Local storage structure - a more readable option?

Dear All,

I am a happy user of Zotero and an e-reader and would very much like to connect the two. The aim is to have the pdf-s I annotate on the reader copied back to the Zotero database.

The reader can sync to and from a folder on the computer - note that the reader itself is folder-based and if you want this creates the problem. This could even be the Zotero folder and if it was organised as the libraries an collections inside them, all would be fine. The problem is that the folder structure of the local storage is not human-readable (based on perhaps database keys?). I guess this is hard-wired deeply into Zotero. But still, does anyone think there is a way to make this work?

Thank you in advance,
Zs
  • You can use the Zotfile plugin to move your PDFs to a custom location and folder structure. If you don't need all your PDFs at once, you can use only Zotfile's "Send to Tablet" feature to move PDFs temporarily to the folder that syncs with your e-reader, then move them back after you've finished annotating (while still allowing Zotero to manage your main PDF storage structure behind the scenes).
  • Wow, this seems to be exactly what I am looking for! I'll try it tomorrow. Thank you so much! (This will really seal the deal...)
  • OK, I have installed the plugin and it works perfectly so far!

    One problem I see is shared libraries - the send to tablet option does not appear here. Perhaps doing so is perceived as a functionality clash (sharing vs. personal markups), but as I have many (most) of my stuff shared, this requires me to introduce considerable twists in my workflow... (And I might not be alone with this.)
  • It's not a design choice but a technical limitation with how the feature works. It relies on Zotero tags to track the PDF, which aren't trackable across libraries. It would probably be possible to develop an alternative system for this (this feature predates Zotero groups), but I don't think the Zotfile developer has the time or resources to work on that.
  • I see, sure, so let's live with that. (It is nice that we have what we have, btw.)
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