Zotero: A Beginner's Guide

Zotero allows users to download extra citation styles (find Cite in Zotero Settings) and 12 are part of the default style menu. A few styles have built-in annotation setups, such as... 

• American Psychological Association (APA), annotated bibliography
• Chicago Manual of Style, annotated bibliography
• Modern Language Association (MLA), annotated bibliography

Use the "Extra" field in the Zotero record in order to add annotations (see the bottom of the image below). Styles in Zotero do not use the Notes tab for annotations.

1. Select the "Extra" field in the record's metadata (the right side section)
2. Enter your annotation for the items. Ideal to write the annotation elsewhere and paste into the Extra field.
3. Now open Word and test if the annotation is pulled in with the item citation when you insert the item in the Word document.

There are multiple ways to add an annotated bibliography to Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice. Here is one method.

1. Create a Zotero collection (e.g. folder) for there annotated items,
2. Add items into this Zotero collection,
3. Select an item, and on the right panel, make necessary metadata edits (e.g., article title capitalization) for specific citation style, AND
4. Add annotation in the "Extra" field (see box above)
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each item,
6. When done with edits and annotations, select all items in this folder (keyboard shortcut: CTRL+A or CMD+A),
7. Right click on selected/highlghted items,
8. In the right-click menu choose "Create Bibliography from item..",
9. Choose the appropriate annotated style from pop-up menu, AND,
10. Select the radio buttons "create bibliography" and "copy to clipboard",
11. Paste into word processor (keyboard shortcut: CTRL+V or CMD+V),
12. In word processor, make the necessary edits (e.g., fix margins) for specific style/assignment,
13. Save document