Some questions on working with Latex and Zotero

Hello all,

I have recently discovered Zotero and like it very much. Since I am writing mainly in Latex, I have a few questions (the answers to which I haven't found the documentation).

- How can I set the cite key for a paper, so that the same key is always used when exporting to bibtex format?
(there were some discussions on this, but it seems the feature was never added?)

- What is best way to add a citation from a Zotero document to my Latex project? Is there a way to highlight text in Zotero, drag it to Latex and have the citekey generated and inserted automatically?

- How can I have Zotero automatically retrieve the meta-data for a PDF when I add the file to the library?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Cheers,

Martin
  • Cite keys are auto-generated from author/year/title. If these don't change and you don't have collisions, the cite key will be the same. There is no field for the cite key. One may be added in the future. If you dislike the default format of the cite key, you could edit the translator 'BibTeX.js' to use some other scheme. Or regenerate them using another program such as JabRef.

    You have a lot of options for inserting citations:
    • Just write them. Optionally use a smart editor that auto-completes them (e.g. vim+latexsuite).
    • Install a third-party translator to quick copy and paste the default cite key (this doesn't work with collisions)
    • Use a third-party zotero extension such as lyz to setup a lyxpipe in editors that support it
    • Use a third-party stand-alone BibTeX tool such as JabRef
    This is driven by personal preference.

    The last question is unrelated to BibTeX, but see https://www.zotero.org/support/retrieve_pdf_metadata
  • Sorry about the late reply. I totally forgot to say thanks for the two answers above. I installed the add-on for "better bibtex" and it is working fine.
    Thanks a lot!
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