Create external link to open pdf within Zotero

smartsquare41
Hey all,

I think I have encountered links to open Zotero AND files within it from any external source, but I can't find it anymore. What I want to do is attach this link to summaries of papers I write, so the pdf is opened through Zotero when I click it.
Is this possible?
  • bwiernik
    Install the Zutilo plugin. It will add a Copy Zotero Select Link option to the right click menu. You can use this link to select the item in Zotero from your notes app.
  • adamsmith
    For files (or rather: PDFs), there is zotero://open-pdf/ , which is implemented by ZotFile. I don't think there is an option for this by Zotero proper.
  • bwiernik
    Zotero proper implemented an open pdf protocol a while back. Don’t remember if it’s the same syntax or not...
  • smartsquare41
    edited September 26, 2018
    Thanks for the replies guys. @bwiernik : the "Copy select item links" does almost what I want. It opens Zotero and selects the corresponding file. The link it creates is zotero://select/items/.

    @adamsmith : I already had ZotFile installed but I am unable to find this function. Changing the select-link to open-pdf does not work.

    Edit: when I extract annotations with ZotFile, links are created such as zotero://open-pdf/library/items/?page=. It works if I remove "?page=, but how to acquire these links more easily?
  • adamsmith
    Create a zotero select link for the attached file, not for the parent item, and that will give you the item id that you can use with open-pdf
  • smartsquare41
    edited September 27, 2018
    Amazing, that works! Thanks @adamsmith.

    So in summary, I use the "copy select item links" function from the Zotilo extension, and use this on a PDF item. This creates a link in the following form:

    zotero://select/items/[item ID]

    I then replace select/items with open-pdf, like so:

    zotero://open-pdf/[item ID]

    If I open that link from anywhere, it opens Zotero if that is not active, and the right PDF file in my preferred PDF reader.
  • bioed
    This is an extremely useful thread!

    Any suggestions on how to make my Windows to recognize that zotero:// is a hyperlink that should me made clickable in Office based processors and opened by the default browser?
  • bwiernik
    Select the text and then click the insert link button. It should either link-ify the existing text or open a dialog window where you can paste the text as the link to open (depending on what program and version you are using).
  • bioed
    @bwiernik thank you, that is the solution I also found. I was thinking something more fundamental that would make Windows/Office tools recognize the zotero:// is a hyperlink and autoformat it to the hyperlink automatically. There is a setting in MS Word to autoformat hyperlinks, but it only recognizes http, https, www. ... and so on. But this is probably a Microsoft forum question, not a Zotero :)
  • bwiernik
    Yeah, that would be a Microsoft question as to how to get it to auto-recognize links for other protocols (that’s what the part before the colon is called).
  • ashutoshsaboo
    This is a super useful thread!

    I was wondering, if is it possible to open remote pdf links (for example those hosted on Google Drive or on the web) directly with zotero's open-pdf/any alternative url-scheme by creating some sort of link structure? More specifically the scenario that i'm looking for is this: dummy pdf hosted here - https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tests/xhtml/testfiles/resources/pdf/dummy.pdf - when suffixed with "zotero://open-pdf/" (or any other url scheme that zotero supports) would open zotero directly and then load the PDF from the remote url in the default PDF viewer? I was wondering about this for configuring my iPad workflow, and open remote PDFs directly with the iOS app.

    Is this use-case possible @adamsmith with any alternatives?
  • Elwro
    Am I correct that the latest Zotero beta does not allow us to create PDF links? (The Zutilo option also seems not to work anymore -- the 'copy select item links' function creates links in my case just open the collection to which the entry belongs.)

    If we can create PDF links -- which would be super useful to my group since we could use them in our Word documents -- then how do we go about doing this? I'd be really grateful for any pointers!
  • mixer
    @Elwro
    I have the same problem as you. And I would also like to know how to easily access pdf files and create a "zotero://" links to them akin to links I am creating to the research articles.
  • adjen
    me too!
  • fusionmatt
    This item appears to have more than one question, the latest (also mine) appears unresolved: how to create a link I can send to others that opens the pdf of the citation on our group profile.
  • dstillman
    edited April 2, 2024
    @fusionmatt: If you're talking about the web library, I'm not seeing anyone asking that here, but you can just copy the URL in your address bar.

    Creating PDF links for the desktop app is explained above. (You'd need to use a different plugin for the Zotero 7 beta.)
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