How does one drag and drop PDFs onto references in large collections?

rpgoldman

Here's my problem:

I have used the Zotero browser plugin to add a PDF to my library.

Now I want to attach it to the corresponding entry (which I imported from Bibtex). My problem is that there seems to be no way to get the icon for the pdf and the icon for the zotero entry to appear on the screen at the same time.

The entry is in an enormous collection, and the pdf is in the "Unfiled" folder. I don't see how to display both of these folders at the same time so I can drag and drop. Looking at the menus, I don't see any way to open a second Zotero window, nor do I see a way to split the Zotero window into multiple panes. I tried dragging the PDF into the enormous collection folder, but now it's all the way at the bottom of the list, and the corresponding reference is many screens up.

If I can't get the 2 icons on the same screen, I don't see how to drag and drop.

If I can't drag and drop, I don't see how to do the attachment otherwise: the attachment menu only offers "stored file" which just points into a random place in my filesystem, URI, or attach link to file. None of these seems to be what I want.

This seems like a really obvious question, but I have no idea what the answer would be...

Thanks!

dstillman

Drag the PDF and move it to the top or bottom of the items list. The items list will scroll, and you'll be able to locate the parent item and drop it on there.

rpgoldman

Thank you! Never occurred to me (although it should have). I guess next time it's better to find the paper, then select the Zotero entry and use the URI command to add?

dstillman

The URI option ("Attach Link to URI…") only adds a link — it doesn't save the PDF itself. So the way you did it is fine in cases where you have a BibTeX file already. (Otherwise it's obviously better to just save the metadata and PDF together from the Connector.)

An upcoming version of Zotero will offer the ability to try to automatically retrieve the PDF for an item in your library.

pjweiss

One method I use to deal with this situation is to make some change to the metadata of the main item, then sort My Library by Date Modified. The the newly downloaded pdf file will be right next to the item I want to attach it to.

rpgoldman

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, especially @pjweiss for the neat work-around.

@dstillman I don't know that much about the internals of Zotero, so this might be a dumb suggestion, but how about:

1. Changing the wording on the command item to be less ambiguous. "Adding a link to a URI" seems odd since, after all, a URI IS a link. Could we say "Add URI to Zotero record" or something like that?

2. Would it be possible to also add "Download and attach pdf," and have a command that does that by interaction with the browser? Or have the browser be able to stuff the URI into Zotero and then Zotero download and attach to the current record?

Thanks!

adamsmith

1. No, while people conflate the two, a URI is an identifier, not a link. If you click on a link, it takes you to the resource specified by the URI in the link. So for exampe:
URI: https://www.zotero.org
Link: https://www.zotero.org

2. So you're saying you have the URL for a PDF and want attach that PDF to a Zotero item? I think that'd be feasible technically, but I'm worried about getting this across in a UI. It will also become even less important once the functionality that Dan mentions above is implemented:

An upcoming version of Zotero will offer the ability to try to automatically retrieve the PDF for an item in your library.

rpgoldman

OK, now I think I understand. I was confused about the link-ness. I assumed that the URI would just be written into the Zotero record. But that is not what happens: instead a separate record, a link, is added as an attachment. In that case, the description of the process is correct.

I was confused by the use of the word "link" here, because I thought it just meant "URL," but instead it means "a Zotero entity that is a link."

I still think it's a little confusing if one doesn't have a clear understanding of the Zotero internals, but I now see why it's the way it is.

dstillman

So you're saying you have the URL for a PDF and want attach that PDF to a Zotero item? I think that'd be feasible technically, but I'm worried about getting this across in a UI.

We can't do it at the moment (because we don't currently know what item is selected in Zotero), but after some upcoming changes we'd have the ability to add an "Attach PDF to “Title of Item…”" option to the "Save to Zotero (PDF)" context menu, which I think would be useful.

(An "Attach File from URL…" option in Zotero wouldn't work much of the time because of paywalls.)

dstillman

In fact, it looks like we've already implemented a version of this ("Attach Snapshot of Current Page") along with the aforementioned changes, so this will definitely happen (hopefully with the more helpful title I suggest).