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Use Note Template

You can search and find note templates from the community here.

Import Note Template

One-click to import.

  1. Copy the template below (just an example).
Click to show the example template 
# This template is specifically for importing/sharing, using better
# notes 'import from clipboard': copy the content and
# goto Zotero menu bar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.
# Do not copy-paste this to better notes template editor directly.
name: "[Text] Current Time"
content: |-
  // @use-markdown
  // @author windingwind
  // @link https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/docs/about-note-template.md

  # Template Example: Current Time

  > Author: windingwind
  >
  > from: [GitHub-Zotero Better Notes: Write Note Template](https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes/blob/master/docs/about-note-template.md)

  **Current Time**: ${new Date().toLocaleString()}
  1. Goto Zotero menubar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.
  2. Click OK.

Now you can open a note/the workspace and in editor toolbar, click Insert Template to cursor line. Select the template, it is inserted to the note.

Share Note Template

Only available in Better Notes v1.1.4-2 or higher

Copy the template code for importing by:

  1. Open template editor via menu->Note Template Editor
  2. Select the template you want to share in the template list
  3. Click Options->Copy share code

Write Note Template

What is this?

This section aims to help you writing a note template of Better Notes. See here for the introduction of the note template.

Use Markdown/HTML to write a note template. If you want to execute scripts in the template, you may want to use JavaScript.

💡It's OK if you don't know them. Creating your own template is very easy!

Overview

Note Template Structure

A template consists of two parts:

Name: The name of template. starts with [TYPE], where the TYPE should be the actual type of the template, e.g. Item, Text, etc.

Content: The template code.

Pragma

Pragmas are lines start with // @. They have special effect and will not be rendered.

// @use-markdown

Let the compiler know you are using markdown. Otherwise the template will be processed as HTML.

// @use-refresh

Allow the generated content to be updated using the Update content from templates in the note editor. The generated content will be wrapped in separators with a YAML metadata section for update.

The template with this pragma should not contain any separator (--- or <hr>) in the content.

// @author

Mark the code belongs to you. Your GitHub account or your email.

// @link

Link to the page where the template is published so that users can contact you and give feedback.

// @${stage}-begin and // @${stage}-end

The Item template supports three stages and others only support default stage.

If not specified, the whole template will be recognized as default.

Code wrapped by // @${stage}-begin and // @${stage}-end will be processed during the corresponding stage. Here the ${stage} should be replaced by the actual stage name, like beforeloop.

Script in Note Template

Note template supports JavaScript.

One-Line Code

Wrap one-line code with ${code here}. The example in Import Note Template uses ${new Date().toLocaleString()} to render the current time.

Multi-Line Code (Function)

Wrap lines with ${{code here}}$. The example below will be rendered as 3 (the return value of the function).

${{
  const a = 1;
  const b = 2;
  return a + b;
}}$

Global Variables

Each template has its own global variables. See Template Type for more information.

All templates share a global variable _env = {dryRun: boolean}. In preview mode (in template editor), the _env.dryRun is true and in that case you must not modify the library.

Template Type

Item

Process one or more item(s). The input items are from the item picker window or the selected items.

There are three stages (beforeloop, default, afterloop) in this template. Use pragmas to wrap the template code to indicate on which stage it should be processed.

If no stage pragma is given, the whole template will be processed on the default stage.

Click to show the example template 
# This template is specifically for importing/sharing, using better
# notes 'import from clipboard': copy the content and
# goto Zotero menu bar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.
# Do not copy-paste this to better notes template editor directly.
name: "[Item] Example Item Template"
content: |-
  // @beforeloop-begin
  // @use-markdown
  # Hi! This only renders once
  // @beforeloop-end
  // @default-begin
  <p>Title: <span style="color: #ffcb00">${topItem.getField("title")}</span></p>
  // @default-end
  // @afterloop-begin
  > Done! But Markdown is not rendered correctly. Try to add 
  \`// @use-markdown\` pragma before this line.
  // @afterloop-end

Stages and Global Variables

beforeloop stage: Processed before loop.

  • items: an array of Zotero item, the input
  • targetNoteItem: The note item that accepts the rendered template. Undefined in preview mode (_env.dryRun is true)
  • copyNoteImage: a function that accepts a Zotero item. If the rendered result contains contents from another note, you should call copyNoteImage(anotherNote) to copy images from anotherNote.
  • sharedObj: for temporary variables, shared between all stages

default stage: Processed in a loop of input items. Run once for each item.

  • topItem: Current item
  • targetNoteItem
  • itemNotes: The child notes of current item (Deprecated)
  • copyNoteImage
  • sharedObj

afterloop stage: Processed after loop.

  • items
  • targetNoteItem
  • copyNoteImage
  • sharedObj

Text

Basic user template.

Global Variables

  • targetNoteItem
  • sharedObj

Builtin Templates

The name of builtin templates are not allowed to be modified.

Every time there is a breaking change, the corresponding builtin template will be updated and renamed to {TEMPLATE_NAME}V{n+1}, where n is the version number of the old builtin template and {TEMPLATE_NAME} is the name of the template. The old builtin template will be kept for compatibility.

For example, the builtin template [ExportMDFileNameV2] may be renamed to [ExportMDFileNameV3] in the future.

Name Description Variables
QuickInsert For forward link. link, linkText, subNoteItem, noteItem
QuickBackLink For back link. link, linkText, subNoteItem, noteItem
QuickImport For importing note link content. link, noteItem
QuickNote For generating note from annotation. annotationItem, topItem, noteItem
ExportMDFileName For generating Markdown file name when exporting. noteItem
ExportMDFileHeader For generating Markdown file yaml header when exporting. noteItem
ExportMDFileContent For processing Markdown file content when exporting. noteItem, mdContent

Style Syntax

We recommend using Markdown for styles.

Element Markdown Syntax
Heading # H1
## H2
### H3
Bold **bold text**
Italic *italicized text*
Underline <u>Underline Text</u>
Strike Trough ~~Deleted Text~~
Superscript N/m<sup>2</sup>
Subscript x<sub>i</sub>
Blockquote > blockquote
Ordered List 1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item
Unordered List - First item
- Second item
- Third item
Code `code`
Code Block (Monospaced) ```
function add(x)
{return x+1}
```
Horizontal Rule ---
Link [title](https://www.example.com)
Highlight Text <span style="background-color: #5fb23680">highlighted<span>
Text Color <span style="color: #ffcb00">colored<span>
Math Inline $y=x^2$
Math Block $$y=x^2$$

Script Syntax

JS scripts are supported. Here are some helpful script snippets.

Script Scope
Get array of tags from current item 
${topItem.getTags().map(tagObj=>tagObj.tag)}`
 Item:default
Get title of current item 
${topItem.getField("title")}
 Item:default
Get authors of current item 
${topItem.getCreators().map((au) => au.firstName + " " + au.lastName).join("; ")}
 Item:default
Get PDF link of current item
Click to show 
${{
  async function getPDFLink(item) {
    const att = await item.getBestAttachment();
    if (!att || !att.isPDFAttachment()) {
      return "";
    }
    key = att.key;
    if (att.libraryID === 1) {
      return `zotero://open-pdf/library/items/${key}`;
    } else {
      groupID = Zotero.Libraries.get(att.libraryID).id;
      return `zotero://open-pdf/groups/${groupID}/items/${key}`;
    }
  }
  sharedObj.getPDFLink = getPDFLink;
  return await getPDFLink(topItem);
}}$
 Item:default
Get (author, year) with PDF link of current item
Click to show 
${{
  const creators = topItem.getCreators();
  let content = "";
  const year = topItem.getField("year");
  if (creators.length === 0) {
    content = "no author";
  } else if (creators.length === 1) {
    content = `${creators[0].lastName}, ${year}`;
  } else {
    content = `${creators[0].lastName} etal., ${year}`;
  }
  // The getPDFLink is from above
  const link = await sharedObj.getPDFLink(topItem);
  let str = `<a href="${link}">${content}</a>`;
  return str;
}}$
 Item:default
Get pub date of current item 
${topItem.getField("date")}
 Item:default
Get DOI of current item 
[${topItem.getField("DOI")}]("https://doi.org/${topItem.getField('DOI')}")
 Item:default
Get other fields of current item 
${topItem.getField("FIELD_KEY")}

FIELD_KEY can be found here: https://aurimasv.github.io/z2csl/typeMap.xml

 Item:default
Get CitationKey of current item 
${topItem.citationKey ? topItem.citationKey : ""}
 Item:default

Share Your Template

Users can use Import Note Template to copy and import the published templates.

A template snippet should be in YAML format (YAML has better support for multi-line content):

# This template is specifically for importing/sharing, using better
# notes 'import from clipboard': copy the content and
# goto Zotero menu bar, click Edit->New Template from Clipboard.
# Do not copy-paste this to better notes template editor directly.
name: "[TYPE] TEMPLATE NAME"
content: |-
  // @author YOUR NAME
  // @link PUBLISH PAGE URL
  TEMPLATE CONTENT HERE

or JSON format:

{
  "name": "[TYPE] TEMPLATE NAME",
  "content": "// @author YOUR NAME\n// @link PUBLISH PAGE URL\nTEMPLATE CONTENT HERE"
}

All templates should be posted here