This is a quick-start guide meant to get you going with Zotero. To get started:
HINT - Always have a style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) open when using a citation manager! Citation managers are not perfect! Zotero will not fix the capitalization of titles for you. Fix the capitalization if it is not correct for your style guide!
Zotero is a powerful product offering a lot of tools! For information about more advanced features, please visit the Additional Help/Information tab above.
Watch the screencast to learn about the main features of Zotero's interface.
Watch the screencast to learn how to cite sources you find in databases (articles, book chapters, etc.) using Zotero.
HINT - If using the Zotero connector browser tool does not import correct and complete bibliographic information, try looking for a cite button in the database. There will be an option to export a citation to Zotero or to export a .RIS file, which will work well in Zotero. This is demonstrated in the screencast.
HINT - Have your style guide (APA, MLA, etc.) open when working with sources. Pay special attention to the capitalization of titles as Zotero cannot fix capitalization of titles for you. Make sure you capitalize them according to your style guide's rules.
Watch this screencast to learn how to cite web pages using Zotero.
HINT - Zotero scrapes web pages looking for bibliographic information, and sometimes it misses some! Check for missing information and manually add it yourself.
HINT - Have your style guide (APA, MLA, etc.) open when working with sources. Pay special attention to the capitalization of titles as Zotero cannot fix capitalization of titles for you. Make sure you capitalize them according to your style guide's rules.
Watch the screencast to learn how to import citation information for books and eBooks into Zotero. There are several options for importing the information.
HINT - Have your style guide (APA, MLA, etc.) open when working with sources. Pay special attention to the capitalization of titles as Zotero cannot fix capitalization of titles for you. Make sure you capitalize them according to your style guide's rules.
Watch the screencast to learn how to pull citation information about online videos into Zotero.
HINT - Have your style guide (MLA, APA, etc.) open when engaging in this work! Zotero will not fix capitalization of titles for you! You guide will also alert you to where information (creator, date, etc.) should appear in your citations.
Video citations require cleanup to get information to appear in the correct spot when you generate citations in Word. This video will show you how to clean up your citation information in Zotero.
Zotero offers tools for Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice. For more information about using Zotero with Google Docs and LibreOffice, visit this page.
Learn how to use the Zotero tool in Word to generate in-text citations as well as full bibliographies.
HINT - Have your style guide (APA, MLA, etc.) open when working with sources. Pay special attention to the capitalization of titles as Zotero cannot fix capitalization of titles for you. Make sure you capitalize them according to your style guide's rules.
Learn how to export citations when a tool is not available in your word processing program.
HINT - Have your style guide (APA, MLA, etc.) open when working with sources. Pay special attention to the capitalization of titles as Zotero cannot fix capitalization of titles for you. Make sure you capitalize them according to your style guide's rules.