XP-based PDF Properties to Fields &/or tags?

Leigh S S

Hello all,

I have recently started to use Zotero Stand Alone and am currently importing my reference PDF's

The PDF's all have info on Author, title etc in the properties which were inserted under XP. These are in the Title, Category (not categories), Subject & Comments properties.

I can see these properties now under Windows 10 in windows explorer using FileMeta (http://filemeta.codeplex.com/releases/view/121762)

I can also extract a list of them into a CSV, Excel file, text file, HTML table etc using DDFilecatcher.

But I cant find anywhere that tells me how to import these properties as field values or tags.

For most of them the 'Retrieve Metadata for PDF' option works by getting most of the relevant data from other sources, but not for all.

I also want to import the comments property into Tags (I used this property to identify which were marine engineering related papers for example).

There are around 700 references, so by hand is not an option

Hope someone could help me here!

adamsmith

Sorry, Zotero doesn't read XMP tags. It'd be doable, but there are very few cases like you (usually XMP data is a mess), so I don't think it's much of a priority, though I assume patches would be welcome if someone is interested.

Leigh S S

I more or less used the idea of Beatrice Penati on academia.edu

http://www.academia.edu/1747759/From_spreadsheet_Excel_to_.bib_file_-_a_simple_solution

This is how I managed to do it:

To import from spreadsheet:

* Use DDFilecatcher to make a .CSV

* Open with Excel and put extra columns in with BibTex code in

(e.g. @article{ ,title = {Tensile impact tests of AS4/3501-6 and S2/3501-6 unidirectional composites and the 3501-6 epoxy matrix}, volume = {24},number = {},journal = {Journal of Composite Materials},author = {Adamas, D.F. and Adams, G.A.},year = {1990},pages={256-268}}

NB fields separated by commas, 1st entry (bibtexkey) is left blank - ignore warning later on in jabref

I don't think order matters (?), and all is on one line for each entry

* save file as .txt

* edit as required in text editor atom (https://atom.io/)

e.g. wont be able to put '@' in excel so do this in atom

* import using jabref (http://www.jabref.org/)

* export as .RIS

* import into Zotero

adamsmith

Cool. Note that you can save yourself the last three steps. Zotero imports bibtex, too

Leigh S S

Thanks

how do I convert .txt to bibtex?
just change the extension?
If so, what to?

Leigh S S

just tried it, changed file extension from .txt to .bib and Zotero imported it

Thanks Adam

adamsmith

While the file extension for bibtex is .bib, Zotero doesn't care about the extension. It'll just recognize the metadata format in a text file by checking the first X lines.

Leigh S S

Thanks, even easier!