Pdf export

When you export a library, you can export the files too, this is great. However, I'd love it if the files could be named something useful. At the moment, pdfs I've captured and in folders with a dozen other files, and the pdf is sitting in their somewhere called "fulltext", without even a .pdf extension. In an ideal world, when I export my library all my pdfs would be in one folder and named how I like them (eg. "Author, year.pdf"). Are there any plans to incorporate this kind of function or is it already hiding in there somewhere? Thanks very much, Zotero is great!
  • Any feedback on this?
  • edited December 9, 2008
    Don't worry, the functionality is not 'already hiding somewhere' you haven't found. And yes it's a great idea (and you'll find it discussed in several other threads. search: pdf rename) If I remember right, the early posts (1yr+ ago) also have the developers' positive reaction to this request). There is even at least one alpha-level external utility to do it (again, search this forum).

    Your recently captured PDFs should automatically be renamed by Zotero (mine are : Surname - 2008 - Title Of Article.pdf), and note that you have to click 'show file' to see the actual filename to see if this is the case. But Zotero does not currently rename PDFs that are already in the database, nor does it have a way to configure its import renaming. Nor does it rename drag-and-dropped PDFs.

    I'm not a developer, but I expect that either external tools, Zotero plugins, or the core of Zotero will include this feature at some point. At the moment, the core developers are working hard at sorting out the mechanics of collection syncing and collaboration, not to mention a host of other worthy problems.

    Welcome to the forum, Adam. I hope you find Zotero useful, and please feel free to continue to ask questions, but it does take time to compose good responses to questions like yours, explaining the state of the discussion and pointing to the relevant threads. (I haven't included links here because I don't have time). So please don't be offended if we ask you to use the excellent 'Search' function of this forum to see the state of the discussion, and then either add your say-so to the existing threads, or begin a new thread if, after getting up to speed, you have a sufficiently new angle on the discussion.

    Cheers
  • nor does it have a way to configure its import renaming
    Small correction: The renaming can be configured, but the options are extremely limited at the moment. See the extensions.zotero.attachmentRenameFormatString hidden pref (under General).
  • Right. I knew that. Bad memory.
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