Every item you add to Zotero goes into "My Library" which holds every item in your collection.
Organize your references into more manageable collections and subcollections.
Working by yourself? Create a collection under "My Library".
Working with others? Create a collection under "Group Libraries". Learn how to create and fill group libraries.
1. To add a new collection, click on the "New Collection" icon as indicated in the red box below.
2. A menu will pop-up asking for a name. Give it a recognizable name and click OK.
A subcollection may be useful for performing extensive in-depth research.
In order to create a subcollection, you must first create or choose a collection to contain it.
Locate the collection in which you want to add a subcollection. Right click on the collection and choose "New Subcollection..." as shown below.
You can also create a subcollection by dragging an existing collection into another collection. The collection you drag will become a subcollection for the collection you placed it on.
Tags can be useful methods for organizing your library.
To add a tag to an item:
1. Select an item in the middle pane.
2. Select the Tags tab in the right hand pane.
3. Click Add and type the tag name and hit enter.
4. To add multiple tags at once:
You can also add tags to items by selecting items and dragging them to a tag in the tag selector.
Located at the bottom left of Zotero, the multi-coloured tag selector shows all tags assigned to items currently shown in the centre pane.
Show all the tags in the library in the centre pane by clicking the tag selector and choose Display All Tags in This Library. Any tags not assigned to the items being shown are greyed out.
You can filter items by their tags by clicking on one or multiple tags in the tag selector. If you choose multiple tags, only items that have all selected tags will be shown in the centre pane.
Deselect tags by clicking on them again or deselect all tags at once by clicking the tag selector button and choosing "Deselect All".
1. Use the filter box at the bottom of the tag selector by searching within the box for tags.
2. Go back to viewing all tags by pressing the Escape key.