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kb:mendeley_import [2018/08/23 17:54] – dstillman | kb:mendeley_import [2019/01/15 04:08] – [Mendeley Database Encryption] Shorten link text dstillman | ||
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===== Mendeley Database Encryption ===== | ===== Mendeley Database Encryption ===== | ||
- | Mendeley 1.19 and later have begun encrypting the local database, making it unreadable by Zotero and other standard database tools. Elsevier made this change a few months after Zotero publicly announced work on an importer, despite having long touted the openness of its database format as a guarantee against lock-in. At the same time, Mendeley continues to import data from Zotero’s own open database, as it has since 2009. | + | Mendeley 1.19 and later have begun encrypting the local database, making it unreadable by Zotero and other standard database tools. Elsevier made this change a few months after Zotero publicly announced work on an importer, despite having long touted the openness of its database format as a guarantee against lock-in |
The [[https:// | The [[https:// | ||
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In addition to the database encryption discussed above, there are a few other issues to be aware of when importing from Mendeley. | In addition to the database encryption discussed above, there are a few other issues to be aware of when importing from Mendeley. | ||
- | * Mendeley stores PDF annotations and highlights in its database rather than storing them in the file where they would be accessible to other PDF readers, so Zotero extracts annotations to a note stored under the item, with links back to the original page. Highlights are not imported. Mendeley provides an option to generate a PDF with annotations and highlights added back to the file, but it can only be run for one file at a time. If you’d like to import PDFs with annotations and highlights, you could use that option for select | + | * Mendeley stores PDF annotations and highlights in its database rather than storing them in the file where they would be accessible to other PDF readers, so Zotero extracts annotations to a note stored under the item, with links back to the original page. Highlights are not imported. |
+ | - Mendeley provides an option to generate a PDF with annotations and highlights added back to the file. Prior to Mendeley 1.19.3, that option could only be run for one file at a time; in 1.19.3, it can be run for multiple files but doesn’t include highlights. In our testing, exported PDFs also don’t always contain the text of annotations. But if you’re able to satisfactorily export | ||
+ | - You can also try using the third-party [[https:// | ||
* It’s not possible to directly import group libraries. To import items in group libraries, simply copy the group items to a collection in your Mendeley library before importing. You can then create a Zotero group and drag imported collections or items to that group. | * It’s not possible to directly import group libraries. To import items in group libraries, simply copy the group items to a collection in your Mendeley library before importing. You can then create a Zotero group and drag imported collections or items to that group. | ||
* Mendeley allows any field to be added to any type. When importing into Zotero, if a field isn’t valid for a given item type, the field is placed into the Extra field. When possible, those will be used automatically in citations (e.g., Original Date), and future versions of Zotero will automatically convert those to any real fields that become available. | * Mendeley allows any field to be added to any type. When importing into Zotero, if a field isn’t valid for a given item type, the field is placed into the Extra field. When possible, those will be used automatically in citations (e.g., Original Date), and future versions of Zotero will automatically convert those to any real fields that become available. | ||
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If you're running the latest version and something doesn’t come through how you expect or you run into any trouble, let us know in the [[https:// | If you're running the latest version and something doesn’t come through how you expect or you run into any trouble, let us know in the [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Preserving Mendeley Annotations and Highlights ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | As [[# | ||
+ | |||
+ | To use the third-party [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== macOS or Linux ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | - Close Mendeley | ||
+ | - Make a backup of your [[https:// | ||
+ | - Download and unzip the menextract2pdf script from [[https:// | ||
+ | - Open Terminal, navigate to the unzipped Menextract2pdf folder, and run the following command (filling in the correct file paths): | ||
+ | * < | ||
+ | - For example, on macOS, if you have your Mendeley database in the [[https:// | ||
+ | * < | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Windows ==== | ||
+ | - Install [[https:// | ||
+ | - Close Mendeley | ||
+ | - Make a backup of your [[https:// | ||
+ | - Download and unzip the menextract2pdf script from [[https:// | ||
+ | - Open Command Prompt, navigate to the unzipped Menextract2pdf folder, and run the following command (filling in the correct file paths): | ||
+ | * < | ||
+ | - For example, if you have your Mendeley database in the [[https:// | ||
+ | * < | ||
+ | |||
{{tag>kb entry}} | {{tag>kb entry}} |