Create and attach pdf from snapshot

michaelsloggett
I am using Zotero in conjunction with Qiqqa to take advantages of the strengths of both tools. To make this work well, I need to make sure there is a pdf attached to every citation.

So, for web snapshot-type citations, I need to generate and attach a pdf. I can currently do this through a multi-step process:

[open snapshot]
[select print to pdf]
[save pdf]
[drag pdf into zotero to attach]

I wonder whether there is a more direct way? Is "create and attach pdf" is something that could be added to a right-click menu perhaps?

Even more direct, could an option be given to save BOTH snapshot and pdf whenever using the snapshot tool?

I would suggest that this would assist all kinds of people who are using Zotero in conjunction with a PDF annotation program.

Thanks for your consideration, and for a wonderful tool.
  • adamsmith
    1. That sounds like it could/should be handled by a third party plugin and relatedly
    2. I don't think there is a cross-platform, open source pdf printer (or html to pdf converter) that Zotero could use - so having a single-platform plugin might be the way to go anyway.
  • Gracile
    Related: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/9183/htmltopdf-workflow/#Item_4

    @adamsmith: "Print pages to Pdf" (FF add-on) is cross-platform, isn't it?
    It is using the open Source library wkhtmltopdf.
  • derinliktutkunu
    I believe this could be easily automated in autohotkey. I will give a try as soon as I will have time.

    I use already an autohotkey script to tidy copy problems with line feeds etc when pasting in word from PDF.

    Another script work for ibids. I just push a key and enter only page numbers.
  • dgrobinson
    I would love to be able to do this, likewise. I wondr if Joscha Legewie has considered adding this to Zotfile. (Will link to this thread from there.)
  • aurimas
    Your comment from the ZotFile thread:
    Given how quickly web pages change -- and also how useful PDF snapshots are thank to Zotfile -- it would almost always be preferable to retain a PDF instead of a snapshot. My current process is to capture a snapshot with Zotero's chrome extension (so that it will auto-generate a Zotero item, with appropriate metadata), then to print the web page to PDF, attach the PDF to the zotero item (using Zotfile's attach-to-currently-selected-item trick), and manually discard the snapshot. It's doable but I wonder if a combination of feasibility and user demand might make a more elegant solution worthwhile.
    The whole idea of an HTML snapshot is that once you make it, the content doesn't change. Are you actually seeing them change?
  • shannonmcphail
    Any news on this? I would also love to have this feature!
  • Vimcrova
    So... still nothing? I'm also interested.
  • cheflo
    I posted a few potentially useful tools for implementation of HTML to PDF conversion in this thread. https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/81185/feature-request-optionally-save-web-pages-as-pdf-and-a-list-of-tools-that-might-help
Sign In or Register to comment.