I'm an academic. As such, I got used to work with Zotero [1], first as a simple reference manager, but over time as a more robust platform to keep track "of thi

I'm an academic. As such, I got used to work with Zotero [1], first as a simple reference manager, but over time as a more robust platform to keep track "of things like bookmarks, snippets of code or text", and even associated files. The why: Zotero is open source, respects privacy, and it allows you to keep a local repository of your things, disconnected from its cloud. And yeah, it also offers you a cloud storage solution if you need it. Plus, I love how it ingrates so seamlessly with my browsing experience. The how: Zotero works like a three stage tool. The first stage concerns its browser connector, the plugin that lets you store the references you want to keep. You can think of bookmarks as references too. The second stage corresponds to the when the work within Zotero itself. Here is where you add your notes, snippets, crosslimks, tags, etc. Since it's your references database, you should invest some time to find a good workflow as to find in the future whatever you need in as little steps possible. It's worth the effort to get used to Zotero's possibilities (you can even manipulate its database directly through sql commands if you're into it). The third stage is the integration tool that works with your text processor. This step mostly applies to writers only, the folks who really need to keep close attention between what they say and where they took it from. This is where Zotero shines, for it allows you to keep a close tie between the things you actually quote on your text and the works/data you reference in its appropriate section. In any case, what starts as a simple reference manager can, with some imagination, become a very elegant solution to gather bookmarks, notes, snippets, etc in just one place. [1] https://www.zotero.org/ https://www.zotero.org/