Upgrade StorageSome opinions about Zotero after a month in use
Hi!
I have been using Zotero for about one month now. I have been looking for at program like this for a year or so. The main reason for this is that I have to organize all pdf-files that accumulates on the computer. I also have a lot of txt, rtf, doc, odt files with notes about different books and articles.
In general I find Zotero perfect for my use. I use different computers with different OS so the Firefox solution is fine. It can be a bit slow but it does not matter to much.
Then the backsides:
1/ The contact between word processing programs and Zotero. I started up with a short article written in the MS Word program on a Windows xP OS machine. It worked a few days an I was pleased, but then all of a sudden one day when I started the computer I got an error message about that the Firefox was not started even though it was. I manged to fix it by deleting the macros and installing them again. A few days the same error appeared on an other machine with Linux and Openoffice. I noticed that there is a lot of complains about this error in the forums and that is a bad sign!
2/ The citations disappears when opening the document in another program then the one that created the file. I just opened a doc-file in Oppenoffice made a few changes and saved it again. There was no warnings and the text looked the same, but all the citation was unconnected from the database. In this case it was a small article but it might happened with a book that you worked on for years!
3/ I tested the function to download book information from library pages on the Internet. It worked fine! But in my main discipline, that is archaeology, you can not find much information on articles on the Internet. You have to put the information into the database via the keyboard yourself, and that turned out to be not that easy. If you have the authors and title in one document and want to transfer it by copy/paste and shift between Zotero program and the word processing program with Alt-Tab, then it is a lot of work. Each time you shift from Zotero to the other document to copy a new word, the focus on the input field in Zotero is lost and you have to use the TAB key many times to get back (I do not use a mouse). In Endnote you can in all authors in the format "Lastname, Firstname CR Lastname2, Firstname2".
I have use Endnote for many years but I have never used the more "sophisticated" functions, I have always putted in references in the form: [Persson, 2008 #1234]. This is rock-solid and can be done even in the simplest text program if one just know the number of the reference (1234 in the example). I make the bibliography as the last thing just before you submit the article. The Endnote program can make the bibliography in the MS Word program or direct in a closed rtf-file. So you can actually use Endnote without having MS Word, the only thing you must have is a program that can save the text in rtf-formate and the Endnote program.
Good luck with Zotero! It is a fine program and I will continue to use it but I will wait and see how things are developing before I start to use the citation function.
Yours
Per Persson
I have been using Zotero for about one month now. I have been looking for at program like this for a year or so. The main reason for this is that I have to organize all pdf-files that accumulates on the computer. I also have a lot of txt, rtf, doc, odt files with notes about different books and articles.
In general I find Zotero perfect for my use. I use different computers with different OS so the Firefox solution is fine. It can be a bit slow but it does not matter to much.
Then the backsides:
1/ The contact between word processing programs and Zotero. I started up with a short article written in the MS Word program on a Windows xP OS machine. It worked a few days an I was pleased, but then all of a sudden one day when I started the computer I got an error message about that the Firefox was not started even though it was. I manged to fix it by deleting the macros and installing them again. A few days the same error appeared on an other machine with Linux and Openoffice. I noticed that there is a lot of complains about this error in the forums and that is a bad sign!
2/ The citations disappears when opening the document in another program then the one that created the file. I just opened a doc-file in Oppenoffice made a few changes and saved it again. There was no warnings and the text looked the same, but all the citation was unconnected from the database. In this case it was a small article but it might happened with a book that you worked on for years!
3/ I tested the function to download book information from library pages on the Internet. It worked fine! But in my main discipline, that is archaeology, you can not find much information on articles on the Internet. You have to put the information into the database via the keyboard yourself, and that turned out to be not that easy. If you have the authors and title in one document and want to transfer it by copy/paste and shift between Zotero program and the word processing program with Alt-Tab, then it is a lot of work. Each time you shift from Zotero to the other document to copy a new word, the focus on the input field in Zotero is lost and you have to use the TAB key many times to get back (I do not use a mouse). In Endnote you can in all authors in the format "Lastname, Firstname CR Lastname2, Firstname2".
I have use Endnote for many years but I have never used the more "sophisticated" functions, I have always putted in references in the form: [Persson, 2008 #1234]. This is rock-solid and can be done even in the simplest text program if one just know the number of the reference (1234 in the example). I make the bibliography as the last thing just before you submit the article. The Endnote program can make the bibliography in the MS Word program or direct in a closed rtf-file. So you can actually use Endnote without having MS Word, the only thing you must have is a program that can save the text in rtf-formate and the Endnote program.
Good luck with Zotero! It is a fine program and I will continue to use it but I will wait and see how things are developing before I start to use the citation function.
Yours
Per Persson