Zotero

Here are Tiffany C. Esteban's step-by-step tutorials on how to use Zotero's basic features. The tutorials fall into 3 topics, listed below. Use the guide menu to choose whichever tutorial you're interested in.

Please note that these tutorials assume you use Zotero's Collections (also called folders) to organize your Library. If you do not use Collections, sources will save to your Library by default.

Collect Your Sources Online: Pulling sources from the internet to your Zotero desktop app with two different methods.

Organize Your Zotero Library: Creating and navigating your Zotero Collections.

Cite Your Sources with Zotero in Word: Creating in-text citations and bibliographies (also called reference lists) with the Microsoft Word Zotero plugin.

If your needs are not met by these tutorials, please use the Full Documentation section in this guide or contact Tiffany C. Esteban by email at tcesteban@ufl.edu.

Method 1: Using the Zotero Connector

This is the easiest method for pulling sources from the internet to your Zotero library.

1. Make sure your Zotero desktop app is open. If it's not, trying to use the Zotero Connector in your browser will give you an error message.

2. When you find a source you want to save, click on the Zotero Connector in your browser's add-ons menu.

 

 

 

3. When you click on the Zotero Connector, it will open a small pop-up window and automatically save the source (including any snapshots and PDFs) to your Zotero library in the most recent Collection you've opened.

• If you want to save it to a different Collection, you can click the down arrow in the pop-up window to open a drop-down menu and choose another Collection from your Library. To confirm your choices, click the Done button.

4. To review your new source, open your Zotero desktop app, click on the source, read the source's Info tab, and make any needed changes.

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Method 2: Adding Items by Identifier

This is an easy method for pulling sources from online databases and library catalogs when the Zotero Connector does not work as desired.

1. When you find a source you want to save, open your Zotero desktop app.

2. Click on the Collection you want to save your source to.

3. In the top icon menu, click on the magic wand icon, also known as the "Add Item(s) by Identifier" button.

4. In the pop-up text box, copy and paste or manually type the identifier associated with your source. Note that Zotero only accepts International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), PubMed IDs (PMID), arXiv IDs, and Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Bibcodes.

5. Once you've entered the appropriate identifier, press Enter on your keyboard. When you press Enter, the "Add Item(s) by Identifier" function will use the identifier to save the source to your Zotero Collection.

6. To review your new source, read the source's Info tab and make any needed changes.

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For a full description of collecting sources with Zotero, see Zotero's documentation on adding items to Zotero.

To organize sources, Zotero uses Collections, also known as folders and represented by a file folder icon. This tutorial goes over creating a new Collection and reviewing how Collections are sorted in your Library.

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Creating a New Collection

1. In the Zotero desktop app, click on the file folder icon with a green plus sign, also known as the "New Collection" button.

2. In the pop-up window, type in a name for the new Collection. Names can be anything you want, such as research topics, class names, and project titles.

3. When finished, click OK.

4. To review your new Collection, check your Library on the left side of the Zotero desktop app. Zotero organizes Collections alphabetically.

• You are not able to change the alphabetical organization of the Collections, but you can rearrange Collections by creating new Collections and clicking and dragging them to other Collections. This organizes your Library into sub-folders.

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For a full description of Collections, see Zotero's documentation on Collections and Tags.

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Other Sections in Your Library

In addition to your Collections, Zotero has other sections in your Library that filter and manage sources. This is a list of those sections in order of their appearance.

1. "My Publications", represented by a written paper icon. If you have publications you want to share in your public Zotero profile, you can save and share them in this section. Please completely read through Zotero's message in the "My Publications" window before sharing your work this way.

2. "Duplicate Items", represented by a paper decision tree icon. This section shows you sources Zotero identified as the same or similar, and gives you options for viewing, deleting, and merging versions of those sources. For a full description of duplicate items, see Zotero's documentation on duplicate detection.

3. "Unfiled Items", represented by a paper pile icon. This section shows you sources that are not already in a Collection. You can click and drag these sources from "Unfiled Items" to the Collection you chose.

4. "Trash", represented by a trash can icon. This section shows you all the deleted items from your Zotero Library, including Collections, files, and notes.

• You can restore or delete items by right-clicking (or control-clicking on Macs) on an individual item and choosing "Restore to Library" or "Delete Permanently".

• To empty your whole trash can at once, right-click (or control-click on Macs) on "Trash" and choose "Empty Trash".

Zotero uses a plugin with Microsoft Word to cite sources in documents. This tutorial covers inserting in-text citations and bibliographies using the Zotero Word plugin.

The plugin is automatically installed in Microsoft Word when you download Zotero to your device for the first time. If you do not see "Zotero" in the Word menu bar, please follow Zotero's instructions for manually installing the Zotero Word Processor plugin.

For the Zotero Google Docs or LibreOffice plugins, please see Zotero's documentation on using Zotero with Google Docs or using Zotero with LibreOffice.

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Inserting In-Text Citations

1. In Microsoft Word, click on the "Zotero" tab to open the Zotero menu.

2. In the text of your Word document, click on the space where you would like your citation to go.

3. Then in the Zotero menu, click "Add/Edit Citation", represented by a paper icon with a minus sign in brackets. This will begin to load a Zotero bar over your Word document and open the "Document Preferences" window.

4. In the "Document Preferences" window, you can choose your citation style, language, and citation storage preferences. To confirm your choices, click OK.

• Author's Note: For the citation storage features, I tend to recommend leaving them on the default settings, unless you use LibreOffice. Leaving the "Fields (recommended)" option on lets Zotero work with Word and Google Docs, while choosing the "Bookmarks" option lets Zotero work with LibreOffice.
• Leaving the "Automatically update citations" option checked allows Zotero to update citation styles as they change. Unchecking this option turns off those updates, but does let the Zotero plugin load faster.

5. Once you've confirmed your document preferences, the Zotero bar will open over your Word document. In the Zotero bar, type in a keyword, such as an author name or the start of a title, to search for the source you want to cite.

6. When you find your chosen source, click on it in the drop-down menu. The Zotero bar now displays your source in your chosen citation style.

7. From this point, you have a few options to insert your citations.

• To confirm your citation, press Enter on your keyboard. This will place your citation into the space you clicked on in your text.
• To add more than one citation, search for another source in the Zotero bar and click on it in the drop-down menu. The Zotero bar will then display your citations side-by-side. To confirm your citations, press Enter on your keyboard. This will place them as a citation with multiple sources into your text.
• To add a page number to your citation, left-click on a source you've already added to the Zotero bar. This will open a small pop-up window where you can type in a page number next to the "Page" drop-down menu option. You can also click "Page" in the drop-down menu to view other details you can add, such as a section heading, volume number, or line.

• Author's Note: If you receive a bunch of code with your in-text citation, delete it and try again. I've experienced this issue multiple times and find this method to be the easiest fix.

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Inserting Bibliographies

Inserting a bibliography into your Word document requires that you already have in-text citations inserted using the Zotero plugin. See the "Inserting In-Text Citations" tutorial on how to create in-text citations.

1. In Microsoft Word, click on the "Zotero" tab to open the Zotero menu.

2. In the text of your Word document, click on the space where you would like your bibliography to go.

3. Then in the Zotero menu, click "Add/Edit Bibliography", represented by a book icon with two books shelved together. Zotero will now load a bibliography of all your in-text citations.

4. Check the rest of your Word document for any missing citations and for correct citation style formatting.

• Citations can be missed if they were not properly formatted with the Zotero plugin. For example, if you type in an in-text citation manually, Zotero will not recognize it as a citation and not add it your bibliography. Similarly, if you receive a bunch of code while inserting an in-text citation with the Zotero bar, Zotero might not format the bibliography properly. In both cases, try to insert the in-text citation again with the Zotero plugin.
• Depending on the citation style, Microsoft Word settings, and the information about your sources in your Zotero library, the Zotero plugin can sometimes format your citations incorrectly or incompletely. Rely on your knowledge of your chosen citation style (and relevant style guides) when editing your document.

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For a full description of using Zotero in Microsoft Word, see Zotero's documentation on word processor plugin usage.