maintaining file links

bebektutu
I'm trying to figure out the best way to use zotero for organising my research. I have a huge amount of files (mainly pdf & word) currently organised by folders on my pc. I want to start using zotero for all my future research, but also bring my exisiting files into the fold. I would then be tagging and adding notes to all the files (old and new), for better control over my research. Now using FF 4.0b7 and zotero 2.1b2. I have two questions I'm hoping someone can answer:

1) One of the advantages I hope to make use of, is that many of the files are relevant to more than one topic I work on, and I don't want to keep multiple copies in different folders - I understand that using zotero 'collections' I could have a file in a few collections without duplicating it - but is this the case only for linking files? When I stored a file in two collections, it seemed to create two copies in the zotero profile folder.

2) If I keep my files in their original folder locations, and have them appear in zotero as links, what would happen if the file location changed? For example, if at some point in the future I need to rearrange my folders (or change computer to a different OS and thus different folder structure), would I then lose all links? would there be a way to reassign the links, and would it be file by file? if links can be corrected, would the corrected link have the tags and notes assigned to the old one?

Thanks
  • noksagt
    but is this the case only for linking files?
    No: there will only be a single copy of a file stored in your zotero data directory, regardless of how many collections it is in.
    For example, if at some point in the future I need to rearrange my folders (or change computer to a different OS and thus different folder structure), would I then lose all links?
    Yes, all links would break and there is not presently a way to handle this for multiple links at once from within zotero.
  • adamsmith
    1) no that shouldn't happen - unless you actually duplicate the item, just dragging it to a second collection does exactly what you think it should - no duplication of files. Not sure what's going on in your case. Why do you think it duplicates the file?
    2) there is currently no way to reassign links, so yes, they would be lost. There has been talk about offering relative links as an option, but I haven't seen any movement on that. Same is true for batch editing of items.
    What is already possible is to batch edit by opening the zotero.sql directly - that requires a little SQL expertise - but nothing you couldn't pick up quickly - and should only be done with a copy of the database, but it's been done and if it's not a regular operation but a "one time in the future" thing certainly doable.
  • bebektutu
    thanks.

    1) When in one collection, I dragged a file from the middle window onto another collection. In the zotero folder in my firefox profile, a new sub folder was created each time, and each of them had a copy of the file.

    2) If the links did need fixing, and I did this by batch in SQL, would the tags and notes I created with original link then remain associated with the entry with the corrected link?

    Thank you
  • dstillman
    When in one collection, I dragged a file from the middle window onto another collection. In the zotero folder in my firefox profile, a new sub folder was created each time, and each of them had a copy of the file.
    This is almost certainly not the case if you're dragging within the same library.

    If you drag to a different library (e.g. a group), it will duplicate the files.
  • adamsmith
    1) can you replicate that? Is one of the collections in a group? (In that case the file would indeed duplicate).

    2) yes
  • bebektutu
    I'll see if this happens again, and whether the prolem was moving library rather than group.

    My concern with file links is due to trying to figure out best way to use zotero for large database - perhaps you can advise. If I store the files with zotero, then wouldn't I be creating duplicates, now having an extra copy in the firefox folder? I have thousands of files, and although I have webdav storage access, I don;t want two of everything. If I only keeo the copy zotero stores, then from what I can see, I wouldn't be able to keep my folder structure, and the only quick way to identify and navigate to the files would be through zotero.
  • adamsmith
    using both link and a stored copy, you would have two files on your harddisk, yes, but since only the files in the Zotero folder are synced that wouldn't necessarily be a big issue.

    You're correct that you cannot maintain your folder structure in Zotero, but you can, for example, easily get your operating system to use a saved search/collection/virtual folder to display all pdfs in Zotero.
    You could also look into Joshua's Zotfile plugin:
    http://www.columbia.edu/~jpl2136/zotfile.html

    For quick access, you could also have a look at the gnotero plugin, though that works best on linux and not currently on mac:
    http://www.cogsci.nl/gnotero

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Instead of commenting here, you should start a new discussion. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.