Now works with Zotero 7 Beta.
ZeNotes is a Zotero plugin that will help you manage and visualize your notes. It is helpfull if you intend to make a systematic review directly on your Zotero using notes and pdf annotations. This tool will help you organize your notes on Zotero. It will show you on a table what you have been writing. You can edit your notes right on the table or add new notes. On the latest versions, you can add translations of your notes using Google or DeepL. You can also apply a generative AI prompts (Bard and ChatGPT for the moment) to a cell, a row, or the entire table. These actions are also available right in the pdf reader of Zotero.
- After installing the plugin, restart Zotero (This will import your preferences from previous versions)
- Select the collection you are working on
- Head to ZeNotes > Settings
- In settings, scroll down to "Load and save"
- Click on the dropdown and choose the preference you want to apply to the current collection
- Preferences from Zotero 6 are imported automatically and their names will start with Z6. "Z6 default" will hold your last preference on Zotero 6.
- Click "Import preferences" to apply the selected preference to the current collection
- "Show annotation" does not open the pdf at the page with highlight on Zotero 7.
- If it is of concern for you, please stay on Zotero 6 until it's resolved.
- Head to the release page: https://github.com/frianasoa/Ze-Notes/releases/
- Download the latest version of the ".xpi" file. Please right click and "save as" if your browser tries to install it and fail.
- Open your Zotero. On the menu, click “Tools → Add-Ons” to open a window.
- Drag the .xpi file for the plugin onto that window.
- Alternatively, you can click on the clog on the top right corner, then click "Install Add-on From File", choose the file and open.
- Restart your Zotero.
Form more on Add-ons see this page https://www.zotero.org/support/plugins
-
Add notes to an entry
-
Or add annotations directly on an attached pdf file [You need to use Zotero pdf reader if you want to use annotations].
-
To each note or annotation, add a tag.
- Right click on a particular collection or on "My Library". Then, click "ZeNotes - My notes in collection" from the context menu.
- Alternatively, select a particular collection or "My Library", then on the menu "ZeNotes > Notes".
- A table should be displayed.
- You can edit your notes normally in Zotero or right click on an item in the table to see your options.
-
Go to ZeNotes > Settings > Global Settings > AI API Settings
-
Insert your API Key
-
Display your notes and right click on an annotation. The menu "Paraphrase annotation" will be available. Choose Bard or ChatGPT depending on the API key you have. It will paraphrase the excerpt selected in the PDF file.
-
Here are some links to access Google Ai Studio (Bard) [Can be used for free so far] [If it does not work, search the internet. These things move so fast]. https://ai.google.dev/pricing https://makersuite.google.com
-
For Open Ai (ChatGPT), head to https://platform.openai.com/api-keys. You will be asked to sign up. If you have never signed up (ChatGPT on the web included), you may get some free credits at the beginning (they expire). Otherwise you will need to buy some credits to be able to use the API. Please be warned that Open AI credits expire after 1 year if not used (at the time of writing. Please always check.). Do not try to create multiple accounts using the same email and/or mobile phone, you might get banned.
-
For DeepL API key, head to https://www.deepl.com/account/plan after you sign up. They will ask you for your credit card details even for the free plan.
- To open preference, go to menu "Edit > Preferences" of the ZeNotes window. Alternatively go to menu "ZeNotes > Settings" of the Zotero main window.
- Select the tags you will be using as columns. You can hide the ones you do not need.
- You can choose the tags on which you want to sort the results. Click on the icon a->z or z-> to change how you want to sort.
- The current layout is automatically saved for the current (selected) selection.
- Click "OK" when you finish and the table will reload.
Extra menus are available for each API you set (contextmenu: when you write click on the table or on an annotation in the pdf reader). For Bard and Open AI, you can set the models you want to use. You can set the maximum token used for OpenAI as well.
The plugin has simple default prompt for each action. You can set your own in "AI custom prompts". Remember that when you change them, the menus would mean something completely different from the label (If you change paraphrase prompt into something else for example).
Last, you can set the language for Google and DeepL translation the label of the contextmenu will change accordingly.
These global settings apply to the plugin as a whole.
Font settings was added. You can use this to zoom in and out of your table with the shortcut "Ctrl + Mouse wheel" or "Ctrl + Plus/Minus"
- Create a folder (collection) to add all the papers you want to review (you can also use an existing folder).
- Add notes to each entry of the folder. It is also possible to add annotations directly inside a pdf attachment.
- To each note or annotation, add a tag according to its content (e.g. Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussions, Comments, ... ). If you do not add a tag, the note or annotation will be tagged "Untagged".
- Right click on the folder you work on and open "ZeNotes - My notes in collection" to see all your notes in the current collection. All your notes will be shown in a table with the tags as column headers. You can choose "vertical table" if you want to display them as row headers instead.
- You may right click on the table cells to see what actions are available (Edit, remove columns, etc, ...). You can also drag and drop the headers.
- Go to tools and settings to control the columns (tags) you want to show or hide. You may also sort the results. The setting you choose will be saved automatically for each collection.
- Use Google translate or DeepL to translate your annotations. You can apply a generative AI prompt to each cell as well.
- Export your notes to MS Word, Excel or CSV format.
Before utilizing any of the API introduced above, please carefully review the terms of service, usage guidelines, and agreements associated on their official websites.