v. 0.1

Copy Note to Book Section

A small Zotero plugin that adds a Copy to Book Section… command to the item context menu. Copy a note, such as one created with Add Note from Annotations, to a Book Section item as a child note.

Why

When you read a book as a single PDF and annotate it, the notes end up attached to the book. If you cite the individual chapters as Book Sections, you often want the relevant notes to live under those chapters. Zotero has no built-in way to copy a note to another item, so this plugin adds one.

Usage
Open a PDF book in the Zotero reader and make annotations.
Right-click the item and choose Add Note from Annotations.
Right-click the new note and choose Copy to Book Section….
Pick a Book Section in the dialog and press Enter (or double-click, or click Copy).

A new child note with the same content and tags is created under the chosen Book Section. The original note is left untouched.

You can select several notes at once; they will all be copied to the same Book Section.

The picker
With an empty search box, the list shows suggested sections (marked ★). A section is suggested if:
it is a related item of the parent book (or of the note), or
its Book Title field matches the parent book's title.
Typing in the search box searches all Book Sections in the library by title, author, year and book title.
Keyboard: ↑/↓ move the selection, Enter confirms, Esc cancels.

Embedded images in annotation notes (for example, image annotations) are copied along with the note.

Installation
Download copy-note-to-book-section.xpi from the Releases page.
In Zotero, go to Tools → Plugins.
Click the gear icon and choose Install Plugin From File….
Select the downloaded .xpi file.
Compatibility
Zotero 7 or later.
Limitations
The target Book Section must be in the same library as the note.
Notes are copied, not moved. Delete the original manually if you don't need it.
The menu label and picker text are in English only.
Building from source

The plugin consists of two files, manifest.json and bootstrap.js. To build the .xpi:

sh
zip -9 copy-note-to-book-section.xpi manifest.json bootstrap.js

The update_url in manifest.json is a placeholder. Point it at your own update manifest if you want Zotero to check for updates automatically.

Troubleshooting

If the plugin doesn't install or the menu item doesn't appear, enable Help → Debug Output Logging → View Output and check the log for errors, then open an issue with the relevant lines and your Zotero version.