Zotero - DT3 Import Working: A Customizable digital word processor for HTML, RTF, and PDF

DEVONthink
1

Let me give a huge thanks to @retorquere for creating and sharing an app written in Node which does a terrific job importing Zotero data into Devonthink DT3:

I have long sought a way to combine these two applications. Zotero is ideal for collecting and organizing citations. Devonthink is ideal for searching information as well as working with information in order to create a report or presentation to share with others.

The combination of these two results essentially in a programmable word processor particularly well-suited for writing on topics which cite multiple other sources of information.

Emiliano’s implementation allows you to create or customize an html template which presents Zotero data arranged in any format that html/CSS allow - including all of the typical Zotero citation fields as well as html notes (including change in font/color and even images/annotations) and links to the citation in Zotero online as well as links to file attachments locally in Zotero or external links associated with the Zotero citation.

Once the data is in Devonthink, the full range of Devonthink’s abilities allow not only for searching your Zotero database but also serves as an editor to combine multiple citations and edit content in HTML, RTF, or PDF format as you wish. Thus essentially Devonthink works as both a means to search your Zotero database and also as an extremely capable and customizable report generator.

My main personal/professional usage of Zotero and Devonthink is to research focused topics in medicine and then annotate, curate, and write a summary discussion on the issues in those papers. This concept of course applies to many other fields of knowledge as well. This integration between Zotero and Devonthink - a “programmable HTML, RTF, and PDF word processor” - is a holy grail I have been seeking for some time. I suspect it will be similarly useful to many others who use one or both of these applications.

Just one example here of a very simple example displaying Zotero data inside DT3 - this is based on an HTML template so the format is as customizable as HTML and CSS can be:

image
image.png3696×2010 674 KB

5 Likes
2

Interesting. I’m sure there are people who will find some use in it.

3

This sounds excellent. I have read this post by @rkaplan first on the Zotero Forum and now here. I wanted to apply it. This is my desolate experience. If someone can share more guidelines this would be greatly appreciated.

  1. I have followed the instructions provided on github (see above)
  2. I have node installed and everything
  3. I have downloaded and altered the files as suggested and extracted the URL from my collection
  4. I could not find any indication as to where put the files after the download
  5. I don’t know what it means ‘create a directory called output if it doesn’t exist, or add a field called output to config.json pointing to the output directory’
  6. I run npm start in terminal and nothing happens

From 1 to 3 all is clear – but I have no clue as to make it work. Retorquere also suggest to ‘paste the URL in your browser so you can see what the objects look like’ (step 3) but the browser refuses to open it.

Is there any better guideline of what looks like a promising workflow? Sorry to be a total newby.