How to export pdf files only

lailai51587
Hi there

I want to export a lot papers from zotero. But the 'export' function in zotero will export both pdf and other info in seperate folders. I just want pdfs in one folder. Is that possible? Thanks for your response in advance.

Lei
  • adamsmith
    There is no direct export option, but there are two ways to do this:
    1. Entirely independent of Zotero, just search for file type PDF in the zotero data/storage folder: http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
    2. Search for attachment file type -- is --> PDF in a Zotero advanced search. Create a saved search. You can select the PDFs in that saved search with ctrl+a and simply drag and drop them to your file browser.
  • srad2
    There is an easy workaround. Export everything, then open an explorer window and navigate to the 'files' folder. Search in this folder for *.pdf - this will bring up all of the exported pdf files and nothing else. You can then select and move all of these files to a convenient location and then delete the 'files' folder.
  • adamsmith
    note that this is basically my option 1). You don't even need to export, you can just search and then (if needed) copy the PDFs.
  • srad2
    you're right, although exporting can be applied to subselections of the whole library, thus by selecting papers either by folder or by keyword a useful pdf collection can be made. I wouldn't know what to do with the pdfs from my entire zotero library...

    (I am biased as I came to this discussion while working out how to export subselections)
  • adamsmith
    you may also want to look at ZotFile's "send to tablet" functionality (which doesn't necessarily involve a tablet) for a one-click solution to this.
  • drvivek78
    Hi,
    I was facing the same issue and as a workaround, hacked the BIBTEX.js Translator. The file can be downloaded from https://www.dropbox.com/s/d9o4p166qbxuzkb/BibTeX_ExpPDF.js?dl=0
    You may download and copy this js file in your Translators folder in the Zotero data directory.
    Then when exporting a collection, you will see another option "BibTeXPDFExport". Choose it and tick the "Export Files" option export. In teh export folder, another "PDFs" folder will be created with all your PDFs.
    Preexisting PDFs with same name will be overwritten
    I am using it myself with reasonable success. But please exercise caution when you are using it.
    For example I do not know what impact it will have on importing BIB files.

    Thanks
    Vivek

    The changes from the regular BibTex.js are

    IN THE METADATA SECTION

    {
    "translatorID": "9cb70025-a888-4a29-a210-93ec52da40VG",
    "label": "BibTeXPDFExport",
    "creator": "Vivek's mod of Simon Kornblith, Richard Karnesky and Emiliano heyns"",
    "inRepository": false,
    "lastUpdated": "2015-04-25 20:50:00"
    }


    IN THE EXPORT SECTION

    for(var i in item.attachments) {
    ....
    if(Zotero.getOption("exportFileData") && attachment.saveFile && attachment.mimeType == 'application/pdf') {
    path = "/pdfs/" + encodeFilePathComponent(title);
    attachment.saveFile(path, true);
    } else if(attachment.localPath) {
    path = "/pdfs/" + encodeFilePathComponent(title);
    }
    if (path) {
    attachmentString += ";" + encodeFilePathComponent(title)
    + ":" + encodeFilePathComponent(path)
    + ":" + encodeFilePathComponent(attachment.mimeType);
    }
    }
  • Najmoddin.Yazdi
    Thank you adamsmith,
    Zotfile totally worked for me.
  • HedgieLib
    Just a quick comment to note that the type:.pdf worked perfectly! Thank you-- was NOT looking forward to pulling 100 articles 1 by 1
  • rcsapo
    If you're working on a Mac/Linux system, an easy way to do this is to first export the entire collection (I used BibLaTex as format and ticked the "Export Files" option) and then use the Terminal:

    1) Navigate to the parent directory into which you exported the collection:
    cd path_to_parent_directory

    2) Recursively copy all pdfs in the directory at the topmost hierarchical layer:
    find . -name "*.pdf" -type f -exec cp {} . \;

    3) Optionally delete the original nested export folder in Finder or Terminal:
    rm -r name_of_exported_directory
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