Zotelo help you efficiently keep local bibliographic databases (.bib files etc) up to date with the contents of your Zotero collections.

Zotelo can be used in conjunction with any emacs mode and is particularly useful when writing latex documents. It is useful for LaTeX/BibTeX authoring, in conjunction with RefTeX, and works well with org-mode using org-ref.

Installation

Install zotelo from Melpa or put zotelo.el into your emacs path.

Install the Better Bibtex add-on for Zotero.

Activate zotelo-minor-mode in LaTeX mode:

(add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook 'zotelo-minor-mode)

Similarly you can activate zotelo in org mode if you use it to draft your LaTeX papers.

Usage

Key-map

C-c z u         zotelo-update-database
C-c z e         zotelo-export-secondary
C-c z c         zotelo-set-collection (also "C-c z s")
C-c z s         zotelo-set-collection

In order to export a zotero collection you need first to associate it with the current buffer with C-c z c (zotelo-set-collection). Select *ALL* to export the whole Zotero library.

Zotelo uses IDO interface for the collection selection:

After modifying your zotero collection from the zotero interface, update the the local database file with C-c z u (zotelo-update-database).

Exported File Names

If the current file contains any of the following bibliography declarations:

\bibliography{file1, file2, ...}
\zotelo{file1, file2, ...}
\nobibliography{file1, file2, ...}

zotelo exports the associated Zotero collection as a file1.xxx file, otherwise it exports into [current-file-name].xxx.

Multiple Databases and Collections

You can list several files in \thebibliography{...} list. The first file is the primary database which you set with C-c z s and update with C-c z u. All others are secondary databases.

Usually one database is enough, but for some projects you might want to use several zotero collections. Use zotelo-export-secondary (bound to C-c z e) to export any zotero collection into one of the secondary files. You will be asked to select a file and a collection to export. This way you can have as many databases and zotero collections as you want.

Configuring the bib(la)tex output

Better Bibtex a large amount of customisation in how exactly the contents of Zotero collections are exported. It includes options for exporting as bibtex or biblatex, as well as configuration of the format of citation keys. Configuration can be done in the Better Bibtex options within Zotero; see customised exports on the wiki.