Adding PDFs

mbnielsen
Hi all

This is a work flow question. I don't know what else to call it, and that made it difficult to search for in the forum :-)

I find a lot of white paper and other interesting PDFs online, and I want to save the PDF and the download link. How do I do that?

What I currently do is
1. "add zotero snapshot from current page" in the browser
2. download the PDF
3. add it as attachment ("stored copy")
4. change the parent type from webpage to document
5. open the pdf and copy the meta data to the (now document) parent entry.

This way I can insert citation with link to where the pdf may be found. If I just add a stored copy of file, it has very limited metadata.

How do you do it?
Any hints to improvements are welcome :-)

regards
morten

PS.
I run Debian linux, zotero standalone 3.0.8 and my browser is a current hromium (but is the same with firefox).
  • adamsmith
    My only thought on the workflow is that if the papers are on google scholar you could try using retrieve metadata:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/retrieve_pdf_metadata

    Separate from the workflow issue you should prefer manuscript or report over document for whitepapers - those will work better in citation styles.
  • mbnielsen
    Thanks for the input.

    The obscure IT and security related whitepapers I use, is almost never found when searching for meta data.

    I had just hoped that there was something I had missed.
  • duvane5678
    I know this isn't your main question, but unless you prefer to have a downloaded copy of the paper outside of the zotero file structure, you may be able to combine steps 2 and 3 into a single step.

    Instead of downloading the pdf, copy the URL (assuming its a static link), and paste that into the "attach stored copy of file" dialog box.

    Not sure if it will work with your OS, but its worth a shot. It also does not work well with proxy servers, and the filename will be whatever comes after the last slash in the URL, so if the link is not directly to a filename, you may have to play games with renaming the file after downloading.
  • mbnielsen
    A good suggestion - it could have worked for me, but adding a stored copy only give me the possibility of adding a file from disk :-(

    I am using Zotero stand-alone on debian/linux
  • mronkko
    Add a link to an existing file should give you an option to only add a local file. Adding a stored copy of a link should only give you option to add a link. You should check that you are using the correct feature.
Sign In or Register to comment.