Zotero Citation Picker

[!WARNING]

Breaking changes introduced since 0.3.0:

• Markdown documents will no longer support frontmatter .bib file. Instead, formatted reference items will be attached to the end of the document.
• Quarto Markdown documents will still respect to frontmatter .bib file.

VS Code-like editor extension to insert citations from Zotero to your:

• (Quarto) markdown document(s);
• $\LaTeX$ document and its associated .bib file.

Requires the Better BibTeX Zotero plugin.

Fork of https://github.com/mblode/vscode-zotero, which appears no longer maintained; and https://github.com/mvuorre/vscode-zotero, with basic Quarto Markdown support.

Installation

0. Install Zotero and Better BibTeX Zotero plugin.
1. Install from the IDE extension market, or download from either Open VSX registry, or build from source.
2. If you choose to install from outside the IDE extension market, run <your-ide-cli-name> --install-extension "/path/to/extension.vsix" to install the extension.

Usage

You can activate the citation picker either by:

• Keyboard shortcut Option + Shift + Z (can be customized in VS Code settings)
• Command Palette (Command + Shift + P): Type "Zotero Citation Picker" and press enter.

Extension settings

• zotero-citation-picker.citeMethod: Choose between "vscode" (native VS Code picker) or "zotero" (Zotero's CAYW popup)
  • Native VS Code picker (default): Search and select citations within VS Code using a QuickPick interface
  • Zotero picker: Use Zotero's built-in "Cite as you Write" popup window
• zotero-citation-picker.port: Customize the Zotero Better BibTeX URL (only used for Zotero picker mode)
• zotero-citation-picker.markdownCitationTemplate: Customize the Markdown citation text. Available variables: {{authors}}, {{year}}, {{title}}, {{container}}. Default to APA style {{authors}}. ({{year}}). {{title}}. {{container}}.

Native VS Code Citation Picker Behavior

• Simple search: Type any text to search across titles, authors, and other fields
• Advanced search: Use field-specific searches like:
  • author:vuorre - Search by author name
  • title:climate - Search in title field
  • year:2023 - Search by publication year
  • journal:nature - Search by journal/publication
  • tag:statistics - Search by tags
  • doi:10.1000 - Search by DOI
  • Multiple fields: author:smith title:climate - Search multiple fields simultaneously

Contributing

Feel free to fire off an issue or PR at https://github.com/mark9804/vscode-zotero/issues. Please note that the code has been heavily modified compared to the original repository, so an issue mistakenly created in the original repository may introduce confusion.

Development

Test files are in playground/ (test.md, test.qmd, main.tex). Press F5 to launch extension in debug mode with test.md open. Default files to open can be changed in .vscode/launch.json.