Upgrade StorageUsing Zotero as well as other reference managers
Hello
Apologies if this has been covered somewhere else, but I couldn't find it.
I have been playing with Zotero for a couple of months and am liking it a lot and considering migrating my entire EndNote reference collection (5000+ refs, linked to hard copies of PDFs) to it. However, I haven't had the time to explore it fully and would like to do that before investing in changing reference managers (particularly as I would have to re-link all the PDFs). In the meantime, I need to keep using Endnote for my daily work.
I very much like Zotero's "capture" facility. But I need to be able to continue to export references to EndNote and in some journal interfaces I can't do it anymore - things just go straight to Zotero. For example - in Nature references just go to Zotero despite the fact that I have selected the option of exporting to EndNote. In PNAS it just goes to Zotero without asking me.
I've unselected the option of "Use zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files" and that made no difference.
This is sufficiently getting on my nerves and making me waste time that I may end up having to uninstal Zotero so that I can continue working as usual.
So I would be very grateful if you could let me know if there is something I can do about it. Ideally, I would like Zotero to capture a reference when I click on the icon in the address bar but not when I am using the journals' "citation download" service.
Many thanks, congratulations for a great tool, and all the best
Ana
Apologies if this has been covered somewhere else, but I couldn't find it.
I have been playing with Zotero for a couple of months and am liking it a lot and considering migrating my entire EndNote reference collection (5000+ refs, linked to hard copies of PDFs) to it. However, I haven't had the time to explore it fully and would like to do that before investing in changing reference managers (particularly as I would have to re-link all the PDFs). In the meantime, I need to keep using Endnote for my daily work.
I very much like Zotero's "capture" facility. But I need to be able to continue to export references to EndNote and in some journal interfaces I can't do it anymore - things just go straight to Zotero. For example - in Nature references just go to Zotero despite the fact that I have selected the option of exporting to EndNote. In PNAS it just goes to Zotero without asking me.
I've unselected the option of "Use zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files" and that made no difference.
This is sufficiently getting on my nerves and making me waste time that I may end up having to uninstal Zotero so that I can continue working as usual.
So I would be very grateful if you could let me know if there is something I can do about it. Ideally, I would like Zotero to capture a reference when I click on the icon in the address bar but not when I am using the journals' "citation download" service.
Many thanks, congratulations for a great tool, and all the best
Ana
I cannot replicate your problem, but saw a similar complaint in the comment of a blog post.
When I go to a PNAS URL such as:
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/citmgr?type=endnote&gca=pnas;104/34/13551
Zotero will only catch a reference if "Use zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files" is checked.
In the location bar of firefox, go to 'about:config' & put 'extensions.zotero.parseEndNoteMIMETypes' in the filter box. Does the value show as 'false?'
I am using Zotero 1.0.3 on Windows XP.
'extensions.zotero.parseEndNoteMIMETypes' shows up as 'true'
Cheers
Ana
It isn't clear why this isn't being set when you use the Zotero preferences dialog. Are you able to set other perferences?
What should I be looking for?
I can set the preference of "using Zotero to download RIS/Refer files", but this doesn't seem to make a difference.
Set 'extensions.zotero.parseEndNoteMIMETypes' to false in 'about:config' by double-clicking it.
What SHOULD be happening:
In Zotero's preferences, 'Use Zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files' SHOULD both show what the setting for the parseEndNoteMIMETypes preference is & let you modify it. You should even be able to have 'about:config'; open Zotero's preference dialog, change it, and hit OK; and see the about:config value change.
More diagnostics to find the root problem:
Since you say that unchecking 'Use Zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files' seems to do nothing, I do wonder what changing the other preferences does. Have you tried to change e.g. the status bar icon or the OpenURL resolver & checked to see if the setting was actually applied?
Here's what the problem was. When I was trying to check/uncheck 'Use Zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files' in Zotero's preferences to see if that would change the way it exported references from Nature, Science etc, I was trying it in different tabs, but the same window. That was how I concluded it didn't work (and I just left the box checked as I assumed it controlled something else and that if it was the default option it was better like that).
But by following your suggestion and changing the status bar icon I noticed the little note "changes take effect in new windows only". So the problem does get solved by unchecking the box 'Use Zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files'. But the change only takes place in new windows.
Sorry for the trouble, and thank you very much for the support. My only suggestion is that you make that note "changes take effect in new windows only" more visible - as it is, it gives the impression it only applies to changes in the user interface. I hadn't noticed it at all...
Again, congratulations for a great tool! I am very happy that I can keep using both reference managers while I get familiar with Zotero.