Tips for sharing papers metadata + PDF between users.
I wanted to let you know, in case it's helpful for other users, that I was able to find a way to share PDFs and all of the metadata information with my RAs in papers.
Here are the steps:
1. I have them put the papers all into a collection in Papers2, then export the collection as an Endnote XML file
2. I then have them put the PDFs into a folder in Dropbox (they can even put their entire folder of PDF in there - the XML file will pull the correct ones.)
3. Open the .xml file in a text editor and run a find and replace for: a) the name of the .xml file (if you change the name), b) all the references from the xml file name to match your file structure (e.g. RAname/desktop/lib.xml to yourname/desktop/lib.xml), and c) all the references for the PDF files to reference the folder where you saved the PDF on your own computer
4. Now when you open and import the .xml file on papers on your own computer, it will import all the metadata information and all of the PDFs.
It's pretty time consuming to re-download 20-40 PDF files on a perpetual basis, and this works really well for people that might need to share PDF files frequently. The nice thing about it is that they do not need to fish through the PDFs to find the ones to send the person. If they upload them somewhere, the revised .xml file will only import the PDFs that you need.
I hope that helps.
- Ellie
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Support Staff 2 Posted by charles on 18 Aug, 2011 06:21 PM
Thanks for sharing that tip, Ellie!
mek closed this discussion on 18 Aug, 2011 06:27 PM.