Import PDF from linked file

Abednego
Hi,

I've come across Zotero only recently and I love it. Currently I am about to convert my bibliographic database from the ever worsening Bibliogaphix to Zotero. For the last 3 hours I have been busy linking saved pdfs to literature entries. However, since I just love the "turn this page into an entry with pdf and stuff"-feature of Zotero, I think that most of my future entries will include their pdf files "Zotero style" as an attached file.

Now my question: Would it be possible to add a right-click option to linked files to import/convert them to attached files?

Thanks a lot,
Bernhard
  • dstillman
    Linked files are technically "attached files" too, but to clarify, you mean convert from a linked file stored elsewhere on the disk to an imported file stored within the Zotero data directory?

    Now that we have drag and drop from the filesystem, it's actually pretty easy to do this already. Just click Show File on the linked file to locate it in the filesystem (e.g. Finder or Explorer), and then drag the file from the filesystem onto the same parent item in Zotero. This will import the file.
  • noksagt
    While the drag-and-drop interface enhancements are certainly nice, I don't think it is as good as an automatic import. This isn't only hugely useful when you import a large number of references (as it sounds like Bernhard has done), but the small time saved for each import would certainly add up.

    Most standard bibliographic formats have some way of denoting a link. If this link had a PDF extension, it'd be nice to automagically attach the PDF to the new bibliographic entry.

    This doesn't only apply to local imports (as Bernhard requests), but could also give a "standard" way to grab files from sites that use UnAPI (I previously proposed where to look for a file link in MODS XML).
  • Abednego
    Drag-and-drop from the filesystem is definitively a nice thing to use ... but ...

    a) My laptop runs on linux (Ubuntu 7.04) and while d-n-d might work from finder and explorer, I can't drop anything into my (currently 1.0.0b4.r5) zotero subwindow from nautilus (haven't tried konqueror since firefox seems to be gtk-based). So the "import linked file"-option would save me plenty of work.

    b) noksagt is right in that when converting large literature collections to zotero, the process of (1) first selecting the "open folder" command (2) waiting0 for the folder to pop up (3) d-n-d'ing the file to the correct literature entry (4) closing the folder consumes much more time than simply (1) selecting a "import link" command. That is... except for the poor coders who would have to implement that command. ;-)

    However I am currently trying to get my professor to make zotero the "official literature tool" for our group - and an "import link" feature or (though probably a different part of code) an import of linked files from endnote databases would make a _very_ good argument for my case ...
  • julou
    +1

    I have more than 500 records in my db, with linked files for most of them.
    Would be great to be able to attach them at once!

    Please…

    Thomas
  • fabiansiegel
    It would be great, if I could supply a list which says something like this:









    DOI:10.1007/s003390201377/home/user/myarticle.pdf
    DOI:10.1000/182 http://www.doi.org/hb.html
    PMID:14633783 /home/user/pm14633783.pdf
    or anything like that. but I think there is currently no possibility to automatically add anything to an existing entry. I tried to check if one could use a translator to add something to an entry, but they only seem to be able to add new ones, not to edit existing entries.
  • JonEP
    Hi,

    I think I am going to make the transition from EndNote....
    However, I'm dealing with over 900 linked entries in one EndNote library. I definitely will not do it by hand!
    Lawsuits notwithstanding, is there a way to have the links convert so that my entire linked library becomes my Zotero library?
    Surely there must be a way of making a "migration" filter of some sort--this is done by email / contacts / calendar programs all the time, no?
    Or am I missing a feature that is already possible with Zotero?

    Thanks,
    Jon EP
  • Tjowens
    JonEP, take a look at Exporting PDFs on http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_records_from_endnote

    With a careful find and replace statement you should be able to bring over your attachments.
  • JonEP
    Thanks! Will try that.
  • m2brew
    Drag and drop from Konqueror (KDE 3.5, opensuse 11.1) fails for me, too. A workaround to allow drag N drop is to use Firefox as a file browser (enter "file://<location_to_file>" as the URL), and to drag and drop from there.

    Perhaps drag and drop to Zotero will work in opensuse 11.2, since KDE and Firefox are supposed to be much more tightly integrated in 11.2.
  • dstillman
    We may be able to fix file drag-and-drop on Linux in Firefox 3.6. (Probably won't happen automatically with 3.6, but there's new functionality that may help.)
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