Preview Citation
I'm new to Zotero. So far I really love it, but I miss a PreviewWindow, which shows how the Citation will appear in the Bibliography.
Is there an easy way for this?
Is there an easy way for this?
For my workflow, I usually try to check the Citation after the Import/Edit immediately, to keep the library and its citations clean. Otherwise I collect more inconsitancy within the library - like: with one Citation I have the edition with an other one not, etc.
For that it would be perfect if the Style preview would be integreated in the Interface (like in Evernote)
How do you keep you library clean without previewing after the Import? Did I miss sth?
I either scan the info tab in the right pane, or create a saved search to find items that need to be fixed. For example, I recently search for items without abstract. The advanced search is the magnifier glass icon in the top horizontal bar.
https://www.zotero.org/support/searching
For abstract, I used the "Abstract" "does not contain" and then "a" or "e", since those are the most common alphabets. Not sure if there is a better way to just search if a field is blank or missing.
And I totally agree, a formatted summary view and/or a citation preview would be great when Zotero moves the new platform.
My workflow does not need style preview until I have to decide what style to use for a particular job, and for that the current style preview is just fine. So, I am curious what work flow would require style preview to be in the right-pane? What purpose does that serve? I agree it is nice to have it if needed, just not seeing a workflow where it is really useful.
The alternative would be to create a single pseudo citation style for display -- I think that's what Papers is doing. I'm not sure which is better, but I think the current info pane is pretty poorly suited to quickly show relevant information.
(and I would love to see more formatted citations, both for checking item metadata and when selecting styles)
I only use APA 6th ed, so using the suggestion by Gracile (Zotero Preferences -> Cite pane -> at the bottom of the Styles pane, there's a "Style preview" button) is too many steps just to see how it looks in APA.
Zotero seems to be hobbled by a ridiculously unfriendly Ux for citation previews. I generally need to make use of this 10 to 20 times a day. Many academics require rapid access to formatted citations in a cut-and-paste context (e.g., pasting into email, notepads, journals, etc.) Many of the applications I use do not have Zotero integration (e.g., my command line email client, my custom academic journal database, etc.). Other reference managers (e.g., Bibdesk, KBibTex, etc.) provide a pane on the main window displaying the selection citations in the selected format ready for cut-and-paste. By contrast Zotero demands one move the pointer (no keyboard shortcut) to select Edit > Preferences > Cite > Style Preview and then one has to navigate to a specific citation style in order to cut and paste.
https://www.zotero.org/support/creating_bibliographies#quick_copy
(it's main use, imo, it's that it provides a quicker overview of key metadata):
It adds a tab to the item details after "Related", called "Preview" which previews the citation.
This should be listed in the plugins page: https://www.zotero.org/support/plugins
I often work with items of less-common types and which have to be manually entered. And I need to cite in a variety of journal-specific styles, not all of which always have good support for more exotic item types. So it's very useful to be able to have immediate feedback on how an item is performing while I'm inputting information, so I can check that I'm remembering the right places to put info and that I'm not setting myself up for bibliographic headaches down the line.
I also agree that a formatted citation is more readable and familiar for many people, and can be very convenient for copy/paste. I use my QuickCopy for BetterBibTeX citation keys, so it's not helpful to me for copy/pasting a formatted citation into an email or other ad hoc scenario. And there are often cases where I want to quickly choose a particular format just for those ad hoc situations (e.g., grab a citation for one of my exotic items in a citation style which I know supports it, but which I do not typically otherwise use).
Now, I use scannable cite as my default format (for Scrivener integration), which means the preview doesn't work:
"No bibliography style is choosen [sic] in the settings for QuickCopy."
Bummer for me because it's a great addition otherwise.
I agree with @ventolinmono that it should be included in the Plugins for Zotero page.
@dcartertod - any chance of a mod that does this: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/89263/feature-request-a-toggle-button-to-condense-the-item-pane-view-to-exclude-empty-fields ?