"Save to Zotero" and Automated import from Finder

rjm95
New to Zotero and still trying to get my mind around how it works.

1. Is there a way to save directly to Zotero? For example, if I click "save as" on a doc or e-mail attachment, is there a folder I can save it to that will make it part of Zotero? (You can do this with DevonThink Pro Office.)

2. Related: Is it possible to create a folder(s) in the Finder that will export new items to a similar folder structure in Zotero? (or just to Zotero at all?)

Thanks!
  • rjm95
    p.s. This kind of workflow is especially important to me b/c as a medievalist I work with many research materials that are not pre-made for the digital workflow as online journal articles are. Most of my materials come from the physical world, not the Web.
  • adamsmith
    edited March 2, 2012
    no, but have a look at Zotfile, which allows for some version of this:
    http://www.columbia.edu/~jpl2136/zotfile.html

    Part of the reason for not making this more automatic is that putting an unattached PDF into Zotero is rather pointless in the first place.

    Edit: at least with Zotero for Firefox, you can select "save to Zotero" as an option when saving files, though.
  • Simon
    You may already know this, but you can also drag a file or files directly from Finder to the Zotero pane, which might make things easier.
  • rjm95
    I'm most interested in maintaining my DevonThink Pro Office workflow, which runs OCR for me in a fairly automated way. I can save anything to certain folders that will automatically import to DTPO and run OCR, and then I can have DTPO automatically export to specific locations. Ideally it would export to Zotero somehow.

    The point would be *Not* to have to drag and drop everything.

    @adamsmith: Why is it pointless to put PDFs in Zotero? To me the great advantage of Zotero over DTPO is that it syncs to a cloud that provides both backup and multi-platform access. Or do I misunderstand what you mean by "unattached"?

    Thanks for the help everybody!
  • adamsmith
    I mean by "unattached" unattached to metadata.
    If you just want to sync pdfs to the cloud there are a whole range of other options (dropbox and various varieties thereof) that are cheaper and easier to use that Zotero.
    What makes Zotero useful and distinct is that you can attach pdfs to bibliographic data. Without that data, I don't really see much of a reason to have a pdf in Zotero. And if you're going to create that data anyway, you'll have to do that manually for each imported pdf and then a Zotfile-based workflow e.g. would be just as fast.

    Or to re-phrase - why do you want your pdfs in Zotero?
  • rjm95
    edited March 2, 2012
    Ah! I want PDFs in Zotero so I *can* attach metadata to them. And share them with colleagues/students in groups.

    I realize there are all kinds of other services that do these various things, but I've found that one of the best solutions to workflow is to minimize the number of nifty tools I use. Somehow the combined value of DropBox + EndNote + DTPO + Evernote + GoodReader + Etc. diminishes the individual value of each of them. I'm hoping Zotero can streamline things for me, so that I only work with Zotero and DTPO (and using DTPO only for OCR--Acrobat would do the same thing if I had it).

    Am I off on this? Like I said, I've only been looking into Zotero for a week, and maybe I'm overestimating how multifunctional and streamlined Zotero really can be.
  • adamsmith
    It's really up to you - I don't think watching folders for PDF and automatically importing them is something that will be introduced anytime soon by Zotero. I don't think it would be terribly hard to write a plugin that does that if someone is really interested, but Zotero does work differently from most tools that "watch" folders (picasa-type photo managers, i-tunes type music managers etc.) in that it actually imports and stores the files in question.

    So if that option is a sine qua non for you, Zotero is likely not for you in the near future.

    If you can think about ways to adjust your workflow something might be possible. Do have a look at Zotfile, e.g., or see if it won't make more sense to first create metadata and then attach a pdf etc.
  • grieth
    I get scans as pdfs, then open them in acrobat to OCR. Once OCR is done, I would like the option of Save To Zotero, as then I can use the Zotero tool to find the biblio data on the internet, before adding my own comments and links. THat is why a save to zotero option is great.

    rjm95 is right.

    surely a small plugin for acrobat to save to zotero is not that hard!?
  • mronkko
    If that is not so hard, why would you code it yourself? More seriously, I am not even sure if Adobe provides any APIs for coding a plugin like that. And really, the workflow currently is: Import a file to Zotero, double click it in Zoteor to open in Acrobat, click to OCR, CMD+S to save the file. I do not really see much need to streamline that.
  • adamsmith
    (FWIW, Zotfile already has watch folder code implemented, but afaik it just allows you to attach files added to the watched folder, not to create new items from them. For anyone interested that should be easy enough to adjust).
  • alaw005
    I have same issue, having just moved from Mendeley. Whenever I identified an interesting pdf document I would save to my watch folder. This would then automatically be pulled into Menedeley as a file that needs checking. I would then go back and view and update the citations accordingly, once I have finished my search session.

    This seems such basic functionality and I expect would be very useful to a large number of people.

    I have tried Zotfile but this does not really work as I need to have already created the citation for the file I am downloading. It would be much easier to start with the file and create a citation from that, even if citation just the file name (it could also have label added "requiring completion") which I could then change later.
  • aurimas
    Where are your PDFs coming from? Are you also looking at PDFs that are not in online databases?
  • adamsmith
    edited October 13, 2013
    as for "basic" - Mendeley put a ton of work into their PDF workflow. It's really the main feature of their client. Zotero's main focus is on importing via the URL button in your browser - often with PDF attached - which produces consistently better data on import than anything Mendeley does (things like abstracts, full first names for authors, complete data etc.)
    But yes, there is a trade-off between the two. Zotero's import of just PDFs isn't as smooth as Mendeley's (though don't underestimate the amount of manual labor that will have to go into revisiting every single PDF you import into Mendeley if you want citations to actually come out right)
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