Getting started

Mharawiram
I can't even get to setting up and syncing.. its created a username for me all of its own.. but doesn't recognize it, I think.
I go into preferences following the instructions and nothing occurs.

I'm wondering as I read through everything if this application is still too new for ordinary users like men to have success.
It sounded great for an overloaded insanely busy academic whom needs all the help she can get but given that i can't even get to first base.. I'm feeling frustrated.. and - would it really sync with my iPad also?
  • adamsmith
    Zotero has been around for six years - the sync for almost three - and is used by hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are, I'm sure, just as busy as you and most of whom are just regular users without any particular IT knowledge.

    From your description it's not quite clear what your problem is. What do you mean by "nothing occurs" - what do you expect to occur at that point? Do you get an error message? Remember that we can't see your screen.
  • Mharawiram
    Hmm,, good to know, thanks, the discussions seemed so technical that it seemed to be for developers mainly..
    So, what I epected t happen when I went to preferences, selected sync as advised,is thatntherebwoukdnbe some sign that something happened.. Notnthatnthe screen would just sit there and do nothing at all..
    Should it? Or does it respondninnsome hidden way behind the scenes that I can't see?
  • Mharawiram
    bearing in mind that I have juist downloaded it amnd am, tryinmg to set it up..
  • adamsmith
    No, you wouldn't see anything happening. Once you've input your username and password you can try clicking on the little round green arrow at the top right. It will briefly spin, then stop, and then, when you hover over it, say "last sync less than a minute ago" (or something along those lines).
    Later on this will take a little longer and sync your library to the server, but since you've just started there is nothing to sync.
  • Mharawiram
    ok, will do, thanks for that
  • Mharawiram
    i dont think it likes my login...;. have tried re-registering but it wasnt happy about that.
    what does it want for a log-in?
  • adamsmith
    We can't help you if you don't provide more information. If Zotero gives you an error message that you don't understand, you need to tell us what that error message is (verbatim - if it's not English cite it in the original language). Again the reminder that we cannot see what's on your screen and we're not aware of anything that's not working as it should - so any problems you have, you need to describe in a way that assumes that we have never seen them.
  • Mharawiram
    no error message at all... just no response...
  • adamsmith
    edited July 12, 2012
    Why don't you import a couple of items into your Zotero database and try again.
    Syncing really has no function until you populate your library and I'm still not quite sure what type of response you're expecting.

    edit: if Zotero doesn't accept your login information you get an error message.
  • Mharawiram
    ok great idea will do that abnd will download to office computer first
  • Mharawiram
    perhaps the startup instructoins could suggest that instead of starting with setting up preferences and sync?
    perhasps its just me.. sigh.. will look for instructions rfe importing..
  • adamsmith
    http://www.zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide
    you're overthinking this. The startup instructions just tell you to create a user account and fill in the sync preferences. This will - in 999 out or 1000 cases - just work, their libraries will start syncing automatically.
    The problem is that you're expecting something to happen (still not sure what?) where nothing is supposed to happen.
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