Organizing Your Library
In addition to storing bibliographic information, Zotero can save links to the full text, full text attachments, tags for organizing your content, snapshots of pages, notes about the items, and also stand-alone notes.
Tags
When you import items from databases, the subject descriptors attached to the items may be imported as tags. You can edit them, delete them, or add your own tags to each item. All tags are displayed in the bottom of the left column and the tags for each item are displayed in the item details column when the item is selected. Tags can be edited in both locations.
Notes
Child Notes - To create a note attached to an item, select the item from the list in the center column and either click the “New Note” button at the top of the center column (
) and select “Add Child Note”, or go to the “Notes” tab in the right-hand column and click the “Add” button.
A note will be created as an attachment to the item (it will also show up under the “Notes” tab), and a note editor will appear in the right-hand column. You can create a dedicated window for the editor by clicking the “Edit in a separate window” button at the bottom of the editor. Text in notes is saved as you type.
Zotero will sometimes automatically import information from a resource, such as a table of contents or abstract, into the notes of an item. Use the editor to change or delete these entries.
Standalone Notes - Standalone notes are not directly related to any item in your library, and will appear in the list of items in your library. To create a standalone note, click the “New Note” button and select “New Standalone Note”.
Copying and Pasting Content into Notes
With Zotero for Firefox, you can also create notes directly from the webpage you're visiting in Firefox. Highlight the text you want to copy into a note, right-click (ctrl-click on OS X), select “Zotero” in the pop-up menu, and select “Create Zotero Item and Note from Selection”. This will create a new “Web Page” item in your library for the visited webpage, with a note containing the selected text.
Attachments
You can set up your Zotero preferences so that when you import bibliographic information, depending on availability Zotero will also import a link to the item (
), a snapshot of the item (
), or the full text of the item. These appear as child items attached to the items listed in the middle column.
Searching Collections
Zotero searches citations, notes, and attached PDFs for your search term. Click on search (
) icon to pull up the Advanced Search Screen.
