newbie questions about file location and citation access

adshiller
1. where are the actual files stored in zotero? Can I change that to make it easier for me to actually work with the PDFs directly? For instance, if I want to send someone a file, can I do that from within zotero, or is it best to go to the storage folder?
2. If I find a file that zotero can't download, what's the best way to get it into Zotero? If I download it into the zoteros data storage folder, will it automatically index it?
3. I can't seem to figure out how to pull the citation data from a record. Say I want to reference it in a blogpost or email, where I'm not using word with it's zotero tools to make foot/end-notes?
  • dstillman
    edited December 26, 2019
    1. where are the actual files stored in zotero?
    Stored files are stored within the 'storage' subdirectory of the Zotero data directory, but you don't really need to worry about that for most uses. You can right-click on an attachment and select Show File to access the file in the filesystem, or, even easier, just drag the attachment item to a filesystem folder or (in many cases) an email program, etc.
    2. If I find a file that zotero can't download, what's the best way to get it into Zotero?
    What do you mean by "can't download"? Do you mean if you save from an article page and the PDF can't be automatically downloaded? If you can view the PDF in your browser, you can just click the save button to save it directly to Zotero, though in that case Zotero will try to recognize it and create a parent item, which you might need to merge with the existing item you saved previously. You can also just download the PDF and drag it onto the item in Zotero to create a child attachment.
    3. I can't seem to figure out how to pull the citation data from a record.
    https://www.zotero.org/support/creating_bibliographies
  • adshiller
    @dstillman Thanks that's very helpful.
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