Hey Team!
I have a lot of text based documents (both text files and Zotero notes) that contain:
Definitions: definitions of keywords, found in a reference, that I copy and paste next to a text marker that I call “DEF”
Arguments: interesting arguments made by authors, found in a reference, that I copy and paste next to a text marker that I call “ARG”
Reflections: my own ideas that appear while I read references; i usually mark them next to a text marker that I call “!!”
Questions: my own questions that appear while I read references; i usually mark them next to a text marker that I call “??”

So a note attached to a reference would typically look like:
DEF Frenchmen “A person with the French nationality”
ARG for the funkiness of Frenchmen: “Frenchmen are funky”
!! I feel quite funky myself today
?? why do I feel quite funky myself today

Let´s call of these quotes, either from other authors or mine. I am basically looking for a good system to archive them.

I found this interesting example here:
http://calnewport.com/blog/2007/10/01/monday-master-class-how-to-build-a-paper-research-database/

The recommended solution is either to use a real database system like Microsoft Access, or to go for a simpler solution using Excel or alike.

I´d like to:
- keep some continuity: have all my research notes in one place, with a mix of notes and quotes; ideally Zotero
- keep some simplicity: make the process of archiving quotes rather automatic and not too much time consuming

So here are my questions:
1. Anyone with similar needs that found some good ways around?
2. Although in my case Zotero notes and what I call “quotes” are not the same type of objects, is there a way to archive single quotes in Zotero and add tag to it? I guess I can create a zotero item that could work as a proxy for a quote: for example a journal citation where I can write the name of the author of the quote in the field “author” and the content of the quote in the field “abstract” and maybe add “QUOTE, ”“DEF” in the list of tags? This sounds quite time consuming but it would work. What do you think?
3. On the same line of thinking, what are the best tricks you know when it comes to automating Zotero with tools like IFTTT or Api programming via Programmableweb? I must add that I am not experienced with working with SQL or Java or APIs or any type of coding, although I did some a long time ago and I can learn relatively fast.
4. Is there a group in Zotero who is working with this type of challenges?

Thanks in advance and all the best!
Etienne