Microsoft Surface RT and Zotero--- can they go together?

shirawil
Hi
I'm thinking of replacing my old netbook with a microsoft surface RT as my main work and research computer. I know it's more limited than what I'm used to so far, but my main priority is weight and maximum portability. I use Zotero a lot and I couldn't figure out if this tablet is compatible with zotero and if so, how does it work. I'm also wondering if surface is really my best bet for minimum weight and maximum "windows." Any ideas, advice or thoughts on this issue would be much much appreciated!
Thanks so much,
Shira
  • adamsmith
    You'll only get minimal Zotero functionality on a Surface for the foreseeable future: The bookmarklet does allow you to import directly into your online library:
    http://www.zotero.org/downloadbookmarklet
    and Zotero does have a mobile version, but it's significantly more limited, there is no Word plugin, interaction between groups and personal libraries is inexistent, etc. You won't be able to install anything Zotero (apart from the bookmarklet) on a surface.

    Personally I think either the full-PC version of the Surface or an Ultrabook (maybe with a flippable touchscreen like the Lenovo Yoga or the Dell XPS) sounds more like what you're looking for. Of course that's about twice as much money, too.
  • shirawil
    Thank you so much for this helpful and detailed reply. I'm wondering: does explorer support bookmarklet? Surface allows only explorer and while I saw firefox and more on the link you attached, I couldn't find explorer...
    Thank you so very much again. Much appreciated.
    Shira
  • adamsmith
    yes it does. I'm not 100% sure how it's set up on the Surface, but the bookmarklet definitely works on Desktop IE and I'm pretty sure we've heard from people using Windows mobile/RT as well.
  • derinliktutkunu
    Think about a full windows 8 tablet-laptop combo. Many interesting models exist . Windows RT is not needed anymore since haswell processors.
  • ghego1
    edited October 22, 2013
    I had exactly the same problem a while ago and went for a WinPro8 tablet, cause RT does not run any app like the Pro does.
    I bought an Asus Vivo Tab, price range 450-550$ (I paid € 450), if you need portability and the full desktop version of zotero - as I did -, that's a good choice.
    Now they even have new models (http://www.asus.com/tablet/en/vivotab/feature#), I don't know how they perform, but the one I bought in March performs well for all basic tablet activities, and for Zotero usage (even though Zotero itself is not very touch friendly). The pdf reader by MS preinstalled in Win8 is 100% compatible with the Adobe one for desktop (which on the Asus Vivo Tab performs terribly), so if you need to read PDF papers that works well. Open Office however is rather slow, I don't have MS Office so I can't tell about that.
  • Clive Cheesman
    @adamsmith
    I'd love to know what those people who report success through using the bookmarklet with IE on an RT surface are doing. I have one running Windows 8.1 RT, and have successfully installed the bookmarklet (i.e. created a Favourite which runs the relevant piece of javascript) but whenever I press it, it simply says that there's nothing to save because the website (whatever site it is - even JStor) isn't supported by any Zotero translator. It then suggests opening Zotero standalone in order to increase the number of supported sites. I have tried to download Standalone but the Surface won't let me. And of course I can't download Zotero because the only browser allowed is IE. Maybe I'm missing something but I think Surface users must be content with the online library and entering things manually.
    Incidentally, where is the mobile version of Zotero?
  • adamsmith
    Try pubmed for testing, that should almost certainly work. Non-supported pages won't work, of course, not sure what happened with JSTOR. Given the message you receive this is unlikely to be a problem on the IE/Surface end. Mobile versions of most pages won't work, pubmed being the exception. I'd expect mixed success on proxied URLs. To say more we'd need sample URLs.

    The mobile version of the Zotero webpage is available (when it's not automatically displayed, as on most cell phones) by clicking "mobile site" on the homepage https://www.zotero.org/ (or, I believe, any library view page). The forum doesn't have a mobile version.
  • Clive Cheesman
    Thanks for reply. Exactly the same result on PubMed, I'm afraid. Maybe this is nothing to do with Surface _or_ the and just some basic incompetence on my part.

    I wondered if that was what you meant by Zotero mobile version, but I clearly misinterpreted your post of 7/7/13.
  • adamsmith
    no, if you get that error message the bookmarklet is installed correctly.
    One more try: Could you see if this works?
    http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/
  • Clive Cheesman
    This was a bit different: the same grey box appears lower right as usual, saying Looking for Translators ... ; but the message it settles on is "An error occurred while saving this item. Check Known Translator Issues for more information." (Check Known Translator Issues being a hyperlink to the Zotero help page in question.) In other words the normal translator issue box.
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