ipad app is urgently needed

pinpint
Hi everyone,

I appreciate Zotero, I really do. I used Mendeley and EndNote before and Zotero is way beyond both of them in my opinion, especially in terms of fast syncing and being an open-source platform.
But I really really need an iPad app for Zotero. I recently bought an iPad exclusively for reading and annotating articles. And the most convenient way of doing it is doing it in the same platform that I already use to categorize and store all my references and pdfs, which is Zotero.
I have been trying every solution (from Papership to switching to Mendeley or EndNote) and none of them worked. I cannot express enough how much this whole issue slows my process down.

I would love to hear that an iPad app is coming soon, but if not, could you please give me any other suggestions that would work as a citation manager and a pdf annotator that would sync across devices?

Thank you in advance.
  • bwiernik
    An iPad app is currently in development.

    For now, I recommend using Zotfile with Zotero. Zotfile has a "Send to Tablet" feature to send PDFs to a cloud storage folder, which you can sync with your iPad.
  • pinpint
    Thank you. I followed the steps here: http://zotfile.com/#how-to-install--set-up-zotfile
    But still, when I right click my Zotero files to send them to my tablet the Notability App does not seem to recognize them immediately. Instead I need to import them from Dropbox manually.
    Any ideas on how to solve this?
  • bwiernik
    I don’t know if Notability has two-way syncing with Dropbox. But I don’t recommend it in any event because it uses a non-standard annotation system. You wouldn’t be able to extract and search your notes into Zotero afterward.

    I recommend GoodReader, Apple Books, or Adobe Acrobat. Each of these has two-way syncing with one or more cloud drives.
  • pinpint
    Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check them out.
  • herricjb
    I don't see "Zotfile" as an available app in the Apple Store :-(
  • dstillman
    ZotFile is a Zotero plugin, not an app.

    http://zotfile.com/
  • babette888
    What about cite while you write facility on the iPad?
  • stjepanovic
    @babette888, that's a technical limitation at Apple's end. You can't CWYW with anything, including their own word processor.
  • danieltomasz
    edited June 29, 2020
    For Ipad annotation PDF Expert is also really good. Is there any estimate for Ipad Beta (even for testing on a test flight?) It will be released during Q3 or Q4 2020 or there is even longer time horizon? Is there a way to financially support development for Ipad?
  • Chris Benedict
    Yeah I agree with all said here, especially as the Apple increases the power of devices like the iPad Pro. If there is anyway I can financially contribute to this, please someone let me know.
  • jeremyvancleve
    edited June 30, 2020
    Similar to @danieltomasz, I think PDF Expert is pretty good since its easy to "sync" PDFs from Dropbox.

    I also agree with Chris Benedict that the Zotero community would gladly help fund iOS app development
  • VVMuller
    Can anyone advise when an iPad app will be available please? If it is imminent, I shall hold off on investing on one of the recommended apps like PDF Expert or GoodReader.
  • xz1744
    Papership can sync Zotero library and is free.
  • thinkround
    I second Papership as a great option, it has decent annotation features as well. Works with Zotero and Mendeley. Great for reading and annotating the pdfs in your collection, but less ideal for adding new items.

    What has been your issue with Papership @pinpint ?
  • hwileniu
    Papership is abandonware, as far as I am aware, and Zotero support was never their main focus. It's been years since I tried it, so I don't remember all the details, but I think they didn't support attachments or notes, or did it only partially.

    For annotation, I second the recommendation for ZotFile's send to tablet functionality.

    For searches and notes, in a pinch, I've use the library web frontend at https://www.zotero.org/, but I'm waiting for an iPad client like all the others...
  • pinpint
    edited August 12, 2020
    @thinkround
    I guess my issue was because I don't have cloud storage for Zotero :)
    All my references are saved to Papership, however, I cannot open pdf files.

    @bwiernik
    I tried ZotFile, by the way. It is good in the sense that I can directly send pdfs to my cloud accounts from Zotero. Downsides are: could not retrieve my annotations (from Adobe Acrobat), and I could not yet manage to form automated subfolders based on my existing collections in Zotero.

  • bwiernik
    You can definitely extract annotations from Acrobat. In Zotero, after you run Retrieve from Tablet, right click on the item and choose Manage Attachment -> Extract Annotations (I believe that you can set these to automatically be extracted when you run Retrieve from Tablet).
  • thinkround
    @hwileniu I only just discovered that Papership is abandonware yesterday... syncing with group libraries did not work for me. Oh well. Zotfile seems quite alright.
  • pinpint
    edited August 12, 2020
    @bwiernik
    Well, that's good news. :) I tried and it works fine, thanks.
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