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
  • Apart from not bbeing able to migrate my library
    You understand that's explicitly not our fault, right?
    not being able to scrape data from certain web sites
    Zotero should save high-quality data from far more websites than Mendeley. If you're not getting it somewhere you expect, start a new thread and provide an example URL.
    When inserting the references into a new word document, Zotero only finds one of them.
    I'm not sure what you mean by that. The citation dialog (with a red bar) is just a search of your local library. Anything in your library will show up.
    Zotero then adds a footnote on the page which I don't want.
    If Zotero is adding a footnote, you selected a footnote style when you first inserted a Zotero citation into the document. If you don't want a footnote, choose an in-text style — either numeric or author-date — from the plugin's Document Preferences window. Zotero and Mendeley have the exact same styles, so I'm not sure why you'd be confused by this.
    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.
    If you're trying to insert multiple citations in the same place, you just do that from the citation dialog itself. You can add another citation to an existing citation by clicking on an existing citation and clicking Add/Edit Citation.
    When I try add the reference that it canot find with the search box, it says XZotery experienced an error
    I don't know what you mean by that. How are you trying to add a reference if you can't find it in the search box?

    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.
  • I understand that you are frustrated, but it will be helpful to take a step back and calmly work through each problem in turn.

    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?
  • Should have ended - can anyone give me a clue as to what I am missing. Thanks in Advance.
  • Let’s solve your import issue first, then move on to the saving and document issues.

    Can you answer my question above?
  • Thanks, Not sure how to reply in line and sorry to have sounded cross but I have wasted my entire day on this (and mendeley).

    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
  • Don't worry about the import - it is the least of my worries. I believe I have to downgrade to Mendeley v18 to do that - but too complex and Mendeley now takes an hour doing something - chasing an ever increasing number of tasks (got to 40,000) so there is clearly something amoss there. I will later import the pdfs and I hope Zotero can just extract the metadata.
  • 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.
    The button should be blue there, not gray, and when you hover over it it should say "Save to Zotero (Embedded Metadata)". If you're seeing something different, try just reloading the page. In general, see Troubleshooting Translator Errors. That page saves fine in general.
    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.
    You'd have to be more specific — what are you searching for and how are they entered in Zotero? Again, though, it's just a basic search of your database. Any word from the title should cause it to show up.
    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.
    I answered this above.
    Finally, with one off the references I get the "Zotero experienced an error updating your document" error.
    We'd want to see a Report ID for that, but you didn't answer my question. How are you inserting the reference if it doesn't show up in the citation dialog?

    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.
  • 1 - Weird - I refreshed and it went blue.
    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
  • 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.
    The citation dialog searches title, creator, and year, not all fields. I assume only one mentions "IPCC" in the title.
    sorry missed the significance of the footnote response. I don't recall ever creating a footnote style
    No, it's not something you created. We're just talking about citation styles here — APA, Chicago, IEEE, etc. Mendeley and Zotero use the same ones. If you select a note-based style rather than an in-text style, it's only going to give Footnote and Endnote as options. This doesn't really have anything to do with Zotero. You're just asking it to use a note-based style, and that's what it's doing.
    OK - found the error reporting - 1566711397
    You still didn't answer my question. What exactly are you doing that's triggering this?
  • Sorry about not answering the question. I was simply trying to insert a reference - Can I upload some screenshots somehow. The two refrences look identical except for a few letters in the titles. However Zotero gives me either completely different reference text in the bibliography, or that error.

    How to I stop using a footnote or endnote - I can't see how I ever did that or how to stop it.
  • OK forget the note issue - mea culpa. I have never seen or used note based styles before, and missed the small ord (note) after them.
  • Can I upload some screenshots somehow.
    You can upload screenshots to Dropbox or similar and provide links here.
  • You didn't get that reference from that item. You got it from another item in your library.

    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.
  • Thanks. You were right - it was lurking in my library not in the folder. Caused by me making a mess of importing the original docs.

    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).

  • You closed the right-hand pane — the main info pane.

    View menu → Layout → Item Pane
  • Thank you so much for the assistance. I'm sure it's all obvious when you know what exists and how it works, but not so easy to just work it out from what you see on the screen. A manual sure would be really helpful.

    last q if you have time tonight - how do I get a comma between reference numbers in the body of the text?

    Mike
  • A manual sure would be really helpful.
    Again, there's extensive documentation on this site, which I linked to above.
    last q if you have time tonight - how do I get a comma between reference numbers in the body of the text?
    I answered this above. That's determined by the style, but you need to insert the citation properly as a multi-item citation.
  • But surely there is a way of editing or consolidating citations after you have entered them. You often (or rather I often) don't know everything I want to cite and the list changes. The documentation seems to suggest you have to do it all in one go. That's the real question.
  • edited June 3, 2020
    Select the citation in your document and click the Zotero Add/Edit Citation icon in your Zotero toolbar. This will bring-up the citation picker dialog box and you can then add additional citations or remove an existing one.
  • edited June 3, 2020
    But surely there is a way of editing or consolidating citations after you have entered them.
    I explained how to do that in my very first response to you above. There's no difference between adding and editing — you're just clicking Add/Edit Citation to bring up the same dialog.
  • I must be completely thick - but if I try to add a third citation to a previously created muti-citation I get the effect shown in the DB link. Sorry - I'm extremely tired, but I have tried all these things and seem to be missing something
  • Thanks DWL - I was selecting the citation but not the entire thing - just putting the cursor where I wanted to add.

    Thank you both for your patience - bed now and miss tomorrow's deadline but tough!
  • You need to put the cursor within the citation before clicking Add/Edit Citation to edit it. For a numeric in-text citation where there's only a single number, you need to put the cursor immediately next to the number.
  • edited June 3, 2020
    In your document, click on the citation you want to change so that it is selected. Then click the Add/Edit citation button. This will produce the Add/Edit citation dialog box where you may add additional citation(s). No, not thick. This is one of those Zotero things that people can use and think 'this is too easy, I must be doing something wrong'.
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