Importing from NoodleTools?

ekrause60
Hi everyone!
I just found out about Zotero, and I am loving it! I'm currently working on a research project and so far, all of my citations and annotations are in NoodleTools. Is there anyway to transfer these into Zotero?
Thanks!!
  • adamsmith
    do they have any export function?
  • ekrause60
    You can export to Word, Google Docs, or as a Web Page (HTML)
  • fbennett
    By "export", adamsmith means data export in a computer-friendly structured format -- look for terms like RIS, MODS, or BibTeX.
  • ekrause60
    Is an RTF a computer-friendly format? Sorry, I'm not the best with computers and Wikipedia is only so helpful.
  • adamsmith
    sorry, no - those are all text formats (RTF stands for rich text format - which is like a Word .doc just more widely used).
    What we need is some type of data export. Maybe you can ask their support? You pay for noodlebib, right? They should have some type of customer support.

    Unfortunately noodle tools doesn't provide a way for easy free access, even to a trial or limited version, so I have no way to look. I couldn't see anything in the knowledge base that looks promising.
  • ekrause60
    I'll look into that, thanks! Is there anyway you can copy and paste a citation into Zotero?
  • adamsmith
    not really, no. See here: http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_formatted_bibliographies
  • ekrause60
    Thank you!
  • aurimas
    I was able to create a NoodleTools MLA Lite account. Oddly enough, they don't even request an email account.

    Looking through their knowledgebase and analyzing the bibliography page itself, I do not see any easy way to transfer data from their website into any other bibliography management software.

    Perhaps if you contact their support directly, they would be willing to implement such a feature.
  • DWL-SDCA
    This summer I tried to help two junior college students who were making the transition to a bachelor's program. My help was requested to assist with exactly this problem. The support people said --this is close to an exact quote --

    You or your school made a great decision by signing up with Noodletools. We can't understand why anyone might want to export their work after all their effort with Noodletools. Surely you don't want to turn your great decision into a mistake! After making Noodletools a part of your writing and learning don't give up yet. Instead, redouble your efforts to improve your skills and let us help.

    It appears that there is not (nor will there be) a way to export records.
  • aurimas
    wow... this makes me want to go out of my way and write a translator for this website.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited September 29, 2012
    @ekrouse60 How many records do you have in Noodle tools? Bringing articles and book citations into Zotero can be done quite quickly. If you have access to the internet and your school has the needed subscriptions to journals, you can redo your collection of citations with pdf copies in a couple of hours. At the same time you will become skilled in the use of Zotero. Zotero's developers don't restrict your ability to export out of fear that you might jump to another system. On the contrary, Zotero offers several export formats.

    Even if your Noodletools citation collection is very, very large; making the transition to Zotero will be time well spent.

    @aurimus
    I felt like I was dreaming a telemarketing script.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited September 29, 2012
    @ekrouse60
    I just realized something about Noodletools. I signed up for the $15/yr offer out of curiosity. I couldn't find a way to automatically download citation metadata. The purpose of this tool seems to be hand-holding to reduce errors while hand-entering the title, author(s), journal name, volume, issue and page range.

    With Zotero, that data entry is automated. With one or two clicks the metadata is brought into your collection -- you can even get the full text as a pdf file.

    If my quick impression is correct, I am even more frustrated about the closed nature of Noodletools. After a user goes through the effort to enter information by hand, I think there should be an easy way to use your data without starting over.

    Zotero makes it easy to grab citation data and use it to add citations in your documents.
  • ekrause60
    @DWL-SDCA I have about 15 citations and annotations to export. I am going to try recite them all through the online journals, it's just a pain because I'm interning at the university and have little extra time, but I agree, the time will be well worth it. One of the main reasons I am getting into Zotero is that I want to teach my peers about it, and switch them all from the horrible Noodletools. I tried EndNote, which is much better, but again, you have to pay for it.
    Thank you everyone for your quick responses to my question!
  • fbennett
    I tried EndNote, which is much better, but again, you have to pay for it.
    Opinions vary on that one. :)

    Fifteen citations won't take you long.
  • ekrause60
    I was trying to say that EndNote is much better than NoodleTools. But Zotero > EndNote :)
  • adamsmith
    @DWL - maybe you can connect with Aurimas via private message or github to get him access to an account to write a translator (aka fulfil the hacker version of a revenge fantasy ;-)).
  • fbennett
    Be sure to check their terms of service first.

    http://www.cnet.com/8301-30976_1-20068778-10348864.html

    (CNET's favourite is mine too. :)
  • ekrause60
    Um, I know this is a really stupid question, but I've been trying to generate a bibliography, just to practice for right now, until I have all of my sources, but whether I do the "click and drop" or export, the citations always end up kind of funky, like strange coding when I export to Open Office.
    And, how do you export or "drag and drop" notes? I just can't seem to figure it out. Thank you!
  • ekrause60
    edited September 30, 2012
    Never mind! I figured out how to drag and drop. For notes, is it easiest to just copy and paste them into a doc from the edit box?
  • fbennett
    One thing would be to look into LibreOffice. It's the better half of a fork in OpenOffice development that happened some time ago. LO is known to work well with Zotero, OO not so much.

    There is a known issue with drag-and-drop of citations into LibreOffice, but you can use cut-and-paste instead. Select one or more items and use Ctl-Alt-A (for citations) or Ctl-Alt-C (for bibliography), then Ctl-V to paste into the document.
  • fbennett
    Either that, or drag them into a plain text editor. The formatting corruption with LO/OO is a bit of a nuisance, unfortunately.
  • aurimas
    @DWL - maybe you can connect with Aurimas via private message or github to get him access to an account to write a translator (aka fulfil the hacker version of a revenge fantasy ;-)).
    Hehe, I did get access to their website. They have a way to sign up for a free account, which might be different from the paid account though as far as translators are concerned.

    Unfortunately, the only structured data that is accessible is some convoluted JSON (from an AJAX request). It would be possible to sort through it if someone really wanted to, but since ekrause60 only has 15 entries, I'm not sure the benefits (which include rubbing this into NoodleTools faces) are worth the headaches.

    I remember there was some discussion about parsing generated bibliographies. It might be worth throwing a link to that discussion here if someone remembers the thread.
    Be sure to check their terms of service first.
    :-) I skimmed through it. I'm not the biggest fan of reading ToS's or EULAs so I maybe missed it, but I don't think there's anything in there that would prevent us from writing a translator.
  • DWL-SDCA
    After some reflection, I am a little less annoyed with NoodleTools. I think that the main purpose is to teach the basics of formal writing -- not to be a tool to assist with making the task of writing easier. It seems to be targeted to young, inexperienced writers who need help when away from the classroom. The focus seems to be getting a manuscript ready for a teacher to grade and add comments.
  • aurimas
    while that sounds right, the attitude that you should not be able to export your citations and move to a different tool still bothers me.
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