Zotero for Law

Create folders

Create folders and sub-folders in Zotero to organise your materials. These are called collections.

• To create a new collection, select the folder icon (top left) or right-click 'My  Library'  and select 'New Collection'. Name the collection in the pop up box.
• You can create collections within collections, called Subcollections. To add a folder within an existing collection, right click on the folder and select 'New Subcollection' and type in a name.
• Add items to collections by dragging and dropping them into the folder. Remove items from folders by right clicking and selecting 'Remove Item from Collection'. This will not delete the item from your library. Avoid deleting items as that will inadvertently delete the item from all collections. 
• Rename collections or Subcollections at any time by right clicking on a folder and selecting 'Rename Collection'.

Save a search as a collection

You can search your Zotero library and save the search as a collection that is automatically updated according to the original search parameters.

1. Select 'Advanced Search' via 'Edit' in Zotero's top menu ribbon and run a search. Search options are extensive and include tags, titles, authors etc.
2. Select 'Save Search',
3. Enter a name for the saved search
4. Select 'OK'. 

The saved search will appear as a saved search collection in your library.

Add tags 

Add custom tags to items in your library and use them to quickly retrieve related items. For example for keywords/subject headings, or actions to carry out, like 'to read'.

To view, add and remove tags, select an item in your library and click on the 'Tag' icon from the far right menu.  Tags linked to this item will be listed. You can add your own tags or delete existing tags using the '+' and '-' buttons. Select a tag to rename it. 

Items downloaded from a database or catalogue may come with tags already attached.  To hide these automatic tags, click the drop down arrow in the tag cloud window (bottom left panel) and deselect 'Show Automatic.' 

Display items by tag

The tag cloud is displayed in the panel below the Collection folders (bottom left). If you have a collection folder selected, this panel will display the tags within that collection. Tags assigned with a colour will also appear, greyed out if not in the collection selected. 

Clicking on a tag will display all items tagged with that term. You can choose more than one tag to show items with that combination of tags.

You can colour code your tags, this will add a coloured dot to the item in the middle panel.

Bulk tagging 

To tag many items at once, select the records in the middle panel and drag the highlighted records on to the tag in the left tag window.

Create Notes 

The Notes field allows you to add personal notes for your records. Each item may have multiple separate notes. Notes in Zotero can be searched, tagged and exported into reports, so they are a useful way to organise your research.

Notes can be added to items in your Zotero library. To add a note, select an item in our library and click the 'Notes' icon from the far right menu. Select the '+' icon to create a new note. Type or edit the note within this panel, or in a new window via the 'ellipses' icon link. Notes fields allow text formatting, highlighting and hyperlinking.

Notes can also be created from annotations to PDFs stored in Zotero.

You can also add a citation to a note. Within the note, select the 'Insert Citation' icon from the note's top menu and select an item from your Zotero library.  To see what item the citation in the note is referring to, select the citation and select 'Show Item' from the pop up window. The pop up also enables you to 'Edit Citation'.  Add tags and link related items using links in the menu at the bottom of the notes pane.  

You can also add a citation to a note. Select the 'Insert Citation' link from the item's top menu and select an item from your Zotero library.  To see what item the citation is referring to, select the citation and select 'Show Item' from the pop up window. The pop up also enables you to 'Edit Citation'.  

Annotate PDFs 

PDFs can also be viewed and annotated in Zotero.   Open the PDF in Zotero's PDF reader by double clicking the attachment in your Zotero library. The PDF reader will open in a new tab.

In the PDF reader, the top menu items can be used to annotate the PDF with highlighting, underlining, text, free draw, sticky note and magnifying tools.

The most common form of annotation is the highlighter tool. To highlight text, select the 'A' icon and drag the cursor across the text. The highlighted text will appear as an annotation in the far left pane. Right click the highlighted text  to change colour, convert to an underline or delete. You can also convert the annotation to a note from this pop up menu.

Item notes can also be viewed, amended and added to in the PDF reader. Select the 'Note' icon from the far right menu for the 'Item Notes' pane to appear on the right side.  To make an annotation a note, you can drag the annotated text from the PDF into an existing or new note in the 'Item Notes' pane. Alternatively, from the 'Item Notes' pane use the + icon and select 'Add Item Note' or 'Add Item Note from Annotations'.