Adding to my library when the Zotero icon is not listed for the webpage

LoriCJG

I am trying to add several web pages to my library for a research paper, but the Zotero icon is not up on the top. I know I can add them manually, but do I have to enter all the info or can I just choose the "Create webpage from current page" and have it populate with the correct info? Also the web pages I have been adding this way are for some reason not able to be found in my document when I try add a citation. Any help would be great

dstillman

What are example URLs you're trying to add?

adamsmith

if there is no URL bar icon the only thing you can do is to use "Create webpage from current page" and fill out the missing info - using that button will get you the URL, access date, and some version of the title, though that's it.

LoriCJG

An example website is http://www.waukeshacounty.gov/uploadedFiles/Media/PDF/Health_and_Human_Services/Public_Health/Pertussis%20Factsheet.pdf

LoriCJG

I have been doing the "create a webpage" and adding several web pages. However, when I go into my OpenOffice document and click on the "insert citation" and start typing the title or author, nothing comes up. The web pages are showing up in my Zotero library as being saved, but aren't able to be added to my document. Thoughts?

dstillman

That's a PDF, not a web page. For PDFs, "Create Web Page Item from Current Page" currently saves the PDF as a top-level attachment so that you can run "Retrieve Metadata from PDF" on it. That won't work on this file, though, since it's just a random PDF, not something associated with, for example, a journal article. To cite it, you need to create a parent item (right-click -> Create Parent Item) and fill in the metadata.

dstillman

(The fact that it saves a top-level attachment for PDFs instead of an actual "Web Page Item" is confusing. We just don't have a better solution yet to allow "Retrieve Metadata from PDF" to be used on such files. adamsmith/others: To fix that, we'd probably need to allow Retrieve Metadata to be run on child items and have it overwrite the parent item metadata on successful recognition. Not sure if that would need a warning.)

aurimas

@Dan, wouldn't it be sufficient to just run Retrieve Metadata on the new top-level PDF and, if something is retrieved, use it. Otherwise, generate a generic parent item and fill in what we can. I'm not sure Web Page makes sense for a PDF. I would say "Document".

We would probably want to make this process transparent to the user though, so they don't see PDF appearing in the library and then it automagically changing to an attached file. (though I think it would be the same issue if the PDF was first attached to a generic item and the item magically updated itself)

Allowing to run Retrieve Metadata on a child attachment may not be a bad idea, but I don't think we should be overwriting existing data without a warning. I think a dialog similar to conflict resolution would be necessary.

adamsmith

@Dan, wouldn't it be sufficient to just run Retrieve Metadata on the new top-level PDF and, if something is retrieved, use it. Otherwise, generate a generic parent item and fill in what we can.

exactly what I was going to say.

LoriCJG

So if I hit "create webpage" from a pdf and it saves, I will not be able to cite it in my document? I used Zotero about a year ago for something else and I swear I was able to hit the "create webpage" and then cite it in my document. Can I not do that any longer though?

aurimas

You can do it, but for PDFs this requires an additional step.

When you "Create Web Page Item" from a regular web page, Zotero creates an item in your library, fills in some (minimal) metadata, and attaches the snapshot for the webpage to that item.

When you do the same for a PDF, it downloads the PDF into your library. From here, it is up to you to either right-click -> Retrieve Metadata (but that doesn't work for random PDFs like the one you link. It's meant for scientific articles published in journals), or you right-click -> Create Parent Item and then fill in metadata by hand.

Once you attach the PDF to a Zotero item, you will be able to cite it.

LoriCJG

Ok thanks it worked

leehach

Dan Stillman said:

To fix that, we'd probably need to allow Retrieve Metadata to be run on child items and have it overwrite the parent item metadata on successful recognition.

+1

I just added several hundred PDFs, and ran into the Google Scholar query limit on retrieving metadata. But I decided to Create Parent Items for all the files anyway for the items without metadata, not realizing it would preclude me from being able to retrieve metadata in the future.

adamsmith

just to be clear - you can of course drag them away from the parent item and run retrieve metadata in the future - that's just clumsy, but it's not impossible.

leehach

Didn't realize that. Still would be easier to be able to run Retrieve Metadata on a child item, but this is serviceable.

Thanks for the tip.