New to Zotero - migrant from Mendeley
In frustration, I today migrated from Mendeley. Apart from not bbeing able to migrate my library, and not being able to scrape data from certain web sites, I now have a recurrent error in my first reference in my first document.
I have two different documents - the IPCC Special report and a Summary for Policy Makers. They are both referenced exactly the same way with a slight difference in title. When inserting the references into a new word document, Zotero only finds one of them. Zotero then adds a footnote on the page which I don't want. When I try to add a second reference in the same place there is no way to separate 1 and 2, so it looks like 12. When I try add the reference that it canot find with the search box, it says XZotery experienced an error
Really frustrating - makes Mendeley look good all of a sudden
I have two different documents - the IPCC Special report and a Summary for Policy Makers. They are both referenced exactly the same way with a slight difference in title. When inserting the references into a new word document, Zotero only finds one of them. Zotero then adds a footnote on the page which I don't want. When I try to add a second reference in the same place there is no way to separate 1 and 2, so it looks like 12. When I try add the reference that it canot find with the search box, it says XZotery experienced an error
Really frustrating - makes Mendeley look good all of a sudden
All in all, this sounds like quite a lot of misunderstanding of the basics of how Zotero works. We're happy to help you, but you may want to spend some time in the documentation, and you'll need to be a bit patient while to try to understand what you're even doing.
Let’s start at the beginning with importing from
Mendeley. What method did you use? Did you you the automatic method described here:
https://Zotero.org/support/kB/mendeley_import
Or did you export a file from Mendeley?
What exactly do you mean by “Apart from not bbeing able to migrate my library” What were you trying to do and what happened?
Can you answer my question above?
Getting stuff ourt off Mendeley is not Zotero's fault - it is, I gather, Mendeley's. So I didn't. I walked away from all the references there - It's ;arge;y old work and life is too short to sort that.
The web site `I can't scrape from is https://www.power-technology.com/features/record-breaking-solar-perovskites/. All I want to do is capture the URL and a snapshot, but when I press the little grey button NOTHING happens. If I right click it gives me some option, I choose, but again nothing. Other web sites (BBC) work fine.
My two references are almost identical, though I entered then I suspect in different ways. When I get the citation search box however only one shows up using the same search term. If I go to classic view they are both there (there are only 2 references in my new library!)
Then when I add a reference it creates a word footnote. I only want a bibliography but can't find how to stop footnote creation.
Finally, with one off the references I get the "Zotero experienced an error updating your document" error. But it is only 4 pages long and has only 1 reference.
Thanks and sorry again for grumpiness
For importing, note that, as an alternative to downgrading your database, you can always just export to one of the formats Mendeley supports (e.g., BibTeX) and import into Zotero. You'll just lose some of the data, such as folders, as discussed on our support page.
2 - the two docs are both reports. I downloaded both from the web. Initially I didn;'t understand that the reference and the document were separate, so I fiddled a bit - deleting, then creating a parent. However they are now PDFs under different parents with almost identical parent data save the name. Both have IPCC as the organisation, but it ffinds one and not the other.
3 - sorry missed the significance of the footnote response. I don't recall ever creating a footnote style - However when I go to the document preferences it forces either footnote or endnote style. I want neither - just a bibliography. I must be missing something.
4 - OK - found the error reporting - 1566711397
Many thanks for this - 10:00pm here and trying to get something ourt for tomorrow morning
How to I stop using a footnote or endnote - I can't see how I ever did that or how to stop it.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bda4f4hvq2snxtr/AACliXFtJzmNMVXXMEYRoAZba?dl=0
I'm not really sure what you're doing here, though. You wouldn't cite something with a title of "SR15_Full_Report_Low_Res.pdf". If Zotero doesn't automatically retrieve metadata for a PDF (which would be common for a random report without a DOI), you'd want to enter appropriate title/author/etc. info for the parent item.
Another perplexing thing - I found a couple of duplicates and want to merge them - but when I hit the merge option (see link in DB) nothing happens. Neither can I find a place where I can change or add authors? It's as if I am missing an entire screen off info about the reference.
Is there a manual anywhere I can work all this out from? (I am an old school guy - learnt coding in fortran and assembler with a manual almost 50 years ago).
View menu → Layout → Item Pane
last q if you have time tonight - how do I get a comma between reference numbers in the body of the text?
Mike
https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#citations_with_multiple_cited_items
Thank you both for your patience - bed now and miss tomorrow's deadline but tough!