Standalone and Exported References

marsh
I just started trying Zotero Standalone. Forgive me if my questions have obvious answers, but I can't find them. My questions are interrelated.

1. On Zotero for Firefox we could set Zotero up to intercept bibliographic information being exported from a website in Endnote format. I can't find anyplace to set something similar in Standalone. Is it somewhere?

2. With the Firefox version, before exporting citations from a site or using the Zotero icons to download citation information from a site, one could open the Zotero pane at the bottom of a browser and select a specific collection into which the citation information would be imported. How does one do this with Standalone?

I am using Chrome on a Macbook running Leopard.

Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    1. isn't as of yet possible, it's not trivial, but being considered. (you can set the file system/browser preferences so that Zotero SA opens RIS files automatically, but they'll import into a new collection every time.

    2. Can't you just select the collection in SA?
  • marsh
    Thanks, Adam.

    Now for some follow-up questions.

    1. I don't see where to set preferences for ZSA and RIS. I looked both in ZSA Preferences and in the Connector for Chrome. Maybe I misunderstand what you're saying. Are you suggesting I set the operating system's defaults for opening a program with a "RIS" extension to use ZSA as the application?

    2. If a RIS file is just being downloaded, doesn't one still need to choose between saving it and opening it?

    3. I'm really new to ZSA (my question was prompted by my first attempt to use it). Your reply to my Question 2 seems to imply that to add a reference to a collection, one opens ZSA, selects the collection, and then imports the reference using the site translator. Is this right?

    4. Assuming the answer to #3 is yes, then your answer to Question 1 implies this does NOT work with downloaded RIS files. Does it work with files with any other format? (Many publishers offer several choices.)

    5. I infer from what you said that ZSA does import references obtained with Zotero's icon/translator technology. Besides this and downloaded files, is there any other automated ways to get references into ZSA?

    6. I see from the FAQ's that it's possible to use ZFF with connectors for Chrome or Safari. Do these connectors have the same limitations when used this way as when used w/ ZSA? (E.g. can download a RIS and stash it in the Library, but always in a new collection.)

    EVERYTHING BELOW HERE IS COMMENT/SUGGESTION

    7. I downloaded ZSA mainly because I'm using Chrome more often and saw the Chrome connector. I didn't understand that the connector also works w/ the database associated w/ ZFF. Otherwise, I would have held off on the beta. (Though I've been waiting years for duplicates detection.) Maybe some more information and a FAQ about 3.0 for us long-time Zotero users would help.

    8. I assume from what I've learned in the past day or two that it's possible to use ZSA and ZFF together, albeit not simultaneously. This makes the lack of importing RIS to specific collections much less onerous. But the FAQ has an ominous warning about interactions between ZFF and ZSA. Maybe more direct clarification on the Zotero 3.0 page would be a good idea.

    9. Installing ZSA was incredibly easy, and I appreciated the automatic, distributed word processor plugins. But curiously, the installer didn't detect LyX on my system (Mac Lion) or install LyZ, which I use. (There are a few LyX-related things out there.) Adding support for LyX to the installer might be a good Summer of Code project.

    Overall, kudos for a job well done!
  • adamsmith
    1. I think you'd probably want to set the application preference in Chrome - I don't use chrome, so I don't know how/where that's done. In Firefox the corresponding menu is under preferences/applications

    2. Not if you tell Chrome to automatically pass it on to ZSA (that's the way it would work for Endnote, too).

    3. I'm not really an ZSA expert, but that's my understanding, yes.

    4. no, all imports go into a new collection

    5. no. Except syncing with an existing Zotero database, of course.

    6. yes

    7&8 are well taken. With ZSA and Zotero 3.0 in beta, documentation on a lot of the new features/changes is far from done. E.g. it is now unproblematic to use Zotero 3.0 and ZSA together - when ZSA is open, Zotero in Firefox behaves like the connectors for Safari and Chrome.

    Much of the documentation is in Wiki format and there's always a need for volunteers to help update and/or clarify things. http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/documentation
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