Zotero: Self-Guided Tutorial

1) Sign up for an account at Zotero.org

2) Install the Zotero Connector for Chrome

 
The icon for the Zotero add-on will change to look like an article, book, a web page (blue-ish page), or other publication types depending on what Zotero can figure out about what you're looking at in your browser. Just click the icon and Zotero will automatically save the citation. Here's more information on how to do that.

If you're on a page of search results with many items, you'll see a folder icon instead. Click this to get a list of all the items on the page, and check off the ones you want to save.

Saving an Item

1. Click on the Zotero Connector plugin icon
2. Click "Enable Saving to Online Library"
3. Accept the default permissions they present in the next screen.

You can also manually add items to your Zotero library.

1. Go to Zotero.org
2. Log in and then the "My Library" tab.
3. Click the green "plus" sign to "Create Item."

Saving PDFs and other files

Zotero will try to collect a PDF when you first save the item, but if it's unable to do so:

1. Download the file
2. Go to Zotero.org
3. Log in and then the "My Library" tab.
4. Click into the item you have saved (not the "edit" view, though)
5. Click "Upload Attachment"
6. In the Upload Attachment box, click "Choose Files"
7. In the file navigation window, find the file(s) you want to attach and click "Open"
8. In the Upload Attachment box, click "Upload"

1. Go to Zotero.org
2. Log in and then the "My Library" tab.
3. Click the folder icon near the top left to create a Collection
4. Select any of your items and add those items to any number of collections

Add tags to items

1. Go to Zotero.org
2. Log in and then the "My Library" tab.
3. Click into an item
4. Click the "Edit Item" button
5. Near the bottom, enter tags into the "Tags" box

Inserting Citations

You will have to type your in-text citations or footnotes by hand (see our Citation guide).

Creating your Bibliography

1. Go to Zotero.org
2. Log in and then the "My Library" tab.
3. Check the select boxes next to the items that you cited in your paper
4. Click the "Cite" button (the bullet list icon near the top right)
   
5. When prompted, select your citation style
6. Copy and paste the resulting bibliography into your paper.