2-minute guide to the advantages of using Zotero. The first 30 seconds refers to another school, but the rest of the video applies to everyone.
STEP 1
PC users - Save and close all Word docs before downloading Zotero.
MAC users - Save close and force quit Word for Mac before downloading Zotero
STEP 2
STEP 3
At the end of the download, follow the prompt and set up your Zotero account.
The Zotero community has an active tech support board. Explore it at https://www.zotero.org/support/.
Zotero wants to use the most recent (7th edition) of APA. However, some Brenau programs are still using the 6th edition of APA. To make Zotero recognize APA 6 as an option:
For basic instructions on using Zotero, see the videos above.
Here are some extra tips on various Zotero questions that have come up. If you have another question or have a trick to share, let us know with the "Ask A Librarian" tool!
Google Docs: Google Docs began supporting Zotero in late 2018. It's fine for short, one-person documents. However, we do not recommend using Zotero in Google Docs for long papers edited by multiple people. It's still glitchy and causes a lot of problems, from weird formatting to crashing. If you need to share a document, we recommend using Office 365 (free through your Brenau account). If you are really committed to Google Docs, don't try to use Zotero until the end. Write your paper and insert reminders like [insert Smith 2018 citation here] in the text. When you're done with the paper, download it as a Word doc and insert all the citations and references using Zotero in Word.
Abbreviations: In APA style, you may need to spell out a long phrase once and abbreviate it later. Zotero can do this.
Highlighting Zotero citations: In Word for Windows, you can hover over a Zotero citation and it will turn gray. That's a good way to make sure all your citations are from Zotero and will show up in your reference list. In Word for Mac, you have to turn that on manually.