How to edit dates of my PDF collection ?

Vampyre

Hello,

I'm running under Ubuntu 13.04 64 bits and installed Zotero stand alone (I prefer open source to closed source, so i prefered this one over Mendeley).

I have a huge collection of PDF (18 gigs). I managed to import them and organize them into the categories. I can add tags, add notes, edit the title... But some fields that are truly important to me, I can't find a way to edit.

My collection contains magazines (dating back to 1981), and some books in different editions. I don't do any research, but it's so difficult to navigate inside and find the PDF I want. I'm a roleplayer, and I have different editions of the rule books.

Knowing what is inside my pdf now, you can imagine mendeley is not quite good, since it is not scientific nor research. Editing the dates could help me sort the magazine by dates. But I can't seem to find how to do it.

Could someone share its light with me ?

Thanks

Vampyre

Gracile

Do they have a parent item ? If not, right-click -> "Create Parent Item [from Selected Item]". You can select more than one pdf and create their parents at once.
You can then edit the parent metadata.
http://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library#adding_pdfs_and_other_files
http://www.zotero.org/support/attaching_files#adding_files

Vampyre

Thank you for this fast answer. I'm not truly sure about what you mean about the parent item, but I will try tomorrow (I've just shut down the Linux computer)...

I have on the left hand side like a folder tree, with different levels. Inside those folders are my PDF. I don't think that's what you call the parent item.

If I understood it right, it's like creating a parent note to the PDF, and specifying the dates.

I will try it anyways tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time answering :=)

aurimas

It seems that you just have PDFs on their own in your library. To attach metadata to PDFs, they need to be attached to Zotero items (parent items). Then you add the metadata to the Zotero item.

See the image here: http://www.zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide#attachments

@Dan, Simon, etc. This has been a source of confusion for several users. I don't recall if I have suggested this before, but I think it would be useful to add a button to the right side pane that says something like "Add metadata" (skipping the technicality that it would create parent item and attach the file to that item) to standalone files and notes.

Vampyre

@Aurimas : Yes indeed, it's what i have. Now i get it, thanks to your explanation. Thanks for the explanation :=) Now i can have my dates set properly :=)