Upgrade StorageWhy do saved references go to the Unfiled Items
Hej,
and I recently have started to use Zotero again after a pause and after a new installation of my computer some week ago I have finally found my old library /references. When I today started to build new references into the existing library they don´t go there after clicking the icon for saving to Zotero. Instead they show up in the Unfiled item folder? Why?
Kindly / Cecilia
and I recently have started to use Zotero again after a pause and after a new installation of my computer some week ago I have finally found my old library /references. When I today started to build new references into the existing library they don´t go there after clicking the icon for saving to Zotero. Instead they show up in the Unfiled item folder? Why?
Kindly / Cecilia
When you are saving items using the browser icon, they save to the currently selected collection in the Zotero client.
If you don't want to see the Unfiled Items folder, you can right-click on it and select Hide.
Kindly again / Cecilia
Kindly / Cecilia
You can make collections with category titles to assist with organizing the items in your Library. If you have a collection open when you download an item it is saved to your "My Library" but it will also appear in the open collection. If you do not have any collection open, the item will appear in your "My Library" and it will also appear in your Unfiled Items group (because it is not in any of your collections). You can drag items that are in the Unfiled Items group into a collection. Upon dragging the item into a collection it is then "filed" and will no longer be in the Unfiled Items group.
Everything is in your Library. Collections are like iTunes play lists -- an item can be made to appear in more than one collection but the item isn't duplicated. The single record exists in "My Library" and items in collections "point" to the Library item. Items in the Unfiled Items group are also in your "My Library" and will remain there until the items are placed in a collection.
1. Since My library as you say may consist of several collections how do I steer the downloading towards any of these? Is it something I do actively when downloading (i.e. are there options to be made in that specific activity?). Or is it handled by having one library open in 'the other end' before downloading?
2. If something show up on unfiled items, it depends on whether a collection is open or not?
Kindly / Cecilia
/ Cecilia
2) There is no such thing as a collection being "open". Either an item is in a particular collection or it's not. If you drag an item into a collection, it will no longer appear in Unfiled Items. If you remove an item from all collections (by going into each collection it belongs to, right-clicking on the item, and choosing Remove from Collection), it will show up in Unfiled Items again (it's no longer "filed" in any collections).
3) Zotero has hundreds of little programs that it uses to extract data from sites to import into Zotero--these are called "translators". Some translators are built to handle a specific site (like Google Books), while others are more generic (like Embedded Metadata, which just uses the web page header information and tends to be poor quality, or DOI, which looks up a DOI name on the page using the CrossRef database to get item data). By default, Zotero picks the translator that should work best for the page you're on. The drop-menu options are there in the rare cases that this default doesn't work right (e.g., if a site changes its layout and breaks the site-specific translator; or if it's a blog post that posts a DOI for the article it's discussing, but you want to save the blog post).
You should be using the Zotero version on your computer...Zotero in Firefox or Zotero standalone.
The Zotero program offers a screen with 3 columns. On the left you should see My Library at the top and below that several folders. If you click on a folder you are selecting / opening a 'collection'. In the center column you will see a list of those items that are in that collection. With the collection selected anything you download to Zotero should be placed in the open collection.
I'm puzzled about why things aren't working. What version of Zotero are you using? Are you using the old Zotero version that you used before the pause? How long was the pause?
A few of the attempts to help have been detailed, step-by-step instructions. I suspect that you may need to wipe from your mind what you seem to remember about Zotero, re-read the messages above, and try again. This process of downloading items to an open collection should be simple, obvious, and automatic. I mean no insult by that. There is something basic that is amiss. It could be something wrong with your Zotero installation or it could be that your memory of how to use Zotero needs to be refreshed.
[edit: Question to long-timers --- Am I correct that several versions ago there was an issue that prevented downloaded items from being assigned to the selected collection?]
And yes, the process is probably both simple, obvious and automatic to people fairly used to software. The problem to me, with no claims at all for being good at software, not even fairly used to them either, is that Zotero behaved diffferently and I was not prepared for this I guess,
Anyhow, thanks again, from a not insulted but a little flattened and confused Cecilia
http://zotero.org/download
You need to have the Zotero app open when saving from your browser.