Zotero allows the quick and easy generation of reports about items in your collection. Because reports are simple HTML documents, you can print them, post them to the web, and email them. | //Example of a report//| |{{http://www.zotero.org/images/reports/report.png?490nocache}}| ======Generating Reports====== There are three ways to create reports. When you right click (ctrl-click on a Mac) on any item, set of items, or collection, Zotero will allow you to "Generate report from selected item(s)." After choosing this option in the drop-down menu, Zotero will generate a HTML report based on the selected item(s) and display it in your browser window. |{{http://www.zotero.org/images/reports/report_from_collections.png?350nocache&nolink}}|{{http://www.zotero.org/images/reports/report_from_items.png?350nocache&nolink}}| | //Right click on a collection for a report about its entire content// | //Or right click on specific items for a limited report// | For now, reports contain every field for each item included. In the future, users will be able to specify fields. Until customization features are added you might want to try Jason Priem's [[ http://jasonpriem.com/projects/report_cleaner.php |Zotero report cleaner]], which allows you to remove some of the fields from your reports. Because reports are simple HTML documents, you can print them, post them to the web, and email them. | //Example of a report//| |{{http://www.zotero.org/images/reports/report.png?490nocache}}| ======Changing the Sort Order in Your Reports====== By default your reports sort by title in ascending order (0-9 and A-Z). To change the order of items, add "?sort=" followed by the item field you would like to sort by to the report's URL. You can reverse the order by adding "/d" after the field name. When you bring it all together you get something that looks like this: zotero://report/items/8077-15035-1713-4917/html/report.html?sort=title,date/d Below are some other fields you might find it useful to sort by: |?sort=title|?sort=firstCreator | |?sort=date| ?sort=accessed | |?sort=dateAdded | ?sort=dateModified | |?sort=publicationTitle | ?sort=publisher | |?sort=itemType |?sort=series | |?sort=type |?sort=medium | |?sort=callNumber |?sort=pages | |?sort=archiveLocation |?sort=DOI | |?sort=ISBN |?sort=ISSN | |?sort=edition | ?sort=url | |?sort=rights | | When generating a report from a collection rather than by selecting individual items, Zotero will automatically use the current sort order in the items list. ======Sharing Reports====== =====Saving Reports===== You can save a report in the same way that you would save any HTML document on the web. Select File-->"Save File As...", then specify where you would like to save the file. You can then post your report on the web or email it to a colleague. =====Printing Reports===== You can print a report just like you would print any other HTML document that you view through your browser. From the broswer's Main Menu, select File-->"Print." ======Advanced Uses For Reports====== =====Using reports to organize your notes===== With reports, it's easy to organize your notes automatically into an outline. At the beginning of each note, add an outline number, e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 2.1. Then select the notes (and the item they belong to, if you want) and right-click/control-click to select “Generate Report from Selected Items...” When you are ready, you can print the report from your browser. Note: Because 10.0 will sort before 6.0, make sure to insert the appropriate number of zeroes (e.g. 06.0) of your outline goes into 10 or more sections. If you are working with a great number of notes and you do not want to manually select them, tags and advanced searches can make life easier. First tag each note with a description, such as "chapter one." Then create an advanced search for "item type" [is] "note" and "tag" [is] "chapter one." Now save the advanced search. Right click on your saved search and select "Generate Report from Saved Search." This will create a report including only the notes tagged "chapter one." By default all information about an item will be displayed with its associated notes. If you want to separate your notes from the full record of the item, change your preference settings in your browser's configuration file: type "about:config" into Firefox's Location Bar and hit the Enter key. Search for "extensions.zotero.report.combineChildItems" and double click it, which will toggle the setting to "false." Generated reports will now separate the notes from items, making it easier for you to use Zotero as an outlining tool. =====Using reports to search through your notes===== Reports are a great way to search within your notes. Although Zotero's basic and advanced search functions are robust enough to look at all the information in a collection, they are not as useful for examining long notes. Simply generate a report of the items that you want to search, and then use Firefox's built-in search features. From the Firefox Main Menu, select Edit-->"Find in this page..." This will result in a search box at the bottom of your browser window that you can use to search through the displayed report. The Next and Previous buttons allow you to scroll through the report while the "Highlight all" button clearly marks all the times that the search term appears. =====Using reports as a teaching tool===== The report feature can also be used as a way for teachers to track and assess students during the writing process. With only a few clicks, a student can create a full report of their Zotero Library that includes information about when items were collected and how students are associating their items with notes and tags. These reports can show the ways that students are relating their research items, and students can turn in these reports as documentation of their research process. Teachers have found these comprehensive reports to be a useful way to peer into and encourage the composition process.