Available for beta testing: zotero:// link options for Quick Copy

edited October 27, 2022
In the latest Zotero beta, we've added Quick Copy options for zotero:// links, allowing the links to be disabled for Markdown and enabled for Rich Text/HTML. "Include Zotero Links" is also now available for HTML note export.

Previously, Markdown Quick Copy always included links, but many people copy to Obsidian, which accepts rich text by default, and that led some people to think that the Markdown output wasn't properly including links when really they were just pasting rich text. If you don't want to change your Obsidian settings or hold down Shift when pasting to force Obsidian to use the plain text, you can now just enable links for rich-text Quick Copy. Same for Word, Scrivener, Apple Notes, etc.

For now there's a single link option for each Quick Copy mode, similar to what was available for Markdown when using Export Note, but we'll be adding more granular options (e.g., control over each of the two default links for annotations) in a future version.

This will be included in Zotero 6.0.16 soon.
  • edited October 26, 2022
    [A couple troubleshooting posts removed]
  • It worked, thank you very much.
    It really improves a lot the integration of Zotero with other note taking apps.

    I could transfer to Obsidian or Evernote by:
    - Drag and drop (or Ctrl+Shift+C > Ctrl+V ) a note with annotations
    - Drag and drop the annotations directly from the Zotero PDF Reader
    - Copy (Ctrl+C) - Paste (Ctrl+v) annotations from the Zotero PDF Reader

    But:
    - If I Copy (Ctrl+C) - Paste (Ctrl+v) the annotation from the note, I only get the text of the annotation. I am not sure if it should also carry the links? The Ctrl+Shift+C > Ctrl+V behaviour still copies the whole note, even when some text is selected.
    - If I want to get the back link to an item in my library when transferring to another app, I still need to get the link to a Zotero note first, and then transfer the whole note to the target app. I cannot get it directly, or select only that link from the note.
    - If I drag and drop an item into a note, I get a citation with back link. But if I do the same to an external note taking app, I get the Bibliography information. I find it confusing. I would expect to get the same everywhere.
    - I am a bit confused also at what is the Quick Copy doing. It seems that Quick Copy of an item is controlled by the translators listed in the "Item Format" section of the preferences, and the Notes/Annotations controlled by the Note Templates. And that Quick Copy Ctrl+Shift+C is doing the same as drag and drop... With the exception of the previous point, when doing drag and drop of an item into a Zotero note. I was hoping that Quick Copy of notes and items from the library would be more consistent.

    The new functionality seems to be blocked by the Better BibTeX add-on. I will report to its GitHub.
    [JavaScript Error: "Translator has no doExport function" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translate/src/translation/translate.js" line: 1337}]
    [JavaScript Error: "Code promise is not resolved in noWait mode" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translate/src/translation/translate.js" line: 1798}]
    [JavaScript Error: "this._translatorInfo is null" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translate/src/translation/translate.js" line: 2506}]
    [JavaScript Error: "Translator has no doExport function" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translate/src/translation/translate.js" line: 1337}]

    Debug ID: D1733820861
  • Zotero links are fantastic!
    I would love an option to just directly copy the link to the annotation or page of the document. I often add the hyperlink to another program like OneNote or Word over my own text, so I can rapidly refer back to the original text wherever necessary. At the moment I have been using the work-around of pasting the annotation as plain text into a notepad document so I can extract that annotation URL. The item URI is not so useful (copied via the Zutilo plug-in), as I have tens of thousands of documents, it takes a while to take me to the item in my main collection that I don't want to be in - I want to get to the specified page.
  • edited November 1, 2022
    From mjthoraval

    "But if I do the same to an external note taking app, I get the Bibliography information." -> I am experimenting the same behaviour. Would be nice to drag and drop to libreoffice with Zotero links.

    "The new functionality seems to be blocked by the Better BibTeX add-on. I will report to its GitHub." -> I got a similar problem, to my knowledge a similar issue has been reported in Github some times ago https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/issues/2155 and Zotero forum https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/98245/dragging-articles-to-collections-is-slow/p1

    Hoping the best for what comes next!
  • This was and is still related to BBT translators not being loaded in noWait mode. I have no idea what that means or how to avoid it.
  • This is now available in Zotero 6.0.16.

    @mjthoraval:
    If I Copy (Ctrl+C) - Paste (Ctrl+v) the annotation from the note, I only get the text of the annotation. I am not sure if it should also carry the links?
    It's supposed to include the links if a full annotation or citation is selected, and does for Markdown, but that doesn't seem to be working at the moment for rich-text mode. We'll fix that. Partial selections would copy regular text.
    If I want to get the back link to an item in my library when transferring to another app, I still need to get the link to a Zotero note first, and then transfer the whole note to the target app. I cannot get it directly, or select only that link from the note.
    And @rhysie21:
    I would love an option to just directly copy the link to the annotation or page of the document.
    Zotero has never supported direct copying of zotero:// links for items before — only plugins have — but now that we're including these in exported notes, it probably makes sense for us to add support for it. We'll think about how best to do that.

    For the rest:
    If I drag and drop an item into a note, I get a citation with back link. But if I do the same to an external note taking app, I get the Bibliography information. I find it confusing. I would expect to get the same everywhere.
    I was hoping that Quick Copy of notes and items from the library would be more consistent.
    The consistency is that you get the default behavior that makes the most sense for what you're doing. Zotero has automatically generated bibliography entries when dragging one or more items to an external text field forever — it's a signature, well-loved feature of Zotero and one that we're certainly not going to change. But that makes no sense in a Zotero note, where most people don't need flat bibliography entries but where live citations that dynamically link back to the item and that can remain active Zotero citations in a word processor document are much more useful.
  • Thank you very much for the explanations.
    And thanks a lot to the team for all these new features.
  • edited November 17, 2022
    @dstillman

    "Zotero has never supported direct copying of zotero:// links for items before — only plugins have — but now that we're including these in exported notes, it probably makes sense for us to add support for it. We'll think about how best to do that."

    +1 This would be fantastic. Copying the extracted comments to Word and then being able to Ctrl+Click to jump right into the original document was a very helpful part of my prior ZotFile workflow for annotated bibliographies.
  • @internationaled

    +1 Yes that would be great. Whenever I write down some notes in my own words and I want to have a link to refer back to where I got it from, it would be nice to have a link only version of the citation quick copy. Cause everytime I drag it over for the link, I have to get rid of the text that I already reworded.
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