Zotero: A Beginner's Guide

This guide is designed to help you start using the citation management application Zotero and its related tools.

Zotero is a free software application that allows you to collect, organize, and access your research library from any computer. Zotero is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS. The Zotero browser connectors (currently available for Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari) automatically detect citations and PDFs, allowing you to add that content to your Zotero library with a single click. The Zotero plug-ins for Microsoft Word allow you to add citations and bibliographies to your paper during the writing process. However, you can easily create a works cited or reference list directly from Zotero to add to your completed work.

1.  Create a Zotero account using your email at https://www.zotero.org/user/register

2.  Download the desktop version of Zotero for Mac or Windows here: https://www.zotero.org/download/

3.  Download the Zotero Plug-in Connector for your browser here: https://www.zotero.org/download/connectors

4. Sync your Zotero desktop version to your account

• Open PDFs in a new built-in reader within the main Zotero window, in a new tabbed interface
• Clean up metadata for items while viewing your PDFs
• Mark up PDFs with highlights, notes, and image annotations
• Add annotations to Zotero notes with automatic citations, in a powerful new note editor
• Cite other items directly in notes using Zotero’s familiar citation dialog
• Insert notes into your Word and Google Docs documents with active Zotero citations for automatically generating bibliographies
• Export notes to external Markdown editors with links back to Zotero items and PDFs