Chrome OS

yosttheskanker

I have a cr-48 Chrome OS Notebook and I am more than willing to test out anything that may be developed for this environment.

Zotero is my new lover now that I''m working on my MAT and I'd love to see a plugin/extension/ anything that makes it more than just the website for Chrome OS.

bdarcus

See discussions of "Zotero next." But note that the parts of that plan that rely on XULrunner won't run on ChromeOS.

paul.shackelford

I am in the same boat with my CR-48 and I really done want to have to use my current computer as my primary computer but with my professor requiring Zotero I feel I have little option. Hopefully whenever the Citrix extension comes out to allow the browser to remote access another computer this problem can be resolved for other Chrome OS pilot testers.

All is good in GA

BarbRad

I am so disappointed. I wanted a Chromebook so badly, but if Zotero won't work on it, then I will just have to give up on Chromebooks.

dstillman

A bookmarklet—which will allow you to save to Zotero from any browser—is currently in the final stages of testing. You could use that on a Chromebook to save items, but to access your library you'd be limited to the web interface.

nilsloewen

myendnoteweb.com works extremely well with a Chromebook or Chromebox or any computer where you don't have administrative access to install plugins or the offline Zotero (or any other computer that doesn't have Firefox, MSWord or OpenOffice/LibreOffice).
E.g. in Google Docs you can insert a code like {author, year, PMID}, download it as an RTF and then upload it to myendnoteweb.com where it is formatted and dropped back towards your computer. You can choose all styles you wish. Having to manually paste the PMID into the doc is the only downside.

I've been following Zotero since its inception but because of the above shortcomings I don't want to commit my entire lab to it. We produce in the cloud using live documents and format in the cloud using a shared Endnote library (OK Zotero/Mendeley can do that, too).

This method works well because for the first insertion of references we use the GDoc built-in "research" function via ctrl+shift+alt+i. Even if Endnote disappeared the text will now permanently show that reference before we copy and reformat it using Endnote per Journal instructions. The ctrl+shift+alt+i inserted references are either HTML coded footnotes that all word processors recognize or they are in line text [author, title, year] that can be copied via the webclip board and pasted using the RTF pasting - this will preserve footnotes.

adamsmith

there is this: http://www.zotero.org/support/rtf_scan which works the same way. You still require one computer with Zotero running, but all the authoring can happen in the cloud. It's currently probably not quite as reliable as Endnoteweb, but in other things, Zotero is a lot more powerful than Endnoteweb otherwise.

Larry Cebula

Dan: Is that bookmarklet you mentioned in you June 2012 comment available yet?

adamsmith

yes, bookmarklet & instructions are here:
http://www.zotero.org/downloadbookmarklet

Larry Cebula

Hmmmm...I tried the bookmarklet and when I click on it, it looks for Zotero Standalone and does not find it. Is the bookmarklet for the Chrome browser or the Chrome OS?

adamsmith

the bookmarklet should connect to Zotero online - I don't think it has been tested on Chrome OS, but I'd be surprised if it didn't work. It works on Android, e.g.
What exactly is the message you're getting?

Larry Cebula

OK, I logged into Zotero at this site and that seems to make the bookmarklet work, sometimes. At Amazon it recognizes the books. But on the Google News Archive (where I do most of my research right now) I get this message:

"Saving Failed…
No items could be saved because this website is not supported by any Zotero translator. If Zotero Standalone is not open, try opening it to increase the number of supported sites."

adamsmith

I don't believe there is a Zotero translators for google news. The bookmarklet currently only works for sites supported by Zotero. It doesn't allow you to just take snapshots of any page (like the connectors or the FF add-on would).

Larry Cebula

That is unfortunate, the real power of Zotero for my research was being able to save whatever I found online. Will the same limitations apply using Zotero and the Chrome browser on a PC? Is there a list of supported sites?

Thanks for all your help by the way.

adamsmith

no, with Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on PC/Mac/Linux you can save snapshots of any page.
There is a list of all the translators we have:
http://zotero-translator-tests.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/
but some of them work on many, some on hundreds of sites so it's not always possible to tell if there is a translator.

rgouldin

Just got a chromebook, and was very pleased to find that Zotero does (more or less) work on it! The Chrome Zotero connector, installed originally on my Mac, was installed onto my chromebook when it synced to my Google account. Just out of curiosity, I clicked on the Book icon that appeared when I was on Google books -- and it opened another instance of Chrome, open to Zotero; I logged on, and the item was added to my library, together with an attachment to the Google Books link. Intrigued, I then went to JSTOR to search for a couple of things I've been looking for; I clicked the Article icon, and the items were each transferred into my Zotero library, together with the pdf attachments!

So, in summary, you certainly *can* use Zotero on your Chromebook. Install the Chrome Zotero connector, open a window logged on to your Zotero account, and then you should be able to go about collecting references and adding them (even with attachments) to your database just as on a "regular" computer.

jordanbarrett

So you can save data and documents to your Zotero account on a Chromebook, but can you actually cite anything? That's my big question.

I assume a person would have to use Google Docs or Office 360, but how do you cite/footnote a source from Zotero without manually copying it? This is where it seems Chromebooks and Zotero won't play well together since it appears to still need the Standalone version. Is this right? Or am I missing something? Thanks for any help

adamsmith

This is where it seems Chromebooks and Zotero won't play well together since it appears to still need the Standalone version. Is this right?

that's right. There's some work on getting GoogleDocs to work with Zotero via the web API, but I don't think that would happen very fast (and this is all 3rd party work, nothing by Zotero proper).

jordanbarrett

Helpful to know, thanks

lelandhoover

As a Chromebook user and researcher, I am very interested that Zotero plays well with Chromebooks and Google Drive/Docs. Is there an active project to make them play together for citations? If so, how can I contact the project team to find out more?

adamsmith

doesn't look terribly active recently afaict, but here's the relevant thread on the dev list:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/zotero-dev/90ix5AiEOzQ
(note though, that the dev list is really only for dev discussion, not a place to express general support for development etc.)

earcanal

I replicated the process oulined by @rgouldin which covers most of my use case. The only niggle was that my item wasn't saved directly to the collection I wanted it in (I had to move it afterwards from the main Library). Is it possible to save directly to a specific collection using the Chrome Zotero connector?

bwiernik

No, without a local client, the Chrome connector can't save directly to collections or to Group libraries.

adamsmith

To add to what bwiernik says.
1. There has been some talk about a better solution, e.g. by allowing to specify a specific collection for the bookmarklet to save to -- I think what's not on the menu (though I'm not sure) is to specify the collection each time you save.
2. Until then, maybe the unfiled collection (save search, technically) could be quite useful, especially when sorted by date added?