Description

ZotPie is a open source plugin for Zotero (Firefox or Standlone) that was created to give members of the Zotero community several features that have been long overdue.

Note

This documentation is still being completed as of November 26, 2015. So downloading and building an offline copy is not recommended as this page is constantly updated; This notice will be removed once the initial documentation is completed, please report any inconsistancies, errors, etc. to support@precision-dev.com.

Thanks and Sorry for the inconvenience,

The ZotPie Development Team.

Welcome to ZotPie’s documentation!

This is the user documentation for the ZotPie firefox plugin for Zotero. If you are a developer, you may be interested in the developer documentation.

Getting Started (short version)

  1. Download the plugin from ZotPie Download Page or GitHub .
  2. Install Zotero for FireFox
  3. Open FireFox and Navigate to the Addons Menu
  4. In settings (the gear icon w/ dropdown) select install addon from file and select the plugin
  5. Restart Firefox and launch Zotero for Firefox or Zotero Standalone.

Installing, Testing, Usage (Longer Version)

Detailed Installation Instructions

  1. Download the plugin from #downloadpage (idk yet), link to git install instructions if git is installer
  2. Install Firefox & the Zotero FireFox Plugin
  3. Open firefox and navigate to the dropdown menu Settings and then click on Add-ons.
  4. Click on the settings gearbox and then install addon from file
  5. Navigate to the .xpi file downloaded in the earlier steps and click OK
  6. restart Firefox, if not prompted. Zotero should now have the plugin installed for Zotero (Firefox and Standalone).

Installing development versions

ZotPie remains in development as of November 2015. Development Versions can be found on the GitHub dev branch. You can also clone directly from a git enabled console by pasting: git clone http://github.com/repo

Building Documentation

If you wish to build ZotPie’s documentation for offline use, it can be built from the doc directory of a local git repo by running make followed by the desired output format(s) (html, epub, latexpdf, etc.)

Batch Editing Tags

This feature allows you to edit tags en masse, there are two ways to do this. The first is to open the batch editor (in Zotero) and then search for the tag you would like to change,delete,modify, or merge and click apply. The second is to manually add items to a batch editing queue and then open the batch editor and apply the changes to items in your queue.

Launching the Batch Tag Editor

  1. Open Zotero (Firefox or Standalone)
  2. Open the Batch Tag Editor by clicking on the Batch Tag Editor icon (see image below) bedit_big

The Batch Tag Editor GUI

Upon launching the Batch Tag Editor a window similar to the one below should pop up, see the glossary below the image for a detailed explanation of the functionality of each section in the Batch Tag Editor window. The Batch Adding tags functionality GUI is slightly different see the Batch Adding Tags section for more information.

btedit_window

Legend: (refer to image above)
Find
The Find text-box is where you would type a tag name in order to sort through the tags displayed in the Original Tags section.
Replace
The Replace text-box (applicable only when modifying tags) is where you specify a tag name that would replace all tags in the Tags to be changed box. Note that these changes are only applied after you press the Apply button.
Original Tags
The Original Tags box displays all of the tags that are currently attached to the items in your library, collection, or queue. Clicking an item in this box adds it to the Tags to be Changed box to the right.
Tags to be Changed
Items in this box will be modified or removed depending on the mode specified in the Action dropdown menu. Changes will only be applied to your library, collection, or queue after pressing Apply.
Parameters: Type
The type of field you would like to edit, currently ZotPie only supports tags so dont worry about this.
Parameters: Action
The action you would like to perform on the tags in the Tags to be Changed section.
  1. Modify will replace tags in the Tags to be Changed section with whatever is specified in the Replace section
  2. Remove will remove all tags in the Tags to be Changed* section from your library, collection, or queue.
  3. Add - see the Batch Adding Tags section.
Parameters: Scope
The scope in which the changes you want will be applied. If set to All changes will be applied to your entire library, if you select a Collection changes will only be applied to items that collection, if you are using a queue you would select Items.
Parameter: Collection
If the scope is set to collection, this will let you select the collection you would like changes to be applied to.
Apply
Applies all changes to items in scope or queue.

Batch Editing Tags using find & replace

Note

This section assumes you have gone through the The Batch Tag Editor GUI section above. If at anytime you are confused about the functionality of the Batch Tag editor in the below tutorial, please see the above section.

If at any time you are confused about the functionality, please see the above section.

  1. Open Zotero and click on the Batch Tag Editor icon (see the Launching the Batch Tag Editor section for help)
  2. Select the scope in which you would like to edit.
  3. If your scope is set to Collection, in the Collection dropdown menu select the collection you would like to apply changes to.
  4. In the Action dropdown menu, select the action you would like to perform.
  5. In the Original Tags section click on tags you would like to change/remove and they will be moved to the Tags to be changed section. If your library or collection contains a large amount of tags you may want to type individual tag names in the Find textbox to easily find the appropriate tags in the Original Tags section. If you are Batch Removing Tags skip to the last step.
  6. In the replace text-box type a tag name to replace all items in the tags to be changed section.
  7. Click Apply and you are done.

Batch Editing using a Batch Editing Queue

Note

This section assumes you have gone through the The Batch Tag Editor GUI section above. If at anytime you are confused about the functionality of the Batch Tag editor in the below tutorial, please see the above section.

  1. Open Zotero
  2. Right click an and in the dropdown menu click add to batch edit queue. btedit_queuetut
  3. The below Warning will pop-up, click Continue Adding to continue adding items to the queue, when you are finished adding items to the queue click Open Batch Editor. btedit_queuetut2
  4. (After finishing above step) Set the scope to items.
  5. In the Action dropdown menu, select the action you would like to perform.
  6. In the Original Tags section click on tags you would like to change/remove and they will be moved to the Tags to be changed section. If your library or collection contains a large amount of tags you may want to type individual tag names in the Find textbox to easily find the appropriate tags in the Original Tags section. If you are Batch Removing Tags skip to the last step.
  7. In the replace text-box type a tag name to replace all items in the tags to be changed section.
  8. Click Apply and you are done.

Batch Adding Tags

TODO

Warning

The batch editor does not backup any data before making changes, the only way to undo changes to your library made by the batch editor are:
  1. backup your library before using the batch editor
  2. use the batch editor again, with the tag parameters switch

Adding Custom Fields

The Custom Field Editor adds a new item field to a given item type in Zotero. For example, if you wanted to add the item field “gregorian date” to the item type “book”, then the Custom Field Editor is a tool that could add “gregorian dates” in the custom field section of all books in your library.

Launching the Custom Field Editor

There are two methods for launching the Custom Field Editor:

Method #1: Launch via. the Icon
  1. Open Zotero (Firefox or Standalone)
  2. Click the Custom Field Editor icon (see image below)

cficotaskbar

Method #2: Launch via. an Item
  1. Open Zotero
  2. Select any item in your library
  3. Click on the Custom Fields tab in the item’s info pane
  4. Click Add

cficoitem

The Custom Field Editor GUI

TODO

Adding Custom Fields

TODO

Removing Custom Fields

TODO

Note

Custom Data does not currently sync to your online Zotero Database, this functionality is still under development.

Coupling/Linking Documents

@description of feature

Launching the Document Linker

TODO

The Document Linker GUI

TODO

Linking Documents

TODO

Unlinking Documents

TODO

Citation (CSL) Editor

@drescription of feature

Launching the CSL Editor

TODO

The CSL Editor GUI

TODO

Creating a Custom Citation

TODO

Notes

The ZotPie plugin applies all changes to your local Zotero library, If you do not have automatic syncing enabled you will have to sync before changes to your library are applied on the Zotero servers.

Liscense

ZotPie is liscensed under the MIT Liscense.