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Zotero

Wrestle control of your references with Zotero

Tags, Notes and Related Items

Tags, Notes and Related Items can be used to better organize your Zotero collections. For example, tags can be used to indicate whether a PDF has already been read and annotated, by adding a Tag "annotated". Tags can be color-coded, which provides a useful visual cue in your list of items in the middle pane as shown below. Notes are another useful feature that allow you to attach an editable notes file to an item.

 

For more about these features, visit the following links:

PDF Annotations

With the release of Zotero 6.0, you can now annotate PDFs within the Zotero application, easily saving annotations, highlighted text and comments to notes associated with the item. To annotate a PDF, simple double click on the PDF item from the middle pane of your Zotero application. This will be found by clicking on the small, drop-down arrow next to the parent item as shown.

PDF icon under Zotero parent item

 

 

This will open the PDF annotation tab in your Zotero application.  You can use the tools at the top of the pane to highlight text, add notes or capture images of parts of the document. These annotations will appear in the left-hand pane, where you can make edits and add them to Note items.

Add annotations to PDFs

 

For more information about how to use these PDFs annotation features, visit Zotero's PDF reader documentation page.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are a useful way to keep on top of blogs, Twitter feeds and other regularly updated content. Zotero has a feature that allows you to follow RSS feeds within your Zotero application. For more information about using Zotero for RSS feeds, visit the Zotero RSS feed support page.

Using Zotero with Overleaf

You can use your Zotero library in multiple ways to work with LaTeX and Overleaf bibliographies. One option is to create .bib files that you can import into an Overleaf project.

  • In Zotero, select the collection, library, or items you would like to include in your .bib file and right click on that selection.
  • Choose Export and then select BibTeX as the format. Save the file.
  • In Overleaf, click on the Upload button in the upper left hand corner and follow the prompts to upload the .bib file you just created from Zotero.

Alternatively, Overleaf now has a way to link your Zotero library to your Overleaf account and create .bib files directly that will be automatically updated as things change in your Zotero library. Follow the instructions on the Overleaf website to link your Zotero library and create bibliographies.