When Standalone is open, the extension in Firefox is running in connector mode, which is more limited — and it doesn't currently support saving via links, just saving current pages. To add a PDF (where the normal context-menu option won't appear), drag the PDF link or the icon to the left of the URL when viewing the PDF into Zotero.

For the failures, I could download them to a folder and have Zotfile monitor that folder and add them to Zotero.
However, this doesn't seem to be working for me.
Files are added to folder but not added.

Questions about ZotFile should be posted to the ZotFile thread, but it seems to me that you are misinterpreting how this feature is supposed to work. The feature allows you to right-click an _existing_ item in Zotero and select Attach New File, which will take the most-recently modified file in the watch folder and attach it to the Zotero item.

Thanks Aurimas and Adam for your comments.

I don't use Zotero in the traditional sense because I do not write my own documents, cite works or create bibliography. So many of these features do not apply to me.

I work in the Electrical Engineering field and mainly deal with semiconductor device documents.
I have searched heavily for some tool to help me manage my growing folders of documents and find what I need quickly.

Zotero handles this very well me (with a few workarounds).

I end up downloading datasheets, reference manuals, erratas, app notes, schematics and many other pdfs. I prefer to not put them into a parent items since many are just a single document. (For some reason I like to see the pdf icons instead of parent item icons) I rename the document with the doc number and the title and the rev. That allows me to quickly tell what the document is and whether I have the latest rev by just looking at the center pane.

Some items I will put into a parent item like schematics.
I review many customer schematics and this allows me to change the title of the parent item and leave the original schematic untouched.

I also deal with many presentations and spreadsheets.

I use the Book parent item when I want to group a number of items together without renaming them all. Example is we release Linux and Android BSPs 4-6 times a year and each has about 12 documents associated with them. I create a single Parent Item Book with the release name and put all the docs into that parent item.


I heavily rely on tagging to find what I need.
I click on the specific device tag and it shows me all items for that device.
Since I retitled most of the docs, I can quickly scan the center pane for what I need.

I only use folders to keep track of docs I have tagged. New stuff goes into unfiled and when tagged and renamed I move it to a folder.

I guess my point is I am looking for easy ways to add docs to Zotero.

If I get a document through email, I have to save it to disk and then drop it onto Zotero then delete document from disk.

If I am on a web page, some doc links can be dragged straight into Zotero, some don't work. I then need to close Standalone and open the Firefox version. Then right click on link to add to Zotero.
Sometimes I need to save doc to disk first due to the way the webpage retrieves the doc.

Many of the docs are updated with corrections. I want to be able to display only the newest versions unless and issue comes up where I need to access a previous one. The file list gets a little busy when I have multiple versions of the same document.
Is there an archive feature where I can set it for a document and Zotero will hide them unless I choose to show all?


Sorry for the long message, but this is the best tool I have come across to help me organize my docs and want to streamline as much as possible.


Many Thanks,
Brett