A Summary of Zotero Plugins I Use
Original Japanese version: 導入しているZoteroプラグインのまとめ
This is a summary of the plugins I use with the reference manager Zotero. I have tried several plugins, and I find the following useful. They are listed in alphabetical order.
I plan to write separate articles about individual plugins little by little.
Better BibTeX for Zotero
This plugin is useful when exporting reference information from Zotero in BibTeX format. In particular, it can customize citation keys and automatically update BibTeX files. Rather than using it by itself, I often use it together with other software and tools.
Ethereal Style
This plugin customizes Zotero’s appearance and improves its interface. It has many features, such as adding custom columns to the item list, displaying related papers as a network graph, and changing PDF styles.
Personally, I find the reading progress display useful because it lets me see at a glance how much of each paper I have read.
I think it used to be called Zotero Style.
Translate for Zotero
This plugin translates PDFs, EPUB files, and other documents. By selecting the part you want to translate, it displays translation results using Google Translate or DeepL. The translation results can be saved as notes or annotations.
ZotCard
This plugin lets you organize notes in a card-like format. It has a template feature, which I use often.
Zotero Attanger
This plugin manages attachment files for references. It can move attachment files to specified folders and rename files. It is useful when used together with cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
Until Zotero 6, ZotFile was a well-known plugin for this purpose. It is not compatible with Zotero 7, so I now use this plugin.
Zotero Reading List
This plugin manages the reading status of references. It assigns statuses such as New, To Read, In Progress, Read, and Not Reading. You can also add custom statuses yourself.
ZotSeek
This is a plugin for searching papers that are semantically close to a specific phrase or paper, using local AI semantic search. Because it uses local AI, no internet connection is required, and information is not sent outside the computer.
The feature for finding similar papers is especially useful. Using one paper as a reference point, it can find papers with similar content from within the Zotero library.
I was worried about speed because it uses local AI, but in practice it is very fast and comfortable to use. It is said to respond in less than 100 milliseconds. It currently runs on the CPU, and GPU-based operation is planned for the future.
Thanks
I am deeply grateful to the people who develop and provide these plugins. Zotero itself is also open source and is a very useful reference management tool. I also appreciate the Zotero community.