pdf, and select "retrieve parent metadata", which creates a bibliographic entry with the pdf as an attachment.
Then, delete the PDF attachment to that entry.
Then, drag the original PDF from "new folder" to "downloads."
Return to the entry in zotero, select it, then click "zotfile" which pulls the newly added pdf from "downloads" into my master PDF collection, and renames it, according to my zotfile preferences. A link is added from the entry to the file in my master collection.

This is quite time-consuming. Does anyone have a good workflow that would allow me to quickly add a bunch of new PDFs so that they are identified, entries are created, and the pdfs are added to the appropriate entries as links (not attachments)?

Thanks
  • edited December 8, 2010
    you may want to look into the Zotfile plugin.
    I'm not using it, but the way I understand it, since the last update, you can turn pdfs stored in Zotero into linked pdfs in a folder specified by you.
    If I'm correct in that understanding you could import all pdfs at once, run retrieve metadata 10 or so at a time, and one you're done run Zotfile on all of them -
    but obviously try this out first, as I'm not sure.

    Alternatively, and still much faster than your way:
    move all of the new pdfs to your master folder.
    click "add link to file" in the new item (green plus) menu. Select multiple pdfs from your master folder. Select those pdfs and retrieve metadata - if that works you should be done.
    Or am I missing something?
  • Hi,

    We'll ignore the spam there. Thanks, that was helpful. I am using zotfile, but it's not really necessary. New workflow:

    Move pdfs to master folder.
    Create 1 blank entry in a new collection in zotero.
    Use "attach link to file" and then select multiple (10? 15?) new pdfs in the master folder.
    Then remove those PDFs from their single blank entry, so they are stand alone links.
    Select them all, right-click, and retrieve metadata.
    Then rename pdf from parent.

    Thanks.
  • Create 1 blank entry in a new collection in zotero.
    Use "attach link to file" and then select multiple (10? 15?) new pdfs in the master folder.
    Then remove those PDFs from their single blank entry, so they are stand alone links.
    as I say above (though maybe not clearly) - that's not necessary: you can add stand alone links directly by using "add link to file" from the menu under the green plus.
  • That works! Thanks.
  • Just what I needed. Thanks!
  • I could not understand. Can you explain more clearly adding large folder of PDFs to Zotero.
    Best,
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