automatic save of PDFs

mrkksl · August 31, 2009

In general preferences, there is a check box to automatically store attached/associated files for an item when dropped into the library. But I don't notice these files being added. Full text PDFs associated with a citation in a database are not added automatically. I had to download the PDF onto my computer and then link it manually to the item in the Zotero library.

What benefit is this Preferences setting?

dstillman · August 31, 2009

It depends on the database and support for saving PDFs in the site translator used on that database. If you provide examples, we can tell you if the translators should support it, but most likely they don't if you're not seeing PDFs with the pref enabled.

Bionatsci · August 31, 2009

Note that for databases which don't have support for automatic PDF saving the quickest way of adding a PDF to the relevant Zotero item is to drag the PDF link from the website onto the item in Zotero. Alternatively, if the PDF is already open in Firefox you can drag the PDF's favicon (left of the address bar) in the same way.

Also, automatic PDF saving will generally only work if you are getting items from publisher's own websites, or somewhere else you can get full text articles from such as JSTOR or ScienceDirect. Databases and search engines such as Google Scholar, Web of Knowledge, and Scopus don't have direct links to the PDFs, so there is no easy way Zotero can automatically grab them.