Available for beta testing: Online Mendeley importer
In the latest Zotero beta we've added a new Mendeley importer that imports data directly from an online Mendeley library rather than a local database. This avoids the need to install an old version of Mendeley Desktop to work around the database encryption Mendeley added several years ago. Since that time, Mendeley has introduced Mendeley Reference Manager, which is essentially a wrapper around the web library without a real local database, further making any sort of local import infeasible.
If you use Mendeley Desktop, you'll need to make sure that all data and files have been synced to Mendeley servers before importing. (This was already necessary in order to sync with and import from the pre-encryption version of Mendeley Desktop.)
If you use Mendeley Reference Manager, your data and files are already all online.
To begin an import, go to File → Import within Zotero and choose the "Mendeley Reference Manager (online import)" option. You'll be asked to log in to Mendeley to allow Zotero to perform the import. Your Mendeley password is never seen or stored.
The importer is compatible with the existing local importer, so if you've added items to Mendeley since a previous import, you can import again using either tool and new items will be imported without duplicating existing items. The new importer also imports PDF annotations for use with Zotero's new PDF reader.
If you use Mendeley Desktop, you'll need to make sure that all data and files have been synced to Mendeley servers before importing. (This was already necessary in order to sync with and import from the pre-encryption version of Mendeley Desktop.)
If you use Mendeley Reference Manager, your data and files are already all online.
To begin an import, go to File → Import within Zotero and choose the "Mendeley Reference Manager (online import)" option. You'll be asked to log in to Mendeley to allow Zotero to perform the import. Your Mendeley password is never seen or stored.
The importer is compatible with the existing local importer, so if you've added items to Mendeley since a previous import, you can import again using either tool and new items will be imported without duplicating existing items. The new importer also imports PDF annotations for use with Zotero's new PDF reader.
I've just successfully imported my Mendeley library. When I open one of the PDF's that came from Mendeley in Zotero I can see my old highlighted text and annotations, however Zotero is unable to extract annotations from any of these imported PDF's. I have ZotFile and Mdnotes for Zotero active and have not had issues doing this with PDF'sI've edited in other software.
Thanks.
Also, my Mendeley online import to Zotero has been going on for over 6 hours (Mendeley library is quite large--7.52 Gigabytes..!). Is it possible to stop the import for now and come back to it after rebooting my computer, redo the online import without duplicating items?
I downloaded the latest beta for Ubuntu but the option "Mendeley Reference Manager (online import)" doesn't show up when I select import. The only options are "file" and "Mendeley" (which then asks for a local Mendeley database).
Could anyone help me please and tell me what I am doing wrong?
You can download latest beta build from here.
Highlight Colors
I used highlighting extensively in Mendeley while working on my dissertation. Each color means something specifc: strong/weak evidence for my thesis; strong/weak evidence against; text cited; text quoted). It and Zotero both support five colors (yellow, red, green, blue, purple), but Mendeley also supports orange, pink and gray. Five colors is not enough to meet my needs.
Fortunately, I was surprised to see that the importer preserved my orange highlights! Maybe it preserved pink and gray, I'm still looking. It would be great if an upcoming version of Zotero supported highlighting in these (or other) additional colors. If not, maybe there is a different way in Zotero to accomplish the same thing?
Bump for more colors, though :-)