Browse your library in the Library View

The Library View is a tab that lists your Zotero library inside Obsidian. Use it to find a paper and open its PDF, write its literature note, or cite it. Browsing and searching only read your library. Editing an annotation in the Reading Card changes it in Zotero. Reading a PDF can also update its read time, as described in Open an item's PDF in Obsidian.

The Library View reads the Zotero database directly. Zotero does not need to be open, and you do not need ZotLit Companion, the Zotero add-on, to browse, search, or open a PDF.

Open the Library ViewCopy anchor link

Select the ZotLit icon in the ribbon, or open the command palette and run:

ZotLit: 打开 Zotero 文库Copy →

The view opens in a tab titled Zotero 文库, with the cursor in its search box, unless the setup banner shows above it. If the tab is already open, ZotLit brings it forward instead of opening a second one.

On a new install, ZotLit opens the Library View for you. A setup banner sits above it until setup is complete. Its steps are 连接到 Zotero, 选择文献笔记的存放位置, and 打开您的文库. A finished step takes one line with its action at the end, and only the next step opens to explain what to do. Beside the steps, or under them in a narrow pane, tiles link to 入门, 聊天和讨论, 在 GitHub 上加星, 模板, and 引文, with the blog, the changelog, and sponsorship below them. These links stay on the banner whatever else it shows. The banner goes away once ZotLit reads your Zotero database and your literature notes folder exists, or when you select 关闭. To show it again, even after setup is complete, select 欢迎与帮助, the question-mark icon at the top of the Library View tab, or run ZotLit: 打开欢迎视图. The icon looks pressed while the banner shows, and selecting it again puts the banner away.

After ZotLit updates, it opens the Library View with the banner above it, saying ZotLit 已更新到 …. Select 新增内容 to read the release notes, or 关闭 to put the banner away. Either way, the banner says nothing more about this version, and comes back after the next update. Turn off 更新通知 in the Advanced settings to skip it.

When ZotLit cannot find ZoteroCopy anchor link

ZotLit looks for your library in the default Zotero profile. When it finds no database there, or the data folder you set holds none it can read, the list and the tree pane both say 未找到 Zotero, the list in place of the filters, the search box, and the papers. The setup banner leaves out its 连接到 Zotero step meanwhile, since the list says the same. Select 定位数据文件夹 and choose your Zotero data folder, or select 打开设置 to set the location in settings. Your papers appear as soon as the folder is set.

When ZotLit cannot find Zotero, it also shows the notice 在此设备上未找到 Zotero。 The notice has a 设置连接 button that opens the Library View. Only one such notice shows at a time. It does not show while a Library View is open, and it goes away once ZotLit reads your database again.

If the database was readable and a later read fails, the view keeps the papers it read last. A note above the list says: 无法从 Zotero 刷新。显示的是上次读取的列表。 Its 定位数据文件夹 button lets you choose the folder again in case it has moved.

Pick what the list showsCopy anchor link

The tree on the left lists 最近 first, then each library in your library scope with its collections nested as in Zotero. Each library and collection shows how many papers it holds.

Select a library or a collection to list its papers. A collection also lists the papers in its subcollections. The heading above the list names your selection, with the library and the collections above it, such as "My Library › Thesis ›" over "Chapter 2". Under the name it counts the papers listed and, when the selection holds any, the unread ones, for example "12 篇文献 · 3 篇未读". While a filter or a tag narrows the list, it counts what is left of the whole, for example 3 / 12 篇文献. A paper counts as unread when it has no Zotero read time, no annotations, and no literature note. The unread count, like the paper count in the tree, ignores search, the reading-state filters, and selected tags.

When your Zotero database holds libraries outside your library scope, 显示所有文库 under the last library adds them for the current session. 隐藏其他文库 hides them again.

If you rename or delete the collection you had selected, the view selects its library instead.

Select 显示文库和分类 next to the search box to hide the tree and give the list more room, and select it again to show the tree. ZotLit remembers your choice. To change the tree's width, drag its edge next to the list; double-click the edge to reset it. On a narrow pane the tree is hidden, and the same button opens it over the list.

RecentCopy anchor link

最近 lists every paper in your library scope by Last Activity, newest first. Last Activity is the newest time that you opened, read, or cited the paper in Obsidian; read it in Zotero; added it to Zotero; or edited one of its Zotero notes or annotations. An edit to the paper's own fields does not count. A new Library View opens on 最近.

Each row gives the activity that set its place in the list:

Opening and citing count on the device where they happen. They do not move the paper on another device. Reading recorded by Zotero syncs through Zotero and can move the paper on each device.

最近 shows no paper count in the tree, and 显示所有文库 does not add libraries to it. You can sort it another way with 排序 in the heading. Select 最近 again to return to the newest-first order.

Search your papersCopy anchor link

Type in the 搜索文献 box at the top of the view. The results are ranked the way the literature note quick switcher ranks them, best match first, and they stay inside the library or collection you selected. The heading becomes the match count, for example 12 个结果匹配“figure”, with the library or collection searched above it, and screen readers announce the count as it changes. While the results are ranked, 排序 in the heading stays in place but is off; clear the search to sort the list again.

To narrow to a Zotero tag, add a tag: token: tag:methods, or tag:"machine learning" for a tag with spaces. Several tokens narrow to papers that carry every tag. A search made only of tag: tokens keeps the list's sort instead of ranking.

To search beyond your selection, select 搜索所有文库 under the match count, or under the message when nothing matches. It searches every library in your library scope until you select a node in the tree or clear the search. Meanwhile the tree highlights no node, since the list is no longer the one it names. 最近 already covers your whole library scope, so it does not offer this.

Press Escape in the box to clear the search. Press it again on the empty box to move to the list.

When nothing matches, the heading reads 0 个结果匹配“glacier” and the list says how to go on: 试试搜索所有文库，或检查拼写。 Under it, 搜索所有文库 repeats the search in every library of your library scope. When the search already covers them, on 最近 or after 搜索所有文库, the list says 请检查拼写，或清除搜索以重新查看文献。 and offers 清除搜索 instead.

A search shows at most 500 matches.

Filter by reading stateCopy anchor link

The buttons below the tree narrow the list by what you have done with each paper:

Each filter you turn on also shows as a chip under the heading. Select a chip to turn its filter off, or 全部清除 beside the chips to turn off every filter and let go of every tag at once.

Turn on several filters to show only the papers that match all of them. The filters work with any tree selection, including 最近, and they stay on while you search. When no paper passes them, the list shows 没有文献符合已开启的筛选条件。

Filter by tagCopy anchor link

Under the reading-state filters, 标签 lists the Zotero tags of the papers in your tree selection, by name. Select a tag to show only the papers that carry it. Select more tags to show only the papers that carry all of them, as in Zotero. While tags are selected, the list of tags keeps only the tags of the papers still shown, and each selected tag shows as a chip under the heading, beside the reading-state filters. Select a chip to let go of its tag.

Select a selected tag again to let go of it, or select 取消全选 to let go of them all. The selected tags stay when you select another library or collection, and a selected tag stays in the list even where no paper there carries it.

Type in the 筛选标签 box to find a tag in a long list. The box narrows only the tag names, not the papers.

Selected tags work with the reading-state filters and the search. A tag: token in the search box narrows the same way.

Read the listCopy anchor link

The list draws each paper in two lines, in the 文献 layout: the title, then the creators, year, and publication. An icon at the end of the row shows the kind of the paper's main attachment, and a note icon shows that the paper has a literature note. Expand a paper to see its attachments, its child notes, its annotations, and its literature note.

排序 and 另存为查询文件… sit at the right of the heading; on a narrow pane they show their icons only. The view lists at most 1,000 papers at a time. When a selection holds more, the heading counts every paper it holds and adds 显示前 1,000 篇. For a table, other layouts, filters, grouping, or a choice of properties, save the view as a query file and work in its tab.

The Library View remembers your tree selection, filters, selected tags, search text, and sort. It keeps them in this vault's plugin data, so they come back in every Library View you open and they sync with your vault.

Open, write, and cite from a rowCopy anchor link

Click a row to select it, and use the arrow keys to move the selection. A selected row answers the same keys as a result in the literature note quick switcher:

To cite a paper, drag its row into a note. ZotLit inserts the citation where you drop it.

The row menuCopy anchor link

Right-click a row for every action on the paper:

When no note is open, 插入引用 shows 请先打开一篇笔记，再插入引用。. Open the note you are writing, then try again.

To open a PDF in Obsidian from other places, see Open an item's PDF in Obsidian.

Read a paper's Reading CardCopy anchor link

When you select a row, the Reading Card shows it on the right of the view. It shows what Zotero shows for the paper, but only reads it: the card never changes the paper in Zotero.

The card reads like the first page of the paper. From the top:

• The item type, such as Journal Article or Letter, in small capitals.
• The title.
• The creators, in full. Past ten names the card adds "et al."; 全部字段 lists them all.
• The journal or publisher, in italics, with the volume, issue, pages, and year.
• The DOI, which opens in your browser, and the citation key, with a button that copies it.

The buttons below run the actions of the row menu: 打开 PDF, and 打开文献笔记 or 撰写文献笔记. The 更多操作 button opens the full row menu, with 插入引用. The 在标注视图中打开 icon shows the paper's annotations in the Zotero 标注 view, which stays pinned to that paper until you unpin it; see Use the annotation view.

The rest of the card shows only what the paper has. A part with nothing in it is left out.

• The abstract, cut to a few lines. Select 展开 to read the rest.
• 保存在: the library and the collections that hold the paper.
• 标签: the paper's tags. Select one to filter by that tag, as if you selected it under the tree.
• 文件: the paper's attachments. Select one to open it: a PDF opens in Obsidian, and another file opens in Zotero.
• Zotero 笔记: the notes the paper has in Zotero. Select one to show it in Zotero.
• The date the paper was added to Zotero, and 全部字段, which shows every other field the paper has, such as its URL or its full date, with the labels Zotero uses and in Zotero's order.
• 你的标注: how many annotations the paper has in each colour, and its first two as short quotes, each with its page. Select 查看全部 8 条标注 to list them all, as the same cards the annotation view shows. You can edit a comment or tags there as you would in the sidebar; see Edit PDF annotations in Obsidian for what that needs.

The card remembers whether 全部字段 and the annotations are open, and keeps them that way for the next paper you select.

Select 显示条目详情 at the end of the search box's row, or press Space on a selected row, to show or hide the card. 关闭 on the card hides it too, and ZotLit remembers your choice. While the card shows, it follows the paper you select, by a click or by the arrow keys; with no paper selected, it asks you to select one, and counts how many papers in the library or collection you selected are unread, annotated, have a literature note, or have a PDF. On a narrow pane it opens under the tree and the list; drag its top edge to change its height, or double-click the edge to reset it. When it has the room, it shows the paper in two columns. When a search, a filter, or another tree selection takes the selected paper out of the list, the selection goes and the card shows no paper.

Show a paper in the libraryCopy anchor link

You can reveal a paper in the Library View from these places:

• In the literature note quick switcher, press Alt+Enter (Option+Enter on macOS) on any result.
• From an open literature note, run ZotLit: 在 Zotero 文库中显示条目 from the command palette, or select 在 Zotero 文库中显示 from the note's tab menu or file menu.
• In the 参考文献 sidebar, select 在 Zotero 文库中显示 on a reference row that matches a Zotero item.
• In the 被引用 view, select 在 Zotero 文库中显示 in the toolbar.
• In the citation hover popover, select 在 Zotero 文库中显示 in the popover toolbar.
• In the graph view, right-click a Cited Work Node whose citation key matches one Zotero item, and choose 在 Zotero 文库中显示.
• In template links, zt.librarylink creates an obsidian://zotlit/show-in-library protocol link that navigates to the paper on any synced device.

When you trigger 在 Zotero 文库中显示, ZotLit opens the Library View on the paper's collection (or its library if unfiled). It clears any active search text and turns off reading-state and tag filters so nothing hides the paper, then flashes the paper's row to highlight it.

When the paper is in none of your libraries in scope, the view keeps your current search and filters and displays 在你的文库中找不到该 Zotero 条目。. When the paper falls beyond the view's 1,000-paper limit, a notice reports 不在前 1,000 篇文献中。搜索其标题即可显示。.

Save the view as a query fileCopy anchor link

To keep what the Library View shows as a vault file, choose 另存为查询文件… in the heading. The name starts as the library or collection you selected; change it if you like, and choose a folder. When the file leaves out part of the view, the dialog says which. ZotLit writes a query file and opens it in a tab.

The file keeps the library or collection you selected, the selected tags, and the sort, opens in the 文献 layout, and lists at most 1,000 papers, as the view does. In its tab you can switch to the table, filter, group, and choose properties. Some parts of the view do not carry over:

• The search does not carry over. Query files have no way to express a ranked search yet.
• 有笔记 does not carry over, and 未读 keeps only its no-annotations half. Both depend on the notes in your vault, which a query file cannot filter by yet.
• A file saved from a library outside your library scope lists nothing until you add that library to the scope.

See alsoCopy anchor link