I’m new to both Obsidian and Zotero (I previously used Citavi). I’ve searched the forums but haven’t found a solution - likely because I’m new to both applications and don’t yet know where to look for the information I need.
What I’m trying to do
I currently have over 1,600 items in Zotero, including roughly 1,000 notes and comments. My goal is to import these notes and comments into Obsidian using a unified format. Ideally, each entry should look like this (example of a manually transferred entry):
At the top, I’d like the full reference automatically generated in the citation style I’ve configured in Zotero, followed by my notes and quotes. The fields for Tags and “Thema” can remain empty, as I will fill them in manually.
Things I have tried
I’ve installed the Obsidian plugins Zotero Integration and Citations, as well as the Zotero add-on Better BibTex. I’m able to import individual entries into Obsidian, but not the entire library at once (which is fine, since I’ll review the tags manually anyway). More importantly, the imported entries use a formatting style that I don’t know how to customize.
Hey there and welcome to the community!
So, you’re set up pretty good already - what exactly is the question?
Probably you’ll need a bit of work done by tweaking the template for whichever Plugin you’ll decide for right to your needs. But this will pay off in the long run!
Personally I switched to ZotLit after trying the other two myself. The docs are quite extensive compared to Integration, and what really helped me to build awesome templates was the ETA script playground, for this is the templating language ZotLit asks for. Looks more scary than it actually is, even for beginners.
Also I’d recommend to always check when a Plugin repo was last maintained, when it comes to choosing one…
This said, never hesitate to come back here and share your template code, the community will be happy to help out with more detailed questions anytime.
I’m almost there, I think, but I don’t know where to customize the reference that appears at the top of each import—it should match the first screenshot.
I’ve selected a citation style in Zotero and added it to Zotero Integration, but I don’t know how to configure it to insert that information automatically at the very beginning of each note.
Unfortunately, it seems like I can’t get to the point where a template gets involved in the process. I tried to follow these information, but no matter how I customize the template, it doesn’t affect the import of the selected Zotero item.
Are you sure that you aren’t just using the default “Import notes” command by mistake? You need to use the command associated with the import format you’ve configured.
Since you seem aware of the distinction, this looks like a mismatched expectation. “Import notes” not applying templates is by design, it’s not a bug. It’s just meant to import the notes associated with the item with the default formatting provided by Zotero.
You should remove the solution label from your comment, as it misleadingly suggests that this is a bug, when it really is just a case of using the wrong command.
What you describe as a workaround is just correct usage of the plugin.
Please share your zotero integration template, if you need further help customizing the content and look of your source notes.
Well, @Feralflora seems right, this is not a bug at all. According to your configuration screenshots, you should have a command Zotero Integration: Import #1 in your command palette. So hit this one and your template should work fine.
To make it perfectly clear to everyone, if you configured Zotero Integration like this:
