Finding a NYC trainer/consultant for zotero/zotfile/

Marells
After three days with trying to set up a system with zotero/zotfile and PDFExpert, I give up. Anyone do consulting on this? I need hands-on support to get this set up properly on my mac and ipad and laptop. Nothing syncs. The menu options and pop-ups that are supposedly part of Zotfile never appear. (no right click every appears from which I would supposedly get a "manage attachment" option.) New York City based.
  • adamsmith
    No one I know of in NYC. You could try one of the big libraries - CUNY, Columbia, and NYU all do Zotero support (though of course primarily for their affiliates).

    Otherwise, why not ask more specific questions here - that's what the support forum is for.
  • Marells
    Ok, here is my question: when I install zotfile and set things up to go to a dropbox folder (so as to sync with my ipad where I use PdfExpert), I right click on a zotero item, but I do NOT get "send to Tablet" under "manage attachments"?
  • adamsmith
    You do get "Manage Attachments" though? Are you sure the item _has_ an attachment? I.e. is there a small triangle left of it that you can click to show the attachments?
  • aurimas
    And feel free to link to a screenshot of you right-clicking the said item. You can upload the screenshot to imgur.com or something similar
  • Marells
    Here is link to the imgur screenshot
    http://i.imgur.com/poDhN5v.png
  • adamsmith
    You want to have your PDFs attached to Zotero items. Use "Retrieve Metadata" from the right-click menu http://www.zotero.org/support/retrieve_pdf_metadata or (e.g. if that fails) use "Create Parent Item" - also from the right-click menu.
    Once that's done, ZotFile should give you the option you want.
    If not, please provide some more details - like what versions do you have installed, what do you see in the right-click menu etc.
  • Marells
    I see. The problem seems to be that I do not get a right click menu at all.
    I have no other add-ons or plug-ins with Firefox. Just Zotero and Zotfile.
    I see other users have had this problem, but in their case it was due to Facebook plug-in.
  • Marells
    Solved part one of this, thank you. Will report back if I cannot solve part 2.
  • Marells
    Hello,
    I have made progress but have encountered new difficulties. I can now send a zotero pdf to a dropbox folder for syncing. I can annotate in PDExpert, place the flattened file back in the dropbox sync folder, and then ask zotfile to bring it back. However, the feature of extracting my annotations in a separate note does not take place. In fact, it just brought back the un-annotated version of the file, the one that had been placed in the PDF Sync folder on dropbox.
    What might I be doing wrong?
  • adamsmith
    if you open the pdf from the Dropbox folder on your computer (not your ipad) directly - e.g. in Preview - do you see the annotations?
  • Marells
    Yes, I do see the file in the right dropbox folder, with my yellow highlights and annotations. It has an extension of "copy". Here is a link to screenshots of my zotfile preferences
    http://lynnellsworth.imgur.com
  • adamsmith
    the prefs are right, but for ZotFile to get the file back, it needs to keep its exact filename. It can't have something like "copy" added to it. Not sure exactly how PDFexpert works, but basically you want to replace the original file in Dropbox with the annotated version (you'll still have the clean one in Zotero with your settings).
  • adamsmith
    (btw. - you're aware that there are ipad apps for Zotero, too, right? ZotPad should work nicely with PDFexpert.
  • Marells
    I will look into the naming protocol for PDFexpert. Thanks for the tip.

    I am mystified by Zotpad. I did install it.
    Not sure what to do with it yet.
    I have an old zotero project for museums. Zotpad keeps wanting to download everything from that old museum project collection so I abandoned Zotfile until I figure out what to do with that collection (does Zotero have an "archive an old collection" option?
    Zotpad seems to be for moving and organizing files, correct, not for annotation...
  • adamsmith
    edited February 3, 2014
    ZotPad itself doesn't annotate, but it lets you send a file to any annotation app and then saves it back to Zotero.
    PaperShip does offer annotation, but they're $10, not sure if you want to spend that after buying pdfexpert
    (does Zotero have an "archive an old collection" option?
    no.
  • Marells
    Here is what my current screenshot is....Three files under the citation...
    http://i.imgur.com/poDhN5v.png
  • Marells
    As long as you are here, might I ask another question... Can I drag an entire collection folder to a back up drive on my mac, then delete the collection on my mac and still bring back the old collection into zotero on my mac later when I get back to that project?
  • adamsmith
    That's the old screenshot you posted.
    . Can I drag an entire collection folder to a back up drive on my mac, then delete the collection on my mac and still bring back the old collection into zotero on my mac later when I get back to that project?
    wouldn't that be the same as archiving it? Answer is still no.
  • Marells
    Oh well, can't have everything. Here is the imugu link: http://i.imgur.com/poDhN5v.png
  • adamsmith
    sorry, I'm confused what I'm supposed to see? This is still the exact same link you posted when we started out yesterday/
  • Marells
    No, it is the new one that shows that extraction of the annotations.
    Same article is question, but now underneath the citation, I get three files: the extracted annotations (finally!), the un-annotated file, and the flattened, annotated original version...
  • adamsmith
    I still don't see the screenshot (follow the link yourself), but that sounds like you're there, no? Or is there a remaining problem?
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