# Why and how I started using Zetero
Decided to start using Zotero (https://www.zotero.org/)
- Goal: Better keep track my references/sources
- Why Zotero?
- Best personal research assistant out there
- Free and open source
- Has great integration with Obsidian
- Has browser integrations to quickly capture highlights, sources, references, book information, etc
- Highlights can have comments, tags, colors
- Highlights can be filtered
- Powerful search engine
- Organizing sources in Zotero is easy
- No folders, collections
- Items can be in more than one collection at a time ❤️
- Alternative/Complementary to Readwise
Steps
- Installed via Winget on Windows
- Zotero Chrome connector: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ekhagklcjbdpajgpjgmbionohlpdbjgc
- Disabled "Show automatic tags" in the tags pane (coloured box next to the search bar at the bottom)
- Integrated with Obsidian
- Installed the "Zotero Integration" plugin
- Downloaded [[Danny Hatcher]]'s Zotero template pack
- Link: https://dannyhatcher.thrivecart.com/zotero-template/
- Reference: https://dannyhatcher.com/using-obsidian-and-zotero-to-write-more-consistently/
- Installed the BetterBibTex plugin for Zotero: https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/installation/
- Download the XPI file
- Open Zotero tools menu and Add-ons window
- Drag the XPI
- Restart Zotero
- Go to Edit > Preferences > Better BibText > Open Better BibText preferences
- Customize using: https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/citing/
- Configured
- Select "Download" next to PDF Utility to be able to read Zotero PDFs
- Create a citation format
- ![[2024-04-23 - zotero integration citation.png]]
- Create an import format
- Installed and configured ZotFile: https://zotfile.com/
- Each item in Zotero has a unique ID, called the citekey
- By default, it uses information from the source (e.g., title, author, year)
- Attachments are stored on Zotero's cloud platform, but there are big limitations (300MB)
- Alternative: Storing on Google Drive or similar
References
- https://dannyhatcher.com/using-obsidian-and-zotero-to-write-more-consistently/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hFJw0kEHlU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG0TMhB03aE