Zotero

The search speed is very slow after recent updates. Often it just gets stuck and needs to retype it. It happens in the windows desktop version as well. Please fix it.

Amazing app for reference management. Flows almost seamlessly with desktop Zotero, although sometimes when it uploads PDFs it fails or corrupts and my other devices can’t find the file (~5% of the time). Otherwise great for annotating, sorting references, doing planning for writing reports/theses. I no complaints and highly recommend this app for anyone who needs a reference manager, as well as any student in general! — THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO SEE: Would love to see some more thorough add-on support to spill over from desktop as some of the usability they can add goes a long way. Freehand highlighter instead of just pen.

You can save references, annotate papers, and export bibliographies. It is a must-have for any researcher. Although the iPad version doesn’t have the same annotating features as say GoodNotes, it is still a solid system (and it’s much harder to lose documents than in an app like GoodNotes - which I recently left because it simply got too chaotic to save papers). I just can’t believe this thing is free!

This app is so amazing! The only thing missing for me is the freehand highlighting for the older papers I have to read. However, the word select highlighter works perfect for almost all!

The iPad app is a great companion for Zotero web/desktop but doesn’t quite stand on its own. Pro: - Sync with web/desktop is quick and flawless. - Built-in PDF viewer works smoothly and has the features I need (freehand drawing, text and area highlighting, ability to add typed notes to any annotation). Way better reading experience than on a laptop! Con: - Missing the amazing “extract metadata from PDF” feature from desktop. As a result, I usually look for articles I want to read on my laptop, save them to my library, then open them on my ipad.

Im begging you Zotero, please for the love of god add a freehand highlighter tool (not replacing the text select one but in addition) I run into the issue all the time where the PDF is actually a picture and I need to be able to highlight the text anyway. If you do this, this is my only PDF app.

This is a game changer for me. It is much easier to annotate and highlight on the iPad, and I find it to be much more portable as well. I am so happy to have found this app. Thank you zotero!

Zotero is not a VC backed “Move fast & break things” Silicon Valley company. It’s a non-profit making good products Academia & other individuals who work in the “information economy”. Since downloading the first version of this app their developers have slowly but steadily made the app better & better. The improvements come in 1’s & 2’s instead of via ‘flashy’ upgrade cycles when everything changes at once. Honestly, I prefer this pace instead of having to completely re-learn the app every 1-2 years like with other software. I highly recommend it as a great companion to desktop Zotero Software. Its not yet good enough to be used *easily* as a standalone, but it’ll eventually get there I think. If you’re a developer it’s open-source so there’s nothing stopping you from chipping in!

Honestly, I found this app as I was going to log in to Zotero on Safari on my iPad and was SHOCKED when I saw the iOS hyperlink. I’ve got to say it’s a very well-made app. Using it in slide-over view while writing a report on the iPad is extremely pleasant. The devs have implemented it very well. The only complaint I have is that it’s pretty challenging to add new citations. Though, that’s ultimately due to iPadOS and iOS not being as flexible as macOS and Windows in terms of extensions on the web browsers. Using the app to read and reference your sources while using the iPad is AMAZING. I’m so glad it exists. I’ll be using my iPad to write my reports a lot more often.

It’s great in general, yet I have three complaints! The first one is that I can’t open notes and papers side by side, second one, I can’t import highlights to notes, third one I can’t see captures of the paper in the notes. I capture on desktop version and import to notes, yet I can’t see it on notes on my iPad after syncing.