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Zotero

The Quick Copy Function

You can easily insert bibliographic references into any text field in your web browser, such as an email, a Google Docs document, a blog... Simply drag and drop the reference and the citation will appear fully formatted in the default style. You can also use the Copy Citation or the Copy Bibliography function in the Edit menu. To set or change your default style, select Preferences from the Edit menu, then Export and select the style from the drop-down menu. 

Standalone Bibliographies

1. Select the documents you want to include in the bibliography (hold down the Ctrl key)
2. Right-click and select the Create Bibliography function
3. Choose a style and save your bibliography in the RTF format (if you want to use it in a text processor such as Word) or in the HTML format (if you want to publish it on the web).
 

To create a bibliography from a collection, right-click on the collection icon.

Inserting Citations in a Text

There is a built-in Zotero toolbar in Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs. You can only use this toolbar when Zotero is running.

: opens a search window that allows you to search for citations in your Zotero library, to select the style and insert the citation. For certain styles that use footnotes, Zotero will automatically create the footnote and insert the citation. You can also add a page number, a prefix or a suffix to a citation.

: inserts the contents of a Zotero note into your text.

: automatically creates a bibliography of all the references cited in your text.

: allows you to change the style of your references.

If you cannot find the Zotero toolbar, try going to Preferences, Cite, Word Processors, and install or reinstall the Word or LibreOffice plugin. This will solve the problem in most cases.

Zotero Styles

A few styles come with the program, but thousands more can be downloaded from the Style Repository. A direct link to this repository is available from the Preferences menu, Cite tab. 

To quickly visualise what a reference will look like with the different styles included in your Zotero, you can use the Style Preview tab. You can find it by clicking on the button on the Cite tab of the Preferences menu. Select a reference from your library and click on Refresh.