Better Notes for Zotero

Everything about note management. All in Zotero.

Better Notes Handbook (outdated, for version<=0.8.9): 中文 (provide translation)

🧩 Outline

🧐 What is this?

🤔 What can it do?

👋 Install

😎 Quick start

🧲 API

🔧 Development

🔔 Disclaimer

🔎 My Zotero Plugins

💰 Sponsor Me

🫶 Sponsors

🧐 What is this?

Better Notes (BN) is a plugin for Zotero.

BN streamlines your workflows of:

• paper reading
• annotating
• note taking
• metadata analyzing
• knowledge exporting
• AI writing assistant

and:

• works out of the box
• highly customizable
• all in Zotero

🤔 What can it do?

🖇️ Connect knowledge fragments with note link. With one click. Learn more →

🗂️ Simplify and automate knowledge analysis with extensive note templates. With one click. Learn more →

🔄️ Keep in sync with your Markdown files. Two-way, automatically. Learn more →

🖨️ Export notes to different formats: Markdown, Docx, PDF, and mind map. Learn more →

📝 Enhancements for Zotero's note editor.

👋 Install

• Download the latest release (.xpi file) from the Releases Page

  More Versions

  • Latest Stable
  • v1.0.4 (last for Zotero 6)
  • v0.8.9 (last with auto-insert, tag-insert, math-ocr, for Zotero 6)
  • All Releases (including Beta)

  Note: If you're using Firefox as your browser, right-click the .xpi and select "Save As.."

• In Zotero click Tools in the top menu bar and then click Addons

• Go to the Extensions page and then click the gear icon in the top right.

• Select Install Add-on from file.

• Browse to where you downloaded the .xpi file and select it.

• Finish!

😎 Quick start

BN offers a range of features that can be combined like Lego blocks to build your own note-taking workflow.

Start taking notes in Zotero with BN in 5 minutes!

Getting Started with the Workspace

The workspace serves as the central hub where input flows (papers and annotations) converge with output flows (summaries and comparisons).

To open the workspace, click the button in the tabs bar.

The workspace contains a default note called the workspace note. You can create a new note as the workspace note if prompted on opening workspace.

💡 How to set an existing note as the workspace note?

1. In the library: select a note item and right-click
2. In the note editor: click on the Tools button

You can change the workspace note at any time.

The workspace allows you to take notes and write, just like you would in MS Word or a markdown editor (e.g., Obsidian).

Explore the Workspace!
💡 The layout from left to right is:

• Outline
• Workspace note editor (main editor)
• Note link preview (hidden by default)
• Reader notes pane (hidden by default)

💡 To toggle these panes, hover the workspace tab and click corresponding buttons.
💡 To open the workspace in a new window, drag the workspace tab.

Note Editor

The workspace includes the note editor for the workspace note. You can use it to take notes and write summaries.

💡 How to open note editor?

• In the library: click to open a note editor and double-click to open note editor in a standalone window.
• In the PDF reader: right-side bar

💡 How to create a new note?
Click the note icon in the library tools bar (the row under the tabs bar).

Note Link

To create a note link between current note and the workspace note, simply click the button in the title bar of current note editor.

Note Template

Still spending a lot of time writing summaries or doing copy-pasting while taking notes? Say hello to Note Template!

Note Template is designed for tasks like:

• Summarize metadata and annotations from multiple papers, with customized filters
• Compare papers across sections
• Generate content programmatically

💡 Need help or looking for community templates? See here →

💡 Want to write/share your own templates?

How to write →

How to share →

Syncing: Note 🔄️ Markdown

With BN, you can integrate your note-taking into your existing workflow seamlessly. If you use markdown editors like Obsidian, you can keep your notes in sync with external Markdown files easily.

To set up auto-sync, click Set Auto-Sync the first time you export your note. There is no need for any third-party tools or complicated setups!

Any changes made to your note or its corresponding Markdown file will be automatically synced. This feature makes it easy to keep all of your notes up to date and in one place.

💡 Note: The note being edited will be synced after the editor is closed.

Note Export

BN offers various options to export your notes, giving you the flexibility to choose the format that suits your needs.

You can export your note to the following formats:

• A new note in Zotero
• Markdown file (embedded or linked, with images)
• MS Word document (.docx)
• PDF document (.pdf)
• FreeMind file (.mm)

Simply click on the corresponding export button in the toolbar and follow the prompts.

GPT Integration

The Zotero-GPT plugin provides GPT Integration. If you also have Better Notes installed, you can wake up GPT pane in the workspace note editor with space key.

You can:

• Ask GPT questions about current note
• Summarize/fix spelling and grammar/translate/polish the selection
• Accept suggestions/modifications from GPT with enter key.

Other Features

• Quick Note: convert annotation to note with one click.
• Resize images with right-click menu.
• Preview images with double-click/ctrl-click.

🧲 API

BN provides APIs for other plugin developers in Zotero.BetterNotes.api.${API_MODULE}. See api.ts.

• workspace: Workspace APIs
• sync: Syncing APIs
• convert: Lossless conversion between note, HTML, Markdown, note link, and annotation
• template: Manipulate note templates
• $export: Export note
• $import: Import note
• editor: Note editor APIs. Give your script the full control of contents in the note editor.

🔧 Development

This plugin is built based on the Zotero Plugin Template. See the setup and debug details there.

To startup, run

git clone https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes.git
cd zotero-better-notes
npm install
npm run build

The plugin is built to ./builds/*.xpi.

🔔 Disclaimer

Use this code under AGPL. No warranties are provided. Keep the laws of your locality in mind!

🔎 My Zotero Plugins

• Translate for Zotero: PDF translation for Zotero
• zotero-pdf-preview: PDF preview for Zotero
• zotero-tag: Automatically tag items/Batch tagging

💰 Sponsor Me

I'm windingwind, an active Zotero(https://www.zotero.org) plugin developer. Devoting to making reading papers easier.

Sponsor me to buy a cup of coffee. I spend more than 24 hours every week coding, debugging, and replying to issues in my plugin repositories. The plugins are open-source and totally free.

If you sponsor more than $10 a month, you can list your name/logo here and have priority for feature requests/bug fixes!

🙌 Sponsors

Thanks peachgirl100, Juan Gimenez, and other anonymous sponsors!

If you want to leave your name here, please email me or leave a message with the donation.