itemkey visibility

Dear all,
how can I see the itemkeys of the articles in Zotero Desktop?
Thanks.
Fabio
  • edited April 19, 2025
    The technical keys? It's baroque, but with the better bibtex plugin you can use "item" as the citekey formula and that will show the keys.
  • Thanks, but it's a bit cumbersome. I'd like to see the code of the various items at a glance. If I use the 'search' field at the top right and enter an item key, I can find the article, but I don't see the itemkey in the info on the right or in the columns.
  • edited April 15, 2025
    You can see them at a glance. You can add the citation key column to the item list and BBT adds the key to the item detail screen.
  • Thanks, but it only works partially. With the plugin, I can add the citation key column, but I'm getting a strange result: the first 29 keys are numbers like 11577_3258419 and a red pin instead of the expected alphanumeric codes I need, while the others follow the default pattern "auth.lower + shorttitle(3,3) + year".
    Please note that I changed the pattern to "zotero" under Edit → Settings → Better BibTeX → Citation key formula.
    I'm using Zotero 7.0.15.
  • Select all - right click - Better BibTeX - refresh.

    The red pin means there's a "Citation Key" line in the extra field. If that is removed (and the item subsequently refreshed), it will show the item key.
  • Thanks. I had to change the pattern to "item" instead of "zotero". Then I selected everything manually (Edit -> Select All.. does not work), right-clicked, and chose BetterBibTeX -> Refresh BibTeX key. Note that it doesn't update all of them. I closed and reopened Zotero and that solved it. Thanks again.
  • You can just navigate away from the library and back (eg click search and then library again). No need to restart. Refresh of the item list is an open problem.
  • I ended up creating a plugin for this. I tested it on Zotero 7 and it works fine. https://github.com/roderickvella/Zotero-Item-Key-Column
Sign In or Register to comment.