When you add a PDF directly, Zotero will initially save it as a standalone attachment, and then it will automatically attempt to retrieve metadata for it and create a parent item. Standalone attachments can't have bibliographic metadata or child notes, so in most cases you'll want to convert them to child items under regular parent items. You can also add an attachment to an existing item by clicking the paperclip button in the Zotero toolbar and selecting “Attach Stored Copy of File…” or “Attach Link to File…”, or you can add a standalone attachment by clicking the green plus sign ( ) and choosing “Store Copy of File…” or “Link to File…”.Īttachments can be either child items or standalone attachments. In cases where you find yourself with a local PDF or other file on your computer - for example, if you received a file via email - you can drag it to Zotero, either onto an existing item to create a child attachment or between items to create a standalone attachment. If there's no main webpage, you can click the Save to Zotero button while viewing the PDF in your browser to save the PDF directly. The Save to Zotero button will usually save high-quality metadata and also automatically download the relevant PDF if you have access to it. If a website isn't importing properly, please report it on the Zotero Forums and provide the webpage URL.Īs noted above, when possible, we recommend saving items using the Save to Zotero button in your browser from the primary webpage (e.g, a journal article's abstract page) rather than adding PDFs directly. You can choose an alternative translator by right-clicking on the Zotero save button (or the page background in Safari) and choosing one of the supplied options. Zotero will generally choose the best translator available for each site automatically. For example, importing an item from the publisher website will generally yield much better data than importing from Google Scholar. Metadata for the same item may vary in quality across sites providing it. (For more information, see our compatible websites list.) By default, translator updates are automatically installed, independent of Zotero updates. Zotero recognizes almost all library catalogs, most news sites, research databases and scientific publishers. For many sites, Zotero has website-specific “translators” to obtain the best quality metadata. Other websites provide only limited metadata (e.g., only the title of a blog post) or no metadata at all. Some websites provide very high-quality data using a standard way to provide Zotero with data (via embedded metadata). The quality of the data Zotero imports is determined by the information supplied on the webpage.

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