Upgrade Storageplease add better integration with Scrivener
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0A. This workflow is blazing fast if you use TextExpander. I wrote a text expander script that creates MMD-style footnotes using a time-stamp (the only way, in my opinion, when you're working with large documents), automatically creates Zotero shortcut reference indicators, and places the cursor inside them. Here is the code:
[^%y%1m%e%1H%1M]
[^%y%1m%e%1H%1M]:{%|}
0B. I created a MultiMarkdown implementation of Chicago Style for Zotero: https://gist.github.com/1786800
2. When writing in Scriv, create a Multi-Markdown-style footnote link, either using TextExpander as above, or the old-fashioned way: [^note], then your actual footnote using Zotero shorthand, [^note]:{Smith 2002}, 1-18.
3. When everything is said and done, use Scrivener to Export as RTF.
4. Use Zotero RFT scan to link your references. This has been really reliable for me.
5. Take the output RTF document, save it as plain text, and get back into Scriv.
6. For LaTeX, you can then convert using Scriv's MMD to LaTex output.
Would love to hear some feedback. Hopefully some of your find this helpful.
NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS ON MACS BECAUSE BibDesk is strictly a (very excellent) program for Mac OS X 10.5+.
As with craigley's solution, mine also uses MultiMarkdown (MMD). Here're the installation instructions:
0. I'll assume you have LaTeX installed. Mac users can get the MacTeX distribution here:
http://www.tug.org/mactex/2011/. Also, you'll need BibDesk. Get it here: http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net/.
1. Download Fletcher T. Penney's MMD Export templates from here: http://groups.google.com/group/multimarkdown/browse_thread/thread/0c9937c17906a8b1/6f633137107832fa. Look at James Howlson's post dated Oct. 14, 2007 for instructions on how to install them into BibDesk. Follow them.
2. Fletcher's templates convert BibDesk items into MMD citations. But MMD's citation feature is very limited. I prefer to use BibTeX (or natbib) citations and escape them as raw LaTeX code. To do this, copy one of the templates and rename it. Edit it. Since I'm using the natbib package, I changed my copy into:
<$publications>
<!--\citep{<$citeKey/>}--></$publications>
I also made one using \citet. Install them into BibDesk too.
3. Set Zotero to export citations in BibTeX format and BibDesk to export using one of these new templates.
That's it for installation. Now here's the workflow:
1. Start BibDesk, Scrivener, and Zotero. (I'm using standalone without trouble.)
2. Use BibDesk to create a new, empty BibTex bibliography (.bib) file .
3. When you need a new reference, drag and drop it from Zotero to BibDesk. If you have already used the reference, it's in your .bib file already, so you can skip this step.
4. Write in Scrivener. To cite an item, just drag and drop it from BibDesk to Scrivener. You may have to do some minor fiddling to add prefixes, etc. Just modify the \cite command.
5. When you're ready to publish your masterpiece, use Scrivener to compile it as MMD, and then use LaTeX to make the output beautiful. (I used TexShop to open the .tex file. Then, one push of the Typeset button followed by Macros > Applescript > Bibliography does the job.)
Most of the writing process boils down to Steps 3 and 4. I can live with that (for now)!
I wouldn't get my hopes up. The way this will work is an improved Zotero RTF scan, which I think is in the cards, just not imminent.
The keys are really the main obstacle at this point, everything else is probably not terribly hard to do.
1) Create a "Bibliography.doc" in Word/Open-/Libre-Neo-Office
2) Write in Scrivener with placeholders in footnote {Author, Date}
3) Go to Zotero, clip respective note with Quick Copy into Bibliography.doc
4) Add (via Zotero's plug-in in your Office-App) the footnote-reference to your Quick-copied reference in "Bibliography.doc"
5) Export Scrivener document when finished with your draft (best to rtf) "Finaltext.rtf"
6) Replace footnotes in "Finaltext" manually with copied footnotes from "Bibliography"
=> Ms written in Scrivener, final document with live links to Zotero.
Step 3) could be omitted but it helps with recognizing the reference (rather than just looking at a footnote marker when trying to copy into "Finaltext".
Clumsy procedure, but it works – until a functioning RTF-Scan should make all this unnecessary.
Thanks for the description; I'm returning to Zotero after some agonizing experiences over the (wait for it) last 6 months with Sente trying to get some bibliographic solutions: for a Chicago 15 or even a 16! Some persistent glitch for those guys...but, I digress.
So, your workflow: I read it and understand you: Thank you. Scrivener is so powerful, and I'd hate to abandon it because I couldn't get my reference software to collaborate.
I'm also wondering why people don't just write in Scrivener and then compile to a word doc and insert Zotero citations at the point, manually replacing the reference (author year page)? I realize this takes a little extra time and is a one-way process but it works.
Lastly, could markdown be used in some way? (A shot in the dark - I'm not a programmer.)
My question is, has RTF Scan been improved in the last year, enough make it worthwhile to add it into the work flow? Or is it still unreliable
@mbruffey - I doubt that is going to happen by someone from Zotero. Dan & Simon have never looked to kindly to putting hacks (and using the extra field here surely is a hack) into Zotero and while that's at times frustrating for a group of users wanting a particular improvement, it's almost certainly a good idea for the software product at large.
As I have mentioned repeatedly, the code for RTF scan is a separate .js file and would lend itself well for improvements by a third party - large parts of that, such as better handling of affixes etc., could be submitted as patches back to Zotero and would have a very high chance of getting accepted - the more "hacky" parts - and using the extra field certainly falls under that category - could be patched in by users who want them individually until Zotero comes up with a more generally applicable solution, but I wouldn't bet on that being super soon.
I realize that's not what you hope to hear, but I'm pretty sure that's a realistic assessment of the status quo.
The latest MLZ version has a tick-box in Preferences -> Export named "Include Zotero link wrappers in QuickCopy citations". If this is ticked, the behaviour of both Ctrl-Alt-A and shift-drag change as follows:
- A citation containing a zotero://select link is generated, with cite text formatted in the current style, and structured for easy parsing (see below);
- Dragging or copying a child note will include locator and suffix details in the cite, if it can be parsed out of the note.
The cites look like this (the form chosen depends on whether the cite is pasted into an HTML-aware application):Plain Text
{|Billy Bragg, A13: Trunk Road to the Sea, The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit, 1991), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_CT3mcKrM | p. 45 | (A Note for You) | zotero://select/items/0_VER7GZAF}.
HTML
<a href="zotero://select/items/0_VER7GZAF">{|Billy Bragg, <i>A13: Trunk Road to the Sea</i>, <i>The Peel Sessions</i> (Strange Fruit, 1991), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_CT3mcKrM | p. 45 | (A Note for You)}</a>.
HTML (rendered)
{|Billy Bragg, A13: Trunk Road to the Sea, The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit, 1991), http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_CT3mcKrM | p. 45 | (A Note for You)}.
In Zotero notes, the syntax for recording pinpoints and suffix comments looks like this:
Pinpoint
p. 55-57
Pinpoint with quote
p. 63
= Veni vidi vici.
Pinpoint with summarising text
p. 323
~ stating that few peccadilloes remain
Any style can be used for linked citations, since the source is identified unambiguously by the zotero://select URL. With improvements recently made in MLZ, zotero://select links operate smoothly to open the linked item in Zotero, without leaving behind side effects (i.e. empty tabs). In addition to making RTF Scan parsing easier, the new format permits any application (outlining utilities etc.) that can be persuaded to treat the zotero:// link as actionable to be integrated with Zotero.
Here's to hoping...
http://www.zotero.org/support/rtf_scan
To use RTF scan you input a short form of a citation in curly brackets in the document that your write in scrivener (Nissus, Mellel, what have you) and the save the text as RTF and use Zotero to convert those short forms into citations - footnotes or otherwise.
The problem is that this is, at this point, not without its limitations - see some of the discussion in this thread, so there are alternate workflows going around (which are on various blogs and which I believe you're referring to).
right - that's not working the way it's supposed to. I'm pretty sure it used to.