Upgrade StorageSwitching to a Group Library after starting in my own.
I've been trying to find an answer to this, but can't seem to. (Obviously, libraries are discussed a lot here. :) )
Is there a way to update a document to use a new library? I have something in a personal library. Now I have decided to collaborate with something, so I create a group library that the two of us can use so we can both pass updates back and forth.
How do I get all my previous documents to start using the new library? Do I have to go back and replace every single reference I have ever made by hand? (It seems so.)
Is the fact a new library is basically a new instance of the data base such that there is no way to switch references in a document? (This is, I suppose, similar to the problem that if someone makes a document using their own copy of Zotero and sends it to you, there is no way to then incorporate those references into your own library and work on it yourself.)
Is there a way to update a document to use a new library? I have something in a personal library. Now I have decided to collaborate with something, so I create a group library that the two of us can use so we can both pass updates back and forth.
How do I get all my previous documents to start using the new library? Do I have to go back and replace every single reference I have ever made by hand? (It seems so.)
Is the fact a new library is basically a new instance of the data base such that there is no way to switch references in a document? (This is, I suppose, similar to the problem that if someone makes a document using their own copy of Zotero and sends it to you, there is no way to then incorporate those references into your own library and work on it yourself.)
Well, that's disappointing. I suppose it is a serious programming problem, since making it a nightmare to decide to collaborate seems weird.
I tried having the person who made the original document add her library entries to the shared library and then merge, but that accomplished nothing. It's not like you can point a document to pick a library either, as far as I can tell.
Well, going forward this shouldn't be a problem, but I'm not looking forward to the hours of work ahead to disentangle this.
When a citation exists in your database, you can edit it by clicking on it in the document, clicking Add/Edit Citation, clicking the blue bubble, and clicking Show in My Library.
But the safest option is to insert from the group library you all have access to, yes. I'm not sure what you mean by that. When you go to cite, the citation bar will show headings for each library in the search results, so you can choose items from the right library. If you mean to relink after the fact, I address the possibility of that — including why it would be very complicated — in the linked thread. Zotero can't just automatically use citations from different libraries because the data could be different, and different people editing the document could have access to different libraries.
Yes, everything needs to be done manually. If we were lucky and the citations were correctly entered and in the proper style we could leave them alone, but since that isn't the case, there's nothing else to be done.
"I'm not sure what you mean by that. "
Sorry, I wasn't clear. Yes if I add a citation me a choice of libraries. But once it is in, you can't reassign it. (It won't even tell you what library it exists in, although maybe the little blue dot you mentioned handles that?)
Even if there was the option to just replace an entry across the board it would save time. As it is, if someone has cited Sanli, 2018 in the document 40 times and I want to replace it with the properly done version of Sanli, 2018 that exists in the Group library, I have to go and replace it by hand 40 times. I can't say "this entry should be replaced with this one from the other library everywhere it appears".
I do get that it is not something easily done, but man it would make fixing things vastly easier. :)
Again, you really can just share the document and have everyone cite existing citations from the Cited section and it will just work, with proper "et al." and "ibid.". It's only if someone inserts a different copy of the item that you'll get some problems, but if you're careful you can avoid that.