I’m sorry for asking, but I’ve read the documentation, and searched past help posts, but I absolutely cannot understand how to do this. I’d just like basically for jabref to reorganize all the pdf files in a folder into subfolders for my different groups.
Would anyone be willing to write a clear little tutorial explaining in detail exactly how to do this?
I have a folder of pdfs, I’ve already had Jabref link all the entries in my library to the corresponding pdf files based on citation key.
What I want to do now is simply have jabref reorganize those files into subfolders based on groups. It’s difficult for me though to understand how to have jabref do this. I don’t understand what locations I need to set for which which library (main, primary, user…). I don’t understand which boxes need to be checked between the “linked files” preferences and the “entry cleanup” dialogue.
I also don’t know for sure how I’m supposed to format the “file directory pattern.” I found in other places people saying to use “[groups:(unknown)],” but I can’t find an explanation generally of the different options and syntax available.
I’ve tried to puzzle this out for myself several times over the past year or so. I can never get this to work. There are just too many options in too many different places that have to all be configured correctly. It gets really confusing how they interact with one another where eventually I just give up.
This is indeed possible, see the answer from @Siedlerchr
The far easier option is to keep all your PDFs in a single folder (the easiest solution) or separated based on libraries (easier to manage, because there will be less PDFs in a folder, but potentially might lead to duplicate PDFs in multiple places on your computer, if you have multiple libraries refering to the same entry and PDF).
Now the most important: Compliment this approach by right-clicking on an entry and choose `Open Folder (CTRL+SHIFT+O). JabRef will open the folder and automatically select the linked pdf.
Alternatively if you only want to look at the pdf, you can right-click and choose Open File (F4) or simply click on the pdf symbol in the main table:
I don’t understand what locations I need to set for which which library (main, primary, user…). I don’t understand which boxes need to be checked between the “linked files” preferences and the “entry cleanup” dialogue.
This depends on where you store and how do you organize your pdfs. Do you have a single folder with all your pdfs across all libraries?
=> Then use Main file directory. In most cases, this is fine.
Otherwise, use library file directory, this allows you to have a separate folder for each library.
User file directory is a special case where each user account on the same PC will have it’s own folder for pdfs.
Third option: You always store your pdfs next to your bib file in the same folder:
=> Check “Search and store files relative to library file location”
I also don’t know for sure how I’m supposed to format the “file directory pattern.” I found in other places people saying to use “[groups:(unknown)],” but I can’t find an explanation generally of the different options and syntax available.
The file directory pattern is a way to automatically create subfolders based on a specific pattern. Basically, this pattern and the filename pattern follow the citation key syntax.
The expression in the brackets say:
Create a subdirectory based on the field “groups” of the entry. If the field groups is not set or empty, use “unknown” as a fallback name for the directory. If you have an entry assigned to multiple groups, the directory will have the name “groupA, groupB”.
