Zantherus

Zotero is an awesome Firefox extension that helps with essay writing. It can create citations in almost every format. Now, I’m quite new to Zotero and have only used it for writing one essay. This tutorial will help install Firefox (if not already installed) and set up Zotero, as well as the bare basics of Zotero. If you already have Firefox installed, skip to Step 17.

If you want more information, you can go to http://www.zotero.org/documentation/quick_start_guide

Let’s begin! You can click on any of the images for a larger view.

 Step 1: Open up Internet Explorer (the big E) or another browser and type in http://www.getfirefox.com in the address bar, or just click the link that I just typed.

Step 2: Click on the large green button that says ‘Download Firefox - Free’. Don’t worry — this is a perfectly safe download. You will NOT get any sort of virus or spyware from this download.

Step 3: You will get a dialog box similar to the one below. Click on ‘Save’. If you do not want to save it to your computer, hit ‘run’ and skip to Step 5.

Step 4: Select the location where you want to save the installation file and hit save. Skip to step 5 if you hit ‘run’ in the above step.

Step 5: Wait for the file to download.

Step 6: When the download is complete, hit ‘run’.

Step 7: You will get yet another security dialog. Hit ‘run’.

Step 8: The file will self-extract. You just need to wait.

Step 9: The installation wizard for Mozilla Firefox will appear.

Step 10: Select ‘I accept the terms in the License Agreement’ and hit ‘Next’. You should probably read it and it is recommended that you do for every software you install but you’ll probably get bored reading it.

Step 11: Select ‘Standard’ and hit next. (Advanced users can select ‘Custom’ for more options but it is beyond the scope of this tutorial and will not be covered. You’re on your own if you do that.)

Step 12: Firefox will install. Just wait.

Step 13: Installation will finish. If you want to continue with the tutorial, keep ‘Launch Mozilla Firefox now’ ticked and hit finish. If for some reason you don’t, untick the box and hit finish.

Step 14: You will get a dialog box like the one below the first time you install Firefox. Choose whether you want to import data from Internet Explorer. I chose ‘don’t import anything’.

Step 15: Firefox will prompt you if you want to choose it as your default browser. This means if you click on any .html file or link in an instant message or something else it will open in Firefox, not Internet Explorer. I chose ‘No’.

Step 16: Yay! You’ve gotten Firefox installed for the first time! *high-five* If you just skipped here, that means you already have Firefox installed! Yay!

Step 17: Type http://addons.mozilla.org in the address bar, or just click on the link I typed.

Step 18: Type ‘zotero’ in the big green search bar and hit Enter.

Step 19: Zotero will be the first result. Click ‘Add to Firefox’. Warning: If you are using the Firefox 3 beta there are ways to use Zotero but it is not fully compatible nor supported yet. It will not be covered in this tutorial. But if you installed Firefox using this tutorial then you’re safe! You will most likely know if you are using the Firefox 3 beta.

Step 20: You will get a dialog box like the one below. You wil need to wait about four or five seconds before you can click ‘install’, so wait.

Step 21: Now that you’ve waiting the allotted time, hit ‘Install Now’.

Step 22: Zotero will install. You will need to wait.

Step 23: After it is done it will return the message ‘Restart to complete the installation’. Just click on the big ‘Restart Firefox’ button.

Step 24: If you have multiple tabs open then you will get the dialog box below. Hit ‘close tabs’. If you only have one tab then you won’t get this message, skip to Step 25.

Step 25: Firefox will reopen in several moments and the Zotero homepage will appear. Congrats! You’ve gotten Zotero installed! Note the ‘Zotero’ logo in the corner.

Step 26: Click on the Zotero logo in the corner. You will get a window with three panes like the one below. Go to a website of your choice to cite somethnig from, I used http://www.gnu.org but you don’t need to (it’s super geeky).

Step 27: Highlight some text on the page of your choosing and right-click it. Note the ‘Create Zotero Item and Note from Selection’. Select it.

Step 28: Now notice that the quote as well as the site is now in the middle pane of Zotero.

Step 29: Right-click on the entry with a (plus or) minus box next to it. If you click on the entries inside it, you will get an error because there is no reference for that particular citation. Once you have right clicked the root entry select ‘Create Bibliography from Selected Item).

Step 30: Scroll down to ‘Modern Language Association’, the MLA format, and tick the ‘Copy to Clipboard’ radio button. Hit ‘OK’.

Step 31: Open up Microsoft Word or the word processing program of your choice (I’m using Microsoft Word). Right-click and select ‘Paste’.

Step 32: Ta-da! It’s all formatted right! You may need to adjust margins.

Step 33: Now, I’m going to show you a slightly different way of getting a citation. Go to any other website of your choice. I used http://www.fsf.org. Again, it’s really geeky. Note the ‘Create New Item from Current Page’.

Step 34: Zotero automatically alphabetizes the entries. Magic!

Step 35: Now control-left click the root entries (the ones with the plus or minus box next to them) except the Zotero Quick Start Guide) and select ‘Create Bibliography from Selected Items’.

Step 36: MLA should be selected and same with ‘Copy to Clipboard’.

Step 37: Open up Microsoft Word again and right click and paste.

Step 38: Yay! It’s all alphatized and formatted correctly!

Thanks for using this tutorial. Please leave a comment and give suggestions so I can improve this guide. I know I didn’t cover a lot of Zotero — there is a LOT Zotero can do such as notetaking — but this is a guide just to install it and learn the bare basics of it. 

~akiratheoni