Starting with PDF Open in Browser

ent3c
I think this is probably a very elementary question, thanks for the help. I understand how to create an item from an online citation using a translator; I can drag pdf links attached to gmail messages, or from pdf files already on my local hard drive.

But suppose I have followed a link to a pdf, and have the file open either within firefox or in an external reader, either Acrobat or something else (I like pdf-xchange viewer). What is the best route from there to save the pdf into Zotero, strip out the metadata and create an item?

Thanks,
Eric
  • Tjowens
    You can use the create new item from current page button to archive a copy of a PDF you are viewing in your browser. This might work slightly differently depending on the tool you are using to view the PDF in your browser, but it worked fine using the mac pdf viewer plugin for Firefox. If you archive a page like that you can then right click on it and run Zotero's retrieve PDF metadata function to generate an item from the PDF. It is good to remember that Zotero is not extracting data from your PDF, it is using Google Scholar to identify your document.

    With that said, you are probably better off finding a place, like the journal database where the PDF came from, and just using Zotero to slurp up the citation there. It shouldn't take much extra time and you are bound to get better metadata which will ultimately save you time.
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