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Zotero for Mac: Zotero's Main Screen & Toolbar

Zotero is a free application that can collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.

 

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- THE MAIN ZOTERO SCREEN AND TOOLBAR -

There are more Zotero features than can be covered in this introductory guide.  Go to the Additional Zotero Resources tab in this guide to start exploring more features.

Zotero's main screen which is divided into 3 panels with a toolbar across the top. Panels are numbered in green, left to right, 1, 2, 3.

PANEL 1

 

- THE ORGANIZATION PANEL -

The left-hand panel is where you can create individual folders or libraries of folders to organize your citations.

In the above example, there are folders ("collections" in Zotero speak) within My Library (the top level folder) for Biology 2010, ENG 2000, and NSCI 1200.

 

TOP TOOLBAR, LEFT TO RIGHT:

Two different folder icons, one yellow for ordinary folders, one brown for top level folders. Brown folder has tiny down arrow next to it.

  • New Collection - creates a folder
  • New Library - creates another top level folder

 

- VERY IMPORTANT & NOT INTUITIVE -

Every item you capture with Zotero lives in My Library, the top-level folder.  The list of all your My Library items appears in the Zotero's middle panel.

When you create a new folder to organize your items, and drag and drop an item from My Library into it, you will see that the item now exists in two places--My Library and the new folder.  If you delete either one of these, both will disappear.

 

NEVER DELETE AN ITEM UNLESS YOU REALLY DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE!

PANEL 2

 

- THE LIBRARY OF CAPTURED CITATIONS -

The middle panel lists the citations you've captured in alphabetical order by title.  Do not delete anything from this list unless you do not want it anymore!  This list is the master file of everything you've captured since you began using Zotero.  As your list grows, use the Unfiled Items (green arrow below) option in My Library's drop-down menu to reveal just the unfiled items.

My Library drop-down menu showing: ENG 2500 folder, My Publications, Duplicate Items, Unfiled Items with a green arrow pointing to it, and Trash.

TIP: The citation you just captured will be highlighted in the list.

 

TOP TOOLBAR, LEFT TO RIGHT:

These icons look like (left to right): a green circle with a white plus sign in its center; a magic wand, a yellow square, a paperclip, and a magnifying glass.

  • New Item - For manual entering of an item you found offline
  • Add Item(s) by Identifier - Copy and paste ISBN, DOI, etc., to add an item
  • New Note - Add notes to your items
  • Add Attachment - Add attachments to your items
  • Advanced Search - More search options for your items

 

- DID I GET THE FULL TEXT? -

This is where you can check to see if you captured the full text as well as the citation.  In the example below which shows a detail of panel 2 above, the first two citations have tiny PDF icons.  You got the full text.  The third citation has a little blue dot.  You have an offline snapshot of one page of a website.  The last citation has a blank square; you did not get the full text.

A detail of some captured items in Zotero's middle panel showing only the authors' names in a vertical column and the icons indicating full text or lack thereof in another vertical column.

PANEL 3

 

- FULL CITATION DETAILS -

When you click on a citation in the middle panel, the right-hand panel shows the details for that citation, all the usual things such as author, title of the article, title of the journal, etc., and much more that Zotero captured.  This is known as metadata.  Zotero uses metadata to perform its functions.   Library databases have really good metadata.

 

TOP TOOLBAR, LEFT TO RIGHT:

Another magnifying glass in a different color from the previous one is the basic search. The next icon is a green arrow pointing to the right with a tiny down arrow.

  • Basic Search
  • Locate - Highlight a citation and click Locate to view the citation online and many other functions

This icon is a semicircular green arrow pointing to the right. Think a letter C with an arrowhead on the top curve.

  • Sync With Zotero.org

 

ADDITIONAL TOOLBAR:

When you click on a citation in the middle panel, an additional toolbar becomes available.  This one allows you to (left to right) add notes, tags, or bring related citations together.

Detail of the third Zotero panel showing citation details and the additional toolbar with Info, Notes, Tags, and Related options.

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