Zotero PDF Rename

This is a Zotero plugin that allows you to rename PDF files in your Zotero library using custom rules.

Note: This plugin only works on Zotero 7.0 and above.

Usage

Select one or more items in your Zotero library and right click to open the context menu. Select Rename PDF attachments from the menu.

Then the PDF files will be renamed according to the custom rules you set in the plugin preferences(not implemented yet).

Default rules

This plugin will read the journal name and year from the metadata of the item and rename the PDF file as follows:

{short journal name}_{year}_{short title}.pdf

For example, the PDF file of the item below will be renamed as TPAMI_2016_Go-ICP.pdf.

The short title is read from the Short Title field of the item. If the Short Title field is empty, the plugin will use the Title field instead.

Journal tags

The short journal name is generated by selecting the first capital letter of each word in the journal name. For example, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence will be converted to TPAMI, while IEEE will be ignored.

However, ACM Transactions on Graphics will be converted to TG rather than TOG in current version. This is because the word on is ignored in the conversion. A better method is manually adding the short name of the journal in the Tags of the item.

For example, you can add Jab/#TOG to the Tags of the item, and the plugin will use TOG as the short name of the journal.

Note: the plugin will first read the Jab/# tag in the Tags as the short name. If there is no Jab/# tag, the plugin will automatically extract the short name from the full name of the journal.

PS: It is recommended to install the plugin MuiseDestiny/zotero-style for a better experience.

Short Cut

Now, we can use control+D to rename the PDF files. Moreover, we can customize the short cut in the Preferences of Zotero.

The custom short cut can be a combination of the modifier keys and another key. The modifier keys can be alt, control, meta and accel, while another key can be any key on the keyboard.

The following table shows the corresponding modifier keys on Windows and Mac.

modifier	Windows	Mac
alt	Alt	⌥ Option
control	Ctrl	⌃ Control
meta	❌ Not supported	⌘ Command
accel	Ctrl	⌘ Command

Future work

• Add a short cut for the renaming function
• Preferences panel to allow users to customize the rules.
• Better way to extract the short name of the journal.