Is it okay to use Zotero for a file I'm actively editing?

Jotaf · December 2, 2009

I'm thinking mostly about a document that's edited with an external program when opened (don't worry, it's not Word -- I know and use Zotero's rich text notes!). Since Zotero syncs files, it would be useful to me; although I'm worried it may result in corruption of the file. Is this legal, if so are there any caveats?

dstillman · December 2, 2009

If the file isn't modified remotely, it should be fine to do this, but specifics might vary based on the program and your OS, so you'd want to test it out.

Jotaf · December 3, 2009

So Zotero is capable of detecting which files are modified in the system, and sync them automatically? I suppose that the "conflict resolution" panel would pop up if files are edited in two places without syncing, which should be avoided anyway; I'm not worried about that. What's important for me to know is if Zotero will detect and upload files modified by external applications (ie, check modified dates, set a file watch hook...).

If you make a bookmark in a PDF file (both acrobat and foxit allow this) the same thing would happen (external modification of files) so I'd like some more info on how safe this would be, at least in theory.

I'm pretty sure the programs don't make any edits without going through the regular procedure of updating modified dates and the like; I'm using Windows XP by the way.