Upgrade Storagereference manager 11 import
I'm posting this since it took me a while to troll the forums to get the required info to both decide and and implement my switch from Reference Manager 11 to Zotero 3 (on Windows XP). At least some of this will likely apply to EndNote users also.
First here's some of the limitations of Zotero relative to RefMan11. Obviously, none of these deterred me from switching.
1. Italics in titles requires markup, and no short-cut keys are available to apply markup
2. Journal abbreviations *must* be recorded with periods. Some journals (J Exp Biol, others?) provide metadata without periods, so when Zotero gets the data direct from the journal website, it is incorrectly recorded.
3. Inability to do full backup without closing firefox (since the database file is always open and cannot be copied until FF is shut down)
4. No GUI for custom reference list style edits; edits are possible but requires XML skill
5. PDF attachments go in a separate folder for each reference (not all in one easily searchable folder). However, they are all in a higher-level folder, which if placed appropriately, can be indexed using Windows search bar - which allows easy filename and content searching.
6. Restricted citation/reference style list in biology
Here's what it took for me to actually make the switch. This is not meant to be a comprehensive set of instructions, just a higher-level summary of all the steps that needed to happen so others know what to expect and developers know what I had to do.
1. Move zotero data directory to somewhere it will get regularly backed up, and switch the zotero prefs to use that custom location
2. Export from Reference Manger to RIS format text file
3. Use a Notepad++ (or other full featured text editor) to massage the RIS format text file
3a. To add linked PDFs as attachments, search and replace "C:\D" for "file://C:\D"; this replaces the start of the windows path "C:\Documents and Settings\etc etc" with the proper file link info for zotero. This will be different on Windows 7 and other OSs.
3b. Find a reference with italics in title, select the character code in front of the italicized text, search and replace that code with "". This ensures you use the right hex character code that RefMan uses to demarcate italics.
3c. Ditto for the code at the end of the italicized text: select and replace with ""
4. Import into Zotero using modified RIS importer (the default one strips html markup, including those italics just added)
This one works without stripping the markup:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/667/2/need-to-italicize-part-a-title/ (post 61)
5. Update your old PDF attachments to match Zotero's naming conventions. Search for PDF attachments, save search, sort by type, select batches of references of each type (otherwise bulk rename won't work) and rename according parent metadata (right click)
6. Deal with bad renaming events - this is weird... some just don't work, and you have to find them by searching for PDF attachments with names that do not follow the zotero convention. (My previous naming convention did not use hyphens, so I was able to search for 'does not contain -" ) Then you have to double click the attachment, locate the renamed pdf file in the same folder (the file is renamed, but the zotero attachment info is not updated) and then rename according to parent metadata again.
First here's some of the limitations of Zotero relative to RefMan11. Obviously, none of these deterred me from switching.
1. Italics in titles requires markup, and no short-cut keys are available to apply markup
2. Journal abbreviations *must* be recorded with periods. Some journals (J Exp Biol, others?) provide metadata without periods, so when Zotero gets the data direct from the journal website, it is incorrectly recorded.
3. Inability to do full backup without closing firefox (since the database file is always open and cannot be copied until FF is shut down)
4. No GUI for custom reference list style edits; edits are possible but requires XML skill
5. PDF attachments go in a separate folder for each reference (not all in one easily searchable folder). However, they are all in a higher-level folder, which if placed appropriately, can be indexed using Windows search bar - which allows easy filename and content searching.
6. Restricted citation/reference style list in biology
Here's what it took for me to actually make the switch. This is not meant to be a comprehensive set of instructions, just a higher-level summary of all the steps that needed to happen so others know what to expect and developers know what I had to do.
1. Move zotero data directory to somewhere it will get regularly backed up, and switch the zotero prefs to use that custom location
2. Export from Reference Manger to RIS format text file
3. Use a Notepad++ (or other full featured text editor) to massage the RIS format text file
3a. To add linked PDFs as attachments, search and replace "C:\D" for "file://C:\D"; this replaces the start of the windows path "C:\Documents and Settings\etc etc" with the proper file link info for zotero. This will be different on Windows 7 and other OSs.
3b. Find a reference with italics in title, select the character code in front of the italicized text, search and replace that code with "". This ensures you use the right hex character code that RefMan uses to demarcate italics.
3c. Ditto for the code at the end of the italicized text: select and replace with ""
4. Import into Zotero using modified RIS importer (the default one strips html markup, including those italics just added)
This one works without stripping the markup:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/667/2/need-to-italicize-part-a-title/ (post 61)
5. Update your old PDF attachments to match Zotero's naming conventions. Search for PDF attachments, save search, sort by type, select batches of references of each type (otherwise bulk rename won't work) and rename according parent metadata (right click)
6. Deal with bad renaming events - this is weird... some just don't work, and you have to find them by searching for PDF attachments with names that do not follow the zotero convention. (My previous naming convention did not use hyphens, so I was able to search for 'does not contain -" ) Then you have to double click the attachment, locate the renamed pdf file in the same folder (the file is renamed, but the zotero attachment info is not updated) and then rename according to parent metadata again.