Update refs based on watched pdf directory

MBene

Is there a way to have Zotero observe a directory (and subdirectories) for new pdfs and integrate their metadata once new files are detected? This feature is available for Mendeley is hugely comfortable. It seems zotfile does not doe this. Article pdfs tend to come from different sources, which I save in my own pdf collection and hence it would be great to have references available, once the pdf is saved. Of course, this worflow would not require to have Zotero create copies of my pdfs (which I think is currently unavoidable too).

For thew future, of course, I'd envision to see a citation program that interfaces with an open online registry of all available publications (or at least publication metadata), sparing us to create and update local individual libraries...

dstillman

This is the first feature mentioned on the ZotFile page. It's not automatic, but you can configure a directory (e.g., your browser download directory) and then run a command in ZotFile to add the most recent file to Zotero.

Note, though, that filing things manually isn't really the recommend way to use Zotero or ZotFile. Generally, either you save to Zotero from the article page, which tends to result in the best-quality metadata and usually includes the PDF as well, or, if you only have a PDF, you just drag it into Zotero, in which case Zotero will try to recognize it and retrieve metadata. By default those files are stored in the Zotero data directory, but you can configure ZotFile to move those to a directory of your choice as linked files and name them based on a particular consistent formula.

MBene

Thanks for the fast response! Can you advise me how I run this command in ZotFile to add the most recent file. I only see ZotFile settings in Zotero.

I guess I need to change my archiving process, which is not easy after 15 years of habit. Zotero seems a great choice.

dstillman

I believe you right-click in the middle pane and choose "Add Attachment from Source Folder".

dstillman

Actually, I guess that feature has a somewhat different purpose — that's really for adding a file to the currently selected item once you've already saved an item, if Zotero wasn't able to automatically download the PDF.

So if you just have a PDF file, you'd want to drag that into Zotero. But again, it's better to just save the item from the article page, which will usually also download the PDF.

One thing we're planning to do in a future version is allow PDFs to be "opened" in Zotero, which would be equivalent to dragging a PDF in. That would allow you to right-click on a file on disk and open it in Zotero or, if you don't preview PDFs in your browser, to download it from your browser and choose to open it in Zotero instead of saving it to disk. (If you do preview PDFs in your browser, you can just use the Save to Zotero button, but when possible you're still better off clicking Back and saving from the article page.)

MBene

OK, the command works, thanks! - but only for an already imported and currently active item, as you said.

So far, I've been hesitant to use the automatic download option, as I want to file pdfs in subdirectories of my large existing database - probably a dated approach.
Yet, I wondered why Zotero saves each pdf in an individual directory? - this seems to blow up the database and makes it a bit confusing to search files directly, but I guess search should be done via Zotero.

The new open-in-Zotero feature sounds good!

One final suggestion: Would be nice to right-click on an item in Zotero and get the option to create/view a formatted citation (as in Mendeley), which can be easily copied and pasted to documents that do not use the Zotero plugin.

Thanks again for your work on Zotero!

dstillman

So far, I've been hesitant to use the automatic download option, as I want to file pdfs in subdirectories of my large existing database - probably a dated approach.

It depends on exactly what you want, but you can configure ZotFile to convert stored files into linked files in an external directory of your choosing, optionally with subfolders based on the metadata. The idea is just that you want to manage metadata via Zotero (where it needs to be correct anyway) and not have to keep a whole separate tree of directories and files in sync separately.

Would be nice to right-click on an item in Zotero and get the option to create/view a formatted citation (as in Mendeley), which can be easily copied and pasted to documents that do not use the Zotero plugin.

You can do that via Quick Copy or right-click:

https://www.zotero.org/support/creating_bibliographies

MBene

Perfect, thanks! The quick-copy option is especially great!