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Zotero @ the WSU Libraries

About Setting Up Your Zotero

Setting up Zotero properly is very important - if you don't do it you may not get the full value of this great research tool. Please see the official Zotero information on setting up your preferences, the instructions below may be helpful as well. Note the information on Zotero's hidden preferences.

About Zotero's Preferences

Zotero Edit menu with Preferences option highlighted

Correctly setting up your Zotero preferences is the most important part of Zotero. The nice thing about that is once done, you rarely have to worry about them and you can focus on actually using Zotero!

To set up your preferences, click on Edit in the Zotero tool bar and select Preferences. A small separate window with a number of icons will open. You do not need to click on OK until you are finished setting your preferences (Mac uses will not see a OK button; you can just close the window and your preferences will be saved).

Look below to see my suggested preference settings for each preference icon. 

Zotero Preferences: General (7/23 - needs to be updated)

For more information about General preferences, see _____

zotero preferences - general

Zotero Preferences: Sync

For more info

  zotero preferences - sync

Zotero Preferences: Search

Annotated screenshot coming soon, but install the PDF Indexing application by clicking on the broad bar in the middle of the screen.

Zotero Preferences: Export

Annotated screenshot coming, but this where you select your default style (you can change it at any time, both within Zotero and also in the Microsoft Word/Open Office plug-ins). If you drag a citation out of the Zotero window into a blog post, email, Google Doc, Word document, etc, it will be formatted in the default style. As noted below, the version you are using might not be the most up-to-date; to check on its date, update it, or add a default style that is not on the list of styles, see below.

Zotero Preferences: Cite

Update: Zotero is automatically updating styles now, so you no longer have to check for an updated version

 zotero preferences - cite

Update: Zotero is automatically updating styles now, so you no longer have to check for an updated version

Zotero Preferences: Proxies

More

 zotero preferences - proxies

Zotero Preferences: Advanced

Under the Files and Folders tab:

Backing up your Zotero folder

(if the image is too small, you can right-click on it to open it at a larger size in another tab)

For more on this, see the Zotero documentation on Backing Up and Restoring your Zotero Library (note the importance of making sure your Zotero instance is closed when you copy and back up files...)

screenshots for backing up your zotero folder

Under the General Tab:

Open URL

Type in the URL below - be sure not to make any mistakes! If you leave WSU, you will need to get the resolver for your new institution (talk to your librarian). WSU Vancouver students - you have your own resolver, and your own How to Use Zotero library guide (link forthcoming).

 OpenURL menu

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