Contact a live Zotero support person

mmuller
Help!! Is there a way I can have a telephone number so I can talk with a live Zotero support person. I can't get started.
thanks,
Madeline Muller
  • mark
    Could you try to describe the problem you're having?
    What did you do, do you use Windows or Mac, have you used Zotero before?
  • ajlyon
    Madeline,

    Since Zotero is a free, open source project, it doesn't have the resources to provide phone support for its users. This forum is the main place people come for support, but if you'd like in-person support, you might want to try resources within your institution. Many libraries have come to embrace Zotero, and they may have technical support or reference staff who can introduce you to the software.

    But as mark said above, just post your questions here and we (the forum users) will try to help you as best we can.
  • mmuller
    I use a windows platform and have not used Zotero before. When I try to sync I pressed preferences then sync. there is no drop down menu. There is also no drop down menu for all of the other tabs such as general.
  • arggem
    Just to verify the obvious.

    1. You are using Firefox and
    2. have successfully installed Zotero?

    If so, have you actually entered any documents?
  • dstillman
    What drop-down menu are you referring to? What are you expecting? You'll need to provide a lot more information:

    http://www.zotero.org/documentation/reporting_bugs
  • mmuller
    I am using Firefox
    I think I have successfully installed Zotero
    How do I enter documents?

    I saw a drop down menu in the video tutorial
  • dstillman
    edited December 14, 2009
    We can't help you unless you actually explain what you're trying to do. From the page I linked to above:
    Post a message to the forums with the exact steps you took to reproduce the problem (or, if you're not able to, with what you were doing when the problem first occurred), what happened, and what you expected to happen. Be sure to list, in order, any buttons or other interface elements that you clicked on, and include exact error messages or other relevant text that you see on-screen. If you aren't able to include a Report ID, it's also helpful to mention your Zotero version, Firefox version, and operating system.
  • ajlyon
    How do I enter documents?
    First, click on the Zotero icon in the bottom-right corner of your Firefox window. Then click the (+) icon in top row of the panel that opens. Select the type of document you need, then fill in the fields that appear in the right section of the panel.

    If you have looked up the documents you need on a website, you may see a little icon on the right end of the address bar; if you click that icon, Zotero will try to save the bibliographic information for the item you are looking at in Zotero.

    Try adding some documents using these two methods, and explore the interface. To organize your documents, you may want to create collections, using the (+folder) icon at the top-right corner of the Zotero panel. You can then drag items from your main library "My Library" into these collections.

    Start working with the software and collecting items of interest-- the interface takes some getting used to, but the Zotero developers have worked hard to make it intuitive. If you run into specific issues after playing with the software, follow Dan's advice above and explain what happened in detail.
  • mark
    Madeline, for illustrations going with ajlyon's helpful description above, see the page Getting stuff into your library.
  • Nuckols
    I had problems for awhile and couldn't figure out how to use the site at all until I realized that I had to click on the word "zotero" on the bottom right of my firefox window to even use the program, view up the things I was saving, edit preferences, etc. I had thought that it all would automatically be saved to my "library."

    Maybe it's me, but I think this should probably be a little bit more explicit in the help tutorials for us old folks who are a little behind on the fancy technology and just need the most obvious things explained :)
  • cbccin
    I would like to be able to sync my hard-copies of books, articles, documents, cds, etc., with their bibliographic record in Zotero. In the past, bibliographic programs (like Papyrus) used to provide the unique numerical identifier for the record (not the ISBN, call no., etc.), which I then used to number the item and place in numerical order in either a file cabinet or bookshelf. Makes everything easy to find and easy to physically refile correctly after use! Is it possible to view the unique identifier Zotero assigns to each record so that I can use the program to locate items in my physical library?
    Thanks for any help!
  • dstillman
    cbccin: 1) This isn't related to this thread. 2) This has been asked quite a few times before. Please search the forums for relevant discussions. If you can't find a relevant thread, start a new one.
  • colleenEccles
    I think its very frustrating getting started without a simple tutorial - it really is not easy to work through the basics - I have been hours and hours and still feel frustrated. I have watched the videos and read all the words but they still are not basic enough - also there is alot of jargon and I dont understand it - maybe its because I from the UK? I simply want to create a bibliography for a Doctoral thesis and thought using this would be easy.
  • ajlyon
    Colleen:
    Please take a look at my comments above, as well as the pictorial depictions of adding items at Getting stuff into your library, which Mark noted above. If you still find this confusing, then post what you've tried to do and we'll try to help out. I would like to encourage you and anyone else to also look into the availability of resources within your institution; departmental technical support staff and library staff may be able to help.

    On a related note, I wonder if Zotero would benefit from local users' groups, a la TUGs, LUGs, and MUGs. For many people, there won't ever be a screencast clear enough to make Zotero make sense; they need a real person to explain and troubleshoot in person.
  • wonderpup
    I work supporting students in an academic environment, and bibliographical managers are very hard to show people how to use because they rely on people knowing having anidea of bibliography and research methods to begin with. What I'm trying to say is (and I'm not sure about this specific case) is you need to show people about Zotero as part of a larger research skills framework. The manager is such a small (yet keenly integral) part of the whole process.

    Even as a seasoned geek, if I wasn't writing essays and a dissertation, I'd find the whole bibliographic manager concept a bit bewildering. You need to start at the start (the research question) then move onto finding stuff (catalogues and databases) documenting it (zotero) and then finally writing and referencing (word processors + zotero). And all the other stuff!

    I think the advice on finding a friendly local zotero user to guide you through the process is really Colleen's best bet for making progress with this. Colleen: have you tried your local IT HelpDesk for your institution?
  • ajlyon
    wonderpup:
    I don't know Colleen's situation in particular, but I imagine there are plenty of seasoned researchers who understand how to do research-- what they need is an introduction to migrating from their card file or other previous system. Academic in such a position are unlikely to be interested in someone teaching them "research skills."

    There is certainly room for improvement in the user documentation for Zotero, and I hope we can identify what the roadblocks are for new users and improve documentation in those areas.

    Finally, might it be possible to create a list of local Zotero community support people at institutions on the Zotero site? This could include university offices that support Zotero as well as individuals who have expressed their willingness to help colleagues.
  • adamsmith
    Colleen mentions he's writing a doctoral dissertation - I'd expect him to have a good idea about the research process (though in general I think wonderpup's point is well taken).
    I have to say that everyone I have talked to and showed Zotero so far has enjoyed how intuitive it is. I think the getting started page is great and the screencasts are very good for beginners (though they should probably be updated at some point).
    I don't think beginners being totally lost is a rampant issue (the ratio of "I started using Zotero today and am totally blown away" to "I started Zotero today and don't undertand anything" feels like 20:1), but I'm perfectly happy to help to improve documentation.

    But for that we'd have to know where people are struggling and except for Nuckols above I have heard very little specific issues mentioned by people who fail at Zotero basics.
  • bdarcus
    Ahem, Colleen would typically be a "she" ;-)

    On the content, I experimented with using Zotero in my grad seminar this past term. In general, people didn't struggle with the basics (getting started grabbing citation data and such). But some did struggle a bit with the groups functionality, and only a couple ventured into installing the plug-in and using it for their papers.
  • fbennett
    Students in our MA program seem to have taken to Zotero with a will. Most come to us from careers in education or government, and some face environments where network access is restricted, closely monitored, or even banned. Partly because most are looking at careers as document-intensive researchers, Zotero has plenty of selling points for them (freely available, supported in the latest version, library content accessible without network access, and plans for multilingual support). The "pull" factors seem to have been sufficient to overcome any hiccups in the early going.
  • sean
    I'm going to go ahead and close this thread for two reasons:

    1) colleenEccles has already posted the same problem elsewhere.

    2) We're not offering live technical support at this time.

    Before closing it out, though, I will add my thoughts to ajlyon's, fbennett's, adamsmith's, and bdarcus's insightful comments. Research management software of any kind is not a panacea, and users will always need to have some sense of the practices of conducting research. Users will also need to have a basic grasp of word processing and web-based technologies, though our forum contributors are incredibly helpful resolving even very mundane technical issues unrelated to Zotero.

    While of course I believe that Zotero better meets the needs of today's researchers than does competing software, I'm also well aware that the majority of scholars don't use ANY such software, particularly in the humanities. It's heartening to encounter people like colleenEccles who are taking the plunge, and I hope that we can address her concerns satisfactorily. So colleenEccles, please let us know, as specifically as possible, what's not working for you.
This discussion has been closed.