How to copy Title and page using Quick copy

bnpwalter
I would like to be able to use Quick Copy to copy highlighted text from Zotero into Scrivener. It works fine however the text is followed by (Author,date,p.#) and I would like the text to be followed by (Title, p.#)

I'm not XML code savy. Tried editing the Chicago csl style per:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/61125/new-style-request-title-first-then-authors-etc

hoping that would work but unfortunately it didn't.

Is there a way to make this happen?


  • bnpwalter
    OK. I discovered through trial and error how to do this.

    Simply type the "Title (comma) Author" in the Author edit box.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/qzp1x6do84cb5mcebi6k.jpg
  • adamsmith
    Well, but that will make your citations incorrect if you ever need a bibliography created from Zotero...
  • bnpwalter
    Correct.

    I don't use Zotero to make bibliographies or for academic publishing purposes. I use it for delivering lectures and presentations. I can easily point out the source and page when questioned.

    I suppose one could "Find and Replace" or tediously delete the "Titles" in a word processor to correct bibliographies if one was so inclined.

    For my purposes it would be a Feature Request option that would allow one to toggle adding the document's "Title" to the citation when using "Quick Copy" and NOT mess up a bibliography should one need that.
  • adamsmith
    It's not really a feature request, you just need the right style. Just having the title is of course pretty unusual (authors are pretty universally included), so you'd have to create a custom version, but it's not hard in this case. E.g. using the Chicago (note) style, change the citation section to
    <citation et-al-min="4" et-al-use-first="1" disambiguate-add-names="true">
    <layout suffix="." delimiter="; ">
    <text macro="title"/>
    </layout>
    </citation>

    (see https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step for general instructions). You can modify title to title-short for using the short title as available.
  • bnpwalter
    I changed the Chicago (note) csl title to: Chicago manual of Style 17th edition (note) Modified.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/bd15co37k1dzvno5qlai.png

    then, replaced the citation section with the citation section you recommended.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/alt7qquohso2o3tuyjr9.png

    When I "Quick Copy" an annotation into Scrivener the "Title" does not appear. Only the "Author" and "page#" appear as a hyperlink.

    This is the same result I got when I modified the .csl per bwiernik's recommendation via. https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/61125/new-style-request-title-first-then-authors-etc.

    So, either I'm doing something incorrectly or there is something in the "Quick Copy" programming that avoids adding the "Title" when it copy/paste's into a word processor.

    What do you think?
  • adamsmith
    did you set your modified style as the quick copy format (under Export)?
  • bnpwalter
    Yes. Unsuccessful.
  • adamsmith
    could you provide a citation output by Quick Copy? As well as screenshots of the item in Zotero (right-hand "Info" pane) and of the Quick Copy settings in the Zotero preferences?
  • bnpwalter

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/g2g9gwko06w3a3enb79d.png

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/0g5x03p3gmc1nlu8pps2.png

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/7ly5r8yy9y2944fnklc3.png

    As you can see the Title is missing.
  • adamsmith
    That's copied text from a note..That's not what quick copy refers to.
  • dstillman
    edited May 3, 2025
    That's still technically Quick Copy — there's a Note Format section in the Quick Copy settings that controls the data type and links when copying annotations from the reader — but the citation format isn't currently configurable. It's just a generic author-date format.
  • bnpwalter
    Thank you for explaining that.

    Of the programs I've researched, Zotero with its Quick Copy feature is the best solution to my needs. PDF editors/readers like Adobe Reader, PDFelement Pro, PdfGear, etc. do not index PDFs and lack a Drag & Drop feature. Obsidian (with its PDF++ plugin) and Scrivener both index PDFs and Drag & Drop text selections. None of the above however automatically cite source and page numbers as Zotero does.

    The ability to Drag & Drop text selections with Title, Author, Page numbers is a great time saver for me. It allows me to focus on thinking rather than taking time (albeit small) to type the Title and Page # each time. These seemingly small interruptions that defocus my attention add up.

    One solution to creating bibliographies using my "unconventional method" of adding the Title to the Author edit box of the Info pane might be to create profiles for work that requires bibliographies and one that works with Quick Copy that includes Title,Author,and Page#. I haven't quite thought through how this workflow would work.

    In any case, I would love if Zotero added a feature to Quick Copy that allowed the citation format to be configurable rather than the current generic author-date format.
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