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--- retrieve_pdf_metadata [2020/04/20 00:59] – dstillman
+++ retrieve_pdf_metadata [2022/03/05 16:58] (current) – dstillman
@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 {{https://www.zotero.org/static/images/blog/5.0.36/auto-recognize@2x.gif?744}}
-If Zotero can find a match for the item, it will create a full Zotero item with the available data and attach the PDF. If it can't, it will leave the PDF as a standalone attachment, allowing you to add a parent item [[adding_items_to_zotero|from the web or by identifier]] and drag the PDF onto it. If all else fails, you can right-click on the PDF, choose Create Parent Item, and manually enter metadata for the item.
+If Zotero can find a match for the PDF, it will create a full Zotero item with the available data and attach the PDF. If it can't, it will leave the PDF as a standalone attachment, allowing you to add a parent item another way — either by [[adding_items_to_zotero|saving an item from the web]] and dragging the PDF on top of it or by right-clicking on the PDF, choosing Create Parent Item, and entering an identifier such as a DOI or ISBN. If all else fails, you can click Manual Entry after selecting Create Parent Item and manually enter metadata for the item.
+If you're not happy with the metadata saved for the PDF, you can right-click on the new parent item and choose Undo Retrieve Metadata to leave the PDF as a standalone attachment for further manual processing.
 Zotero should retrieve high-quality metadata for most academic PDFs. While it can sometimes extract basic information (title, author) from other documents, you shouldn't expect that — anything can be distributed as a PDF, but that doesn’t mean there’s any standard metadata available for it.
-**Note:** While this feature can greatly facilitate importing large existing libraries of PDFs, it **is not** the best way to add items to your library in general. Items can be imported faster by using the Zotero Connector plugin in your browser from publisher websites or most scholarly databases. This saves several steps versus downloading the PDF manually and adding it to Zotero. The item metadata will also often be higher quality. See [[Adding Items to Zotero]] for more info.
+**Note:** While this feature can greatly facilitate importing large existing libraries of PDFs, it **is not** the best way to add items to your library in general. Items and PDFs can be imported faster by using the Zotero Connector plugin in your browser from the article pages (not the PDFs) of publisher websites or most scholarly databases. This saves several steps versus downloading the PDF manually and adding it to Zotero. The item metadata will also often be higher quality. See [[Adding Items to Zotero]] for more info.
 ==== How It Works ====
 The Retrieve Metadata feature uses a Zotero web service to find item metadata. The Zotero client sends the first few pages of text from the PDF to the web service, which uses a variety of extraction algorithms and known metadata from Crossref, paired with DOI and ISBN lookups, to build a parent item for the PDF. The Zotero lookup service doesn’t require a Zotero account and doesn’t log any data about the content or results of searches.