Zotero Version History

Changes in released versions of Zotero 7.0 are documented on this page. To follow development, see the commit log on GitHub. More recent changes may be available in a beta build.

• Reader: Added “Search Outline” feature in sidebar
• Reader: Don't switch to Annotations tab when clicking annotation with sidebar opened to another tab
• Added View → Columns and View → Sort By to all windows
• Added Move Column Left menu option in View → Columns as alternative to drag-and-drop column reordering
• Match annotation text and comments in All Fields & Tags quick-search mode rather than Everything mode

• Fixed CAPTCHA not appearing for ScienceDirect downloads
• [Mac] Avoid permissions prompt when inserting rich text into Word document on Sequoia
• Reader: Fixed swapped “Highlight” and “Underline” tooltips in toolbar
• Reader: Fixed empty comment not being focused when annotation is clicked
• Fixed Add button in Libraries and Collections section
• Fixed Libraries and Collection section sometimes not showing entries from other libraries
• Fixed vertically misaligned page in document preview
• Miscellaneous other bug fixes and accessibility improvements

• Added “Move To” and “Copy To” context-menu options as equivalents to collection drag-and-drop
  • “Copy To” can also be used to duplicate collections within the same library
• Added “Change Parent Item…” context-menu option as equivalent to attachment/note drag-and-drop
• [Mac] Support Ctrl-Enter context-menu shortcut on macOS Sequoia
• Reader: Added “Copy Link” option to link context menu
• Reader: Text annotation font size can now be adjusted by slider in context menu or Shift-Up/Down-Arrow
• Reader: Added audible instructions for reader keyboard interaction (new in 7.0.7) when using a screen reader
• “Rename File from Parent Metadata” now adds a file extension if one is missing for known file types

• [Windows] Fixed additional causes of reboot loops on installation/upgrade
• Reader: Fixed faint highlighting of “Find in Document” matches
• [Mac] Fixed display of Word plugin installation banner on macOS Sequoia 15.0 (before 15.0.1)
• Fixed failure to add certain feeds
• Fixed scrolling in collections pane while holding Ctrl on Windows/Linux
• Fixed renaming behavior for attachments without file extension
• Fixed item pane width changing when switching between items in Stacked mode
• Reader: Fixed arrow keys unexpectedly escaping text and comment inputs
• Reader: Fixed annotations colors not being accessible via keyboard
• Fixed tag autocomplete suggestions sometimes being hidden when viewing a document in a separate window
• Allow EPUBs saved from the web to be dragged out of parent
• Miscellaneous other bug fixes and accessibility improvements

• Scaffold: Run ESLint continuously, not just after save
• Miscellaneous other Scaffold improvements

• Full keyboard accessibility in PDF reader (details; additional documentation to come)
  • Allows all possible operations, including highlight/underline creation and resizing, to be done via the keyboard
  • Coming to EPUBs/snapshots in a future version
• Automatically switch in and out of Stacked layout when resizing window horizontally
• Ink annotation merging
• Added labeled Title field in attachment box (in addition to Title header at top)
• Add new creator in middle of creator list using Shift-Enter/Shift-Return
• Keep dark margins when disabling “Use Dark Mode for Content”

• [Windows] Fixed potential reboot loop on installation/upgrade in non-admin accounts
• Fixed potential stall on “Loading items…” at startup due to invalid character in tab title
• [Mac] Fixed potential delay in opening citation dialog from Word
• Fixed “Some data in My Library could not be downloaded” sync error after moving saved search to trash
• Fixed zoom potentially getting stuck after scrolling in reader
• Fixed phrase search in “Everything” mode within collection matching entire library
• Fixed potential error when auto-relinking files
• Prioritize DOI over child attachment URL
• Fixed some snapshot annotations jumping to wrong position
• Fixed formatting bugs when printing PDFs
• Miscellaneous other bug fixes and accessibility improvements

Zotero for Mac only

• Show banner to trigger Word plugin installation on macOS Sequoia, which requires system permissions prompt (“Zotero.app would like to access data from other apps”)

• Fixed “Localized string not available for general.warning” startup error instead of proper warning if data directory is in cloud storage folder (since 7.0.4)

• Allow attachment preview to use the available screen height at wider pane sizes
• Wrap attachment filename field in item pane
• Speed up exports of files that don't contain annotations
• Added “Paste and Search” option to Add Item by Identifier context menu
• [Windows] Fixed potential cause of repeated reboot prompt on upgrade from non-administrator account
• Don't show rich-text markup in reader window titles
• Show status line in settings when external app access is enabled
• Miscellaneous other improvements

• Fixed problems transferring documents into and out of LibreOffice
• Fixed citation dialog becoming invisible on some monitors
• Fixed “module record has unexpected status” startup error
• Fixed attachment preview disappearing unexpectedly
• Reader fixes:
  • Fixed zotero://open navigating one page too far
  • EPUB: Fixed returning to the last-read page
  • EPUB/snapshot: Open popup after adding note
  • PDF: Fixed Cmd/Ctrl-G skipping every second result
• Fixed “Add Item by Identifier” textbox not expanding when entering multiple rows
• Fixed scrolling in “Manage Lookup Engines” window with many engines
• Miscellaneous other bug fixes

• Render supported rich-text markup in tab titles

• Fixed LibreOffice installation prompt appearing on systems without LibreOffice
• Fixed “User canceled primary password entry” error when setting up syncing in old Zotero profile
• [Windows] Fixed “Could not find a running Word instance” error when running Windows using hidden Administrator account (Note: Running Windows with the hidden Administrator account is unsafe!)
• [Windows] Fixed incorrect message when existing files can't be deleted during uninstallation
• Fixed font size in feed item abstracts
• Progress bar didn't follow color scheme

• Fixed locale detection for plugins with locales that don't exactly match Zotero locales

• Word processor plugin installation improvements
  • Fixed Word for Windows plugin installation not running at startup
  • Show warning if word processor plugin can't be automatically installed or updated at startup (e.g., because Word is open)
  • Don't show progress window at startup on repeated installation attempts
• Fixed Mendeley attachment import (since 7.0)
• Improve startup performance with many tabs
• Increased line height of Abstract field

• Fixed error viewing trash containing collection when using “Enable bidirectional text editing utilities”
• Fixed reversed order of tag colors in items list
• Fixed reader item pane not opening in Stacked mode
• Miscellaneous other bug fixes

• Windows installer improvements
  • Added option to resolve a permanent reboot prompt when previous installation couldn't be deleted
  • Show an appropriate error when trying to install the ARM version on a non-ARM system or the x64 version on a 32-bit system
  • Warn when trying to install the x64 version on an ARM system
• Show a clearer error message with documentation link when Zotero can't find a running Word instance
• Enable auto-scroll by default on Linux (configurable via general.autoScroll hidden pref)
• Improved handling of bidirectional text
  • Guess item field direction based on the field itself, the item's language field, and the app locale
  • Requires “Enable bidirectional text editing utilities” to be checked in the Advanced pane of the Zotero settings

• Fixed startup error for libraries containing items with DOIs containing certain character sequences
• Removed erroneous horizontal scrollbar in item pane
• Fixed collection name text field closing if editing name during sync
• Fixed two item panes occasionally appearing at the same time
• Fixed item pane notes section not updating after adding note
• Fixed context menu (with Cut/Copy/Paste) not appearing when right-clicking in Add Attachment → Web Link text field
• Fixed blurry creator row buttons on non-HiDPI displays
• Fixed certain wizards (e.g., File → Import) sometimes starting with the wrong title
• Miscellaneous other bug fixes

• Fix Debugger tab of Browser Toolbox not showing Zotero sources when passing d to build_and_run

See the Zotero 7 announcement for more details.

• Major app redesign
  • A beautiful, modern design
  • Dark mode
  • Redesigned item pane with collapsible vertical sections and side navigation bar
  • Customizable item pane header (Title, Title/Creator/Year, Bibliography Entry)
  • Two density options: Compact and Comfortable
  • New app icon
• Much faster performance
• Improved reader
  • Faster PDF handling
  • Support for opening and annotating EPUBs and webpage snapshots
  • Support for creating ink, underline, and text annotations
  • Hovering over a citation or internal link now opens a popup showing the associated reference or figure
  • Annotations can now be resized
  • Support for highlight and underline annotations spanning two pages
  • Basic table-of-contents extraction for Document Outline tab
  • Full functionality is now available in both panes when splitting view
  • Improved compatibility with a wide range of PDFs
• Native support for Apple Silicon Macs
• 64-bit Windows support
  • Better handling of large libraries and files
  • Windows users should reinstall 64-bit Zotero from the download page — existing data won't be affected
• Windows on ARM support
  • Faster performance on ARM PCs, including Copilot+ PCs, as well as when running Windows 11 in a virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac
• Improved accessibility
  • Greater support for screen readers
  • Improvements to keyboard navigation
• Faster citing of selected and open items
  • The citation dialog now automatically suggests items selected in Zotero as well as any open items in the built-in reader
  • Can be used as a replacement for the “classic” citation dialog — select an item in Zotero, click Add/Edit Citation, and press Enter/Return
• Restoring of deleted collections and searches from trash
• Collection search
• Open-tabs menu
  • Shows a list of all open tabs, with tab search and fast tab closing/reordering
• Attachment previews
  • For PDFs, EPUBs, webpage snapshots, and images
• Libraries and Collections list
  • New item pane section lists libraries and collections an item is in
  • An alternative to the modifier key
• Customizable file renaming
  • Files can now be renamed according to a much wider array of options
  • Added setting to configure which file types should be automatically renamed
• Improved plugin architecture
  • Restartless loading/unloading
  • Built-in support for common integration points (items-list columns, item-pane sections, settings panes, etc.) for increased stability
  • All existing plugins must be updated for Zotero 7
• Better OS compatibility
  • Follow system dark mode
  • Use system font on macOS
  • Use Wayland on Linux if available
  • Better compatibility with various Linux desktop environments
• Attachment titles are no longer changed to match the filename when manually renaming files from parent metadata
• Improved RTL/bidirectional-text support
• Redesigned settings window with full-text/keyword search
• Retrieve Metadata now works on EPUBs as well as PDFs
• Emoji tags are now displayed in the items list even when not associated with a color
• Added setting to open files in windows instead of tabs
• Added column picker to Advanced Search window
• Added “Add to Dictionary” option in note editor
• Added “Fix Case” text transform to creator context menu for all-uppercase/lowercase names
• Added ability to copy URL of snapshot/link in attachment item pane
• Smarter sentence-casing of titles from item pane (ignore acronyms, mixed case, etc.)
• When importing files, import into current collection if not creating a new collection
• Improved downloading of files from ScienceDirect
  • Zotero will show a CAPTCHA window during a download if necessary
• Feed reader improvements
  • “Feeds” header is now a selectable global view of feed items
  • Support rich-text/graphical abstracts
  • Support additional metadata fields in some feeds
• Added Help → “Restart in Troubleshooting Mode…” for easier troubleshooting
  • Temporarily disables all plugins
• [Mac] Fixed a bug that could cause the Zotero Connector for Safari to stop working after an app update
• [Windows] Version number in “Add or remove programs” is now updated on app update
• PDF indexing no longer requires external executables (pdfinfo/pdftotext)
• Removed “Create Timeline” feature
• Fixed rendering problem that could cause black quarter-circles to appear in PDFs on some systems
• Many additional improvements and bug fixes

For Zotero core and plugin development, see Zotero 7 for Developers.

Also:

• Local HTTP API for accessing Zotero data (details)
• Much simpler build process
• Improved code editor in Style Editor with inline CSL validation
• Improved code editor in Translator Editor within built-in linting
• Automatically load last-opened translator when opening Translator Editor

View the 6.0 changelog