Better Notes for Zotero

Everything about note management. All in Zotero.

Join the community on Telegram: @bnzotero

🧩 Outline

Getting Started by Opening a Note Tab

Note Editor

Note Link

Note Template

Syncing: Note 🔄️ Markdown

🧐 What is this?

Better Notes (BN) is a plugin for Zotero.

BN streamlines your workflows of:

paper reading
annotating
note taking
metadata analyzing
knowledge exporting
AI writing assistant

and:

works out of the box
highly customizable
all in Zotero

🤔 What can it do?

🖇️ Connect knowledge fragments with note link. With one click. Learn more →

🗂️ Simplify and automate knowledge analysis with extensive note templates. With one click. Learn more →

🔄️ Keep in sync with your Markdown files. Two-way, automatically. Learn more →

🖨️ Export notes to different formats: Markdown, Docx, PDF, and mind map. Learn more →

📝 Enhancements for Zotero's note editor with outline, link relation, view images.... Open as much note tabs/windows as you like!

👋 Install

Download the plugin (.xpi file) from below.
Note: If you're using Firefox as your browser, right-click the .xpi and select "Save As.."
In Zotero click Tools in the top menu bar and then click Plugins
Go to the Extensions page and then click the gear icon in the top right.
Select Install Add-on from file.
Browse to where you downloaded the .xpi file and select it.
Finish!

😎 Quick start

BN offers a range of features that can be combined like Lego blocks to build your own note-taking workflow.

Start taking notes in Zotero with BN in 5 minutes!

Getting Started by Opening a Note Tab

💡 In the latest version, the workspace is no longer a thing. You can open an unlimited number of note tabs/windows, which is what we called workspace in the past.

To open a note in a tab, double-click/press Enter on the item in the library, as you would do to open an attachment. Holding shift opens the note in a new window.

Explore the Note Tab!
💡 The layout from left to right is:

Outline

Note editor

Context pane (tags, related, relation graph, in/outbound links)

Note Editor

💡 Where can I find the note editor?

In the note tab/window

In the library: click to open a note editor in the item pane

In the PDF reader: right-side context pane

💡 How to create a new note?
Click the note icon in the library tools bar (the row under the tabs bar), or from the menu - File

Magic Key

BN enhances the note editor with a Magic Key command palette, which can be opened by typing / in the editor. You can type or use the arrow keys to navigate the commands, and press Enter to execute.

Note Link Preview

BN enhances the note editor with link preview. Hover+Ctrl/Cmd or click the link to preview the linked note without leaving the current note.

Direct Markdown Paste

BN supports direct markdown paste. You can paste markdown content into the note editor, and it will be converted to the rich text format automatically.

Note Link

To create a note link between the note you are editing and another note, click the button in the title bar of the note editor.

💡 What's the difference between Mention in and Link to?

Mention in will insert a link of the current note (from which you open the link creator) to another note (which you pick in the link creator), i.e. inbound link. Link to will insert links of picked notes to the current note, i.e. outbound link.

You can also manually copy the note link from the note editor menu.

Note Template

Are you spending a lot of time writing summaries and copy-pasting while taking notes? Say hello to Note Template!

Note Template is designed for tasks like:

Summarize metadata and annotations from multiple papers, with customized filters
Compare papers across sections
Generate content programmatically

💡 Need help or looking for community templates? See here →

💡 Want to write/share your templates?

How to write →

How to share →

Syncing: Note 🔄️ Markdown

With BN, you can integrate your note-taking into your existing workflow seamlessly. If you use markdown editors like Obsidian, you can keep your notes in sync with external Markdown files easily.

To set up auto-sync, click Set Auto-Sync the first time you export your note. There is no need for any third-party tools or complicated setups!

Any changes made to your note or its corresponding Markdown file will be automatically synced. This feature makes it easy to keep all of your notes up to date and in one place.

💡 Note: The note being edited will be synced after the editor is closed.

Note Export

BN offers various options to export your notes, giving you the flexibility to choose the format that suits your needs.

You can export your note to the following formats:

A new note in Zotero
Markdown file (embedded or linked, with images)
MS Word document (.docx)
PDF document (.pdf)
FreeMind file (.mm)

Simply click on the corresponding export button in the toolbar and follow the prompts.

LLM Integration

The Zotero-GPT plugin provides GPT Integration. If you also have Better Notes installed, you can wake up its chatting pane in the note editor and insert/modify content in the note.

Action Workflow

The Actions & Tags plugin provides a powerful workflow engine for Zotero. If you also have Better Notes installed, you can use the following actions to automate note generation/editing/syncing/etc.:

Other Features

Quick Note: convert annotation to note with one click.
Resize images with a right-click menu.
Preview images with double-click/ctrl-click.

🧲 API

BN provides APIs for other plugin developers in Zotero.BetterNotes.api.${API_MODULE}. See api.ts.

workspace: Workspace APIs
sync: Syncing APIs
convert: Lossless conversion between note, HTML, Markdown, note link, and annotation
template: Manipulate note templates
$export: Export note
$import: Import note
editor: Note editor APIs. Give your script full control of contents in the note editor.

🔧 Development

This plugin is built based on the Zotero Plugin Template. See the setup and debug details there.

To start, run

git clone https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes.git
cd zotero-better-notes
npm install
npm run build

The plugin is built to ./builds/*.xpi.

🔔 Disclaimer

Use this code under AGPL. No warranties are provided. Keep the laws of your locality in mind!

🔎 My Zotero Plugins

Translate for Zotero: PDF translation for Zotero
Actions & Tags for Zotero: Customize your Zotero workflow.

🙌 Sponsors

Thanks peachgirl100, Juan Gimenez, and other anonymous sponsors!

If you want to leave your name here, please email me or leave a message with the donation.