Save to dialog box not showing up in firefox

devobrew
555495251 is my error report #. I Use zotero exclusively through firefox today the "save to" dialog box is not showing up when I am working in google scholar or any journal source with pdf's. The only option I have is to "save link as". The Pdf file will download and open then I have to save to a folder,grab a citation from google scholar then drag pdf to the item made for the citation. this works but takes more time then the "save to" which grabs all the metadata as well. Not sure if I accidentally changed some setting.
  • adamsmith
    The Save to... dialog is inserted into Firefox's standard download dialog for PDFs, so that's what you want to bring back (i.e. the setting you changed would be in Firefox, not in Zotero), but stepping back -- why aren't you using the Save to Zotero icon next to the search bar?
    https://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library#web_translators
  • dstillman
    edited October 27, 2015
    I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that, instead of showing you the Firefox Save dialog that has the "Save to Zotero" option added to it, Firefox is just displaying the PDF itself?

    That would be the default behavior, actually — Firefox has shipped with its own PDF reader for a long time now.

    But if you're on Google Scholar or journal sites, you should almost always just use the Zotero save button in the Firefox toolbar, which should much more reliably get you metadata and should grab the PDF as well.

    For sites that aren't supported by Zotero, you can view the PDF in Firefox, click the normal Zotero save button in the Firefox toolbar to save the PDF to Zotero, and then right-click on the item and choose Retrieve Metadata for PDF.

    (If you really don't want to view PDFs in Firefox, you can adjust that in the Firefox Applications preferences.)
  • adamsmith
    If devobrew were to see the PDF opened in Firefox, they could get the "Save to Zotero" option when using the download icon of Firefox's built-in PDF reader. My understanding is that PDFs _don't_ open in Firefox and don't display the standard dialog anymore.
  • dstillman
    edited October 27, 2015
    Ah, that's probably true — I wasn't sure what "The Pdf file will download and open then I have to save to a folder" meant. So devobrew, if PDFs are now opening in an outside program (e.g., Acrobat Reader), you can change that as well in the Firefox Applications preferences.
  • devobrew
    Ok guess I am not making myself clear: 1.when I am in google scholar I am linked to my university so that I can view and download journal articles for free. in the past(yesterday) I would left click on an pdf icon and the save to dialog box would appear, click save to Zotero bam done. Today it does not. If I right click on the same file I have two options, 1) save as a web page item , 2) save as a link.
  • devobrew
    I am not getting a save pdf option no matter what method I use i.e. toolbar or mouse right click.
  • adamsmith
    no, we understand but
    a) that doesn't answer why you're not using the save to Zotero icon next to the URL bar which would frequently give you better metadata and also download the PDF and
    b) as we say, whether that dialog appears is a Firefox setting, not a Zotero setting (Zotero just inserts the "Save to Zotero" option in that dialog.) check the Firefox application settings.
  • devobrew
    Thank you, I know this is not a Firefox forum but what application settings should I be looking for in the Firefox application settings to restore the dialog box?
  • adamsmith
    so in the Firefox preferences --> Applications
    and check for Portable Document Format (PDF) -- I believe to get your previous behavior back you'll want "save" but if that doesn't work try some of the others. I'm not sure if you'll have to restart Firefox after changing them or not.
    (again, though--the standard method for importing into Zotero is the URL bar icon. You'll find it works significantly better, e.g. giving you much more complete data including typically abstract and DOI when saving from journal publishers. You should at least look at using it; it will save you lots of time fixing up things manually later as you're looking to cite items correctly).
  • devobrew
    Adamsmith: I hear what you are saying about using the icon, but while it does give me the metadata it does not give me the pdf file. At best I get a snapshot or an abstract. Also changing the application to save from acrobat reader default does not restore the dialog box, but rather just saves the file to cache. But "always ask" did restore that dialog box. I thank you for the help! Have a good morning! Ciao from Lincoln Nebraska! Again, thank you for your patience!
  • dstillman
    You're really misunderstanding how Zotero is designed to be used.

    If there's a place where you expect the save icon to save a PDF along with metadata and you don't get one, start a new thread and report it.

    Retrieving metadata from a PDF should be a method of last resort when someone emails you a PDF or you find a PDF somewhere online that doesn't provide standard metadata — that's it.

    And even if a PDF isn't being saved along with metadata somewhere, it'd still be better to use the save icon and then drag the PDF link on top of the saved item to create an attachment.
  • dstillman
    edited October 27, 2015
    (Note the differences in the save icon and the text when you hover over it. When you see a journal icon or other identified type, that's when you'll generally get high-quality metadata and should get a PDF as well unless there's a problem with your configuration, in which case you'd want to debug that. On regular web pages you'll see a web page icon, and in those cases you'll just get a snapshot, but that shouldn't be the case on most journal pages, Google Scholar, newspaper sites, magazine sites, databases, etc. This is all covered in the documentation adamsmith linked to, which we'd strongly encourage you to read.)

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