The foundational elements in most Zotero libraries, regular items take the form of reference types—books, journal articles, manuscripts—and have associated bibliographic metadata (Title, Author, Publisher, etc.). Regular items can be created manually by using the New Item drop-down menu or automatically by clicking the Zotero address bar icon to save from a supported website.

Regular items can only be top-level items. Attachments and notes can be added to regular items as child items.

Attachments are files and web links without full bibliographic metadata. There are four kinds of attachment items:

Web links are essentially bookmarks to websites. When you save a link, Zotero stores only the page title, URL, and access date, and you need to return to the site to view the page content.

Snapshots contain the same information as web links, but Zotero also saves a copy of the page as it currently exists so that you can view it later, even if the original webpage has changed or disappeared.

Snapshots can be single files, such as PDFs, or consist of multiple files, as is the case with an HTML page and its associated images.

Linked files are links to files stored outside of the Zotero data directory on your computer.

Imported files are files stored within the Zotero data directory. When you import a file (either using “Store Copy of File” or by dragging in a file), Zotero copies the file to its data directory, leaving the original untouched. After importing a file, you may wish to delete the external copy to avoid confusion.

Attachments can have tags applied to them and can be linked to “related” items. Each attachment also has a single embedded note field.

Attachments can either be child attachments (attached to regular items) or standalone attachments (top-level items not attached to regular items). Attachments cannot have child items attached to them.

Notes are pieces of text without full bibliographic metadata.

Notes can either be child notes (attached to regular items) or standalone notes (top-level items not attached to regular items). Notes cannot have child items attached to them.