Multiple .ris into one folder

Hello everyone,
Quick question.
Everytime I tried to import an ris file, Zotero creates a new folder and imports into it.
Is there a way I can use only one folder and import several ris files into it?

TIA.
  • edited June 24, 2020
    It creates a folder when you include files, because it needs to keep the files separate. If you don't include files, it will just create a RIS file.
  • I think dstillman was reading this as export not import.
    On import, Zotero should ask you -- there's a "Place imported collections and items into a new collection" checkbox when you use File --> Import that's checked by default, are you not seeing that? If not, how exactly are you importing?
  • Oh, sorry, yes, I misread.
  • Thank you for both your replies.

    @adamsmith Yes I do see that. If I uncheck that, then the citations are imported into the "My library" collection. What I need is to import into a specific collection/folder. I did highlight the relevant collection/folder before I use File-->import but it still either creates a new collection or import into the main collection.

    A brief search in Google says it is possible to import directly into a specific collection by selecting the interested collection/folder first.

    What am I missing?
  • Right, that should be working but isn't currently for me either (5.0.88 on Windows). @dstillman does importing into existing collections work for you?

    FWIW, you can work around this by using import from Clipboard after selecting the content of a file (i.e. open in a text editor, ctrl+a, ctrl+c) and then using import from clipboard. That will import into the currently selected collection.
  • This isn't a bug, though it may not be the behavior we want. We used to always create a new collection in the library root for a file import. When we added the checkbox for creating a new collection in 2018, we made it add collections and items to the library root when deselected. Import from Clipboard imports into the selected collection, as you say.

    Worth noting that this is the same dialog used when importing from Mendeley, so if you unchecked the checkbox you could even import an entire Mendeley library and all its folders into the current selection, which may or may not be desired.

    I'm not sure what the expected behavior is here. If we did have it import into the current collection when deselected, what about when selected? Should the new collection also be added to the current collection, or should that still go in the library root? In that sense, the current behavior is consistent.

    For the maximum flexibility here, we could change the checkbox to a drop-down with "the library root", "the selected collection", "a new collection", but that might be excessive.
  • Thanks again.

    It would be highly useful to have the 'import into selected collection' feature in many cases. For example, for one project, I might have 2 collections from 2 sources, and it would be sensible to have them in one collection when imported. Another example is what I am doing now, searching through different databases and have multiple citation files. I want them all to be imported into one collection so it will be correctly organised.

    Perhaps, you dont need a drop-down but checkbox itself: when selected, creates a new collection, and when unselected, imports into the selected collection. All the data will go to the library root by default anyway right?
  • All the data will go to the library root by default anyway right?
    Yes, but the concern would be inadvertently adding all collections and items to the selected collection when that wasn't intended. Also see the consistency issue I note above.

    For what it's worth, another current workaround is just to import from a bunch of files, sort your library by Date Added, and drag the whole range of recently imported items into the collection where you want them.
  • Hello -

    (On a Mac, this is what I have experienced):

    METHODS of ADDING A .ris FILE

    1. Dragging a .ris file onto the Zotero app icon in the Launcher -> Zotero properly generates the reference item in the currently selected Collection in Zotero. Presumably this would also work for multiple items dragged simultaneously.

    2. Dragging the same .ris file into a Zotero collection directly, simply copies it as a file into the Collection. It would be great if this behaved the same way as dragging onto the Zotero app icon.

    3. Using the Import command works as discussed by others.


    Can the functionality of method #1 be adapted to methods #2 and #3 in Zotero?

    In the meanwhile, at least method #1 allows the desired result. Perhaps that helps, @vistanislaus?
  • 2. Dragging the same .ris file into a Zotero collection directly, simply copies it as a file into the Collection. It would be great if this behaved the same way as dragging onto the Zotero app icon.

    If you double click on the file copied in using this method it generates a reference - I successfully bulk dragged a load of .ris files into my collection, then double-clicked each to get the references and then deleted the useless copies . Lot quicker than the manual entry, one-by-one.
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