Citation Management with Zotero

Zotero is laid out in three main sections. Your Web Library at zotero.org looks largely the same.

At the top of the Zotero client is the menu bar.

The left-hand pane is the navigation pane. It includes your libraries and collections (shared libraries) as well as the Tag Selector.

The toolbar above the navigation pane includes buttons for creating a new collection as well as searching your entire library.

The center pane is where your references live. It displays whatever items are in the navigation area you've selected, such as My Library or a specific collection. Some information columns are displayed in the center pane by default; to add or remove columns, right-click on the label at the top of any of the columns.

The toolbar above the center pane at the left-hand edge has several buttons, including the magic wand, to add a reference using its unique identifier, and the magnifying glass, to perform an advanced search. At the right-hand edge of the center pane is the basic search box.

The right-hand pane is the details pane. When you select a reference in the center pane, the details pane displays information about it in. This collapsible side navigation pane allows users to view the abstract, full-text, links, notes, tags, and the libraries/collections in which an article is located.

At the top of the item pane, a customizable header lets you choose what info to show: title, title/author/date, or even a bibliography entry in your chosen citation style. The header remains visible when the Info section is collapsed, so you can choose to keep the Info section closed when you’re not editing metadata and still see the title and other important info.