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Zotero Guide

UTA Libraries' guide to the citation management tool Zotero

Step 5: Consider disabling automatic attachments and tags

1. In Zotero, open the Preferences menu by clicking on "Edit" and then clicking on "Preferences".


2. Click on the "General" tab in the "Preferences" menu.

3. Under the "File handling" heading, uncheck the following two statements:

     1. "Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages"

     2. "Automatically attach associated PDFs and other files when saving items"

4. Under the "Miscellaneous" heading, uncheck the following statement:

     1. "Automatically tag items with keywords and subject headings"

Why?

  • By default, Zotero adds attachments such as web page screenshots and full-text PDFs, if they are available. While convenient, this default setting can quickly reduce your Zotero storage space.
  • Zotero will import tags that it detects when you import an item from a database or library catalog, but these imported tags may clutter your library.

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