For us writers, Zotero could be the most useful add-on available. So, I was really surprised when it misses out on some of the ‘Top Useful add-ons list for Firefox’.
But better late than ever as I hope this dekko helps to change a few minds. Especially of people like me who need to collate a wide variety of information for their writing work.
Zotero (version 1.0.10) is a free Firefox add-on which enables users to gather, manage and refer all research sources. It’s officially called as a citation manager. Its usefulness comes from the fact that it is integrated with the browser itself. The browser has off late become the window for online research, so this feature comes handy. Of course, Zotero’s use is not limited to online use. It can be used offline as well for note taking and saving, searching your stored info and managing that info.
With the flood of information around us, Zotero helps to bring some sanity in the way we process it. A useful app not only for the serious scholar or a student, but even for us net junkies who trawl through loads of net natter each day looking for something to write on…or collating it for a better day.
Are you swamped with information?
If you miss the Opera Notes feature in Firefox, Zotero does the same job but in an infinitely better way. Consider it as note taking on steroids.
Think about an article you are writing. You browse for information resources and you get some valuable bits from some blogs, a couple of websites, a few references to books in Amazon or Google Books and technical pieces from a journal library.
The pre-Zotero way would be to copy, paste or screen capture these resources. You would still end up with a haphazard bunch of files. Gathering information is one thing but properly arranging them for easy access and reference is another.
Now here’s the post-Zotero way.
With Zotero, you can ‘grab’ your information sources in whichever format of your choosing, organize them in collections, cross reference them as well as annotate them with your own notes. If you like a specific piece of text on a web page, mark it with a highlighter. Zotero does a great job of archiving web pages or just sections of text within a page.
You don’t have to remember, Zotero does that for you. But remember that Zotero is not a ‘Bookmarking’ or ’tagging’ software. You actually save the entire information resource at your end for offline use if need be. And when one has to include this information onto a Word document for printing, Zotero does that with click of a mouse.
Here’s how it looks.
A 1.1MB download for a browser add-on is on the heavier side, but I haven’t noticed any marked performance hits so far. Of course, the total number of add–ons one has installed does slow down the browser loading times, but I guess that is a small price to pay for added functionalities.
Post installation, Zotero resides as an icon in the lower right edge of the browser status bar. Toggle to show and hide the application’s main window. You can also add the Zotero button to the toolbar from the Customize Toolbar button of Firefox.
Toggle the Zotero button and the Firefox browser gives up its bottom half to Zotero to fill out with its three panes.
The left pane is the ‘Library’. The central location for all your information. All your information is arranged in convenient ‘Collections’. With collections you can sort out all information into their own categories. All information that you have collected, downloaded or written can be easily added through drag and drop into the suitable collections.
The middle pane shows the individual items (sub items) in the particular collection that you have selected in the left pane. You can work on the individual collections by adding, editing or deleting the sub items. You can add the current webpage or take its snapshot and add it to a collection. Or if you just want to add some information on your own, create a standalone note.
The right pane goes into more detail by allowing the user to add/modify any source acknowledgment information, additional notes, tags, related links (for cross-referencing) and even attachments. With attachments you can link to a pdf file in the library or somewhere else on your hard drive. Snapshots of web pages can also be attached.
I have saved the best feature of Zotero for the last. Though only limited to some compatible websites, Zotero can ‘sense’ the content of certain pages. For instance, if you are going through Amazon, an icon appears on Firefox’s location bar. Simply clicking on the icon saves all the books citation information into the library.
Similarly, information from other web pages including Google search can be collated by these special icons with a simple click.
Some features you might like:
- Free and Open source
- Lives within Firefox as an add-on. Compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Integrates with WordPress and other blogging platforms
- Citations to sources can be formatted and exported. Zotero uses Citation Style Language.
- Zotero is compatible with all the major styles (Chicago, MLA, APA, Vancouver, etc.) as well as a many journal-specific styles.
- Integrates with MS Word and OpenOffice. Users can insert citations directly from their word processing software using available plugins.
- A great set of tools to collect, manage and annotate information.
- Automatic capture of information including web pages or sections within a webpage.
- Storage / attachment options galore of pdf files and other media files.
- Backup and sync across different computers by uploading it to online Zotero account. Users can also share their libraries with others.
- Shared libraries can also be used for collaborative research and documentation.
- A well documented and easy on the eyes user guide on the home site.
- Export and import compatibility with EndNote, the industry standard leader of citation/bibliographic software.
Yes, EndNote might have some enhanced features but consider that it retails for $299. Zotero is free, and I personally think it has a more intuitive interface.
Zotero, loosely translated means ‘to master’ in Albanian. Certainly, information management is about all that and more.
Have you used Zotero? How has been your experience with it and other comparative apps? Do share your views in the comments.
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