Export PDFs

Ergo · April 15, 2009

Is there a way to export your PDF library? I'd like to export each folder, and be able to dictate how I want the PDFs named after exporting. For example, "<name of article> <first author> <date>" or something like that. Is this possible?

noksagt · April 16, 2009

There are multiple user-created programs to rename PDFs in zotero (e.g. http://www.columbia.edu/~jpl2136/zotfile.html and there are also perl and python scripts).

One of the easier ways to export a lot of pdfs is to export as Zotero RDF + attachments, but there are also other methods to copy PDFs from zotero to elsewhere on your filesystem.

Ergo · April 20, 2009

Thanks.

I am not sure how to use this extension as the page you linked to was not very clear to me.
I selected all of my articles in one folder/collection within zotero and then click the zotfile button. It asks me if I want to rename and link the most recently modified file in that folder that I specified as the source directory in about:config. I am not sure what renaming and linking does. The file that it is asking to rename and link files to is not a Zotero file (the folder is all purpose repostitory for many things that I download.) I just want to be able to export the PDFs from a collection. Am I barking up the wrong tree here or am I missing something in Zotfile?
I have a folder on my desktop that I save most files to.

noksagt · April 20, 2009

There is no way to rename files on export. If you want files named a certain way, you'd have to rename them using zotfile or another tool.

If you are already happy with the file naming & just want to export files, you can export a Zotero RDF with attachments or might be able to drag-and-drop, etc.