Can't assign a PDF to My Publications

dstillman Zotero Team
This discussion was created from comments split from: How to drag a personal doc to My Publications?.
  • ChelseaLientz
    I am having a similar issue. I have a PDF that I wrote, it's in the library, but I can't assign it to My Publications. I can't drag it from my desktop or from the library. My work around it to create a folder and call it My Publications, but that seems redundant. Any advice?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 5:45pm
    @ChelseaLientz: As explained above, you need to create a parent item for it. A standalone PDF attachment can't be added to My Publications because it has no metadata.
  • ChelseaLientz
    @dsillman, I see the note above, but it does not align with what I am seeing.

    When I right-click on the PDF, there is no way to retrieve metadata. For one I'm trying with a PDF, the other with a word doc. There is also no "create parent item" option. I can't seem to find a way to add metadata to a document that I created.

    I wonder if the advice came from Mac/Linux doesn't translate to PC? Or if the nomenclature is different on the different platforms? Thanks for your help.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 7:04pm
    No, it's the same on all platforms. If you provide a screenshot of what you're seeing, we can say more, but this is just a basic part of how Zotero works — nothing to do with My Publications specifically:

    https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#standalone_attachments_and_parent_items
  • adamsmith
    Do make sure you are using the desktop application, though, which you should always default to. If, on right-click, you see back and forth arrows as well as options to Save Page as, you're in the web library.
    Retrieve metadata is not available on the web at all, Create Parent Item is in the three-dots menu at the top of the central pane:
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2433/vav6haaquht5q8wrtc0w.png

    (but again, you shouldn't do this in the web library)
  • tnajdek Zotero Team
    (small correction to what @adamsmith said: Retrieve Metadata feature has, quite recently, been added to the web library, it's the fifth icon from the left on the screenshot above).

    The web library does not support adding to My Publications, you need Zotero (the desktop application) for that.
  • adamsmith
    @tnajdek -- I saw that but its greyed out for me including for PDFs that are definitely on the server and definitely have a text layer, so I assumed it wasn't available yet? When should it be available?
  • tnajdek Zotero Team
    @adamsmith: Thank you for letting me know, it seems there is a bug that disables the button for top-level attachments imported via connector, rather than added to Zotero or the web library directly. I'll fix it!

    To answer your question directly: It should be available for all stored & synced PDF files, in a writable library, outside of the trash (with multi-item selection also working)
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