Save from your browser

The browser extension saves the work on the page you are reading to your library. It reads the page's record of the work (an article's title, authors and DOI, for instance) and saves it as an item. If the page links to a PDF or another file, the extension downloads it with your own access to the site, such as your library's proxy or a subscription you are signed in to, and attaches it to the item. This is the main reason to use the extension rather than pasting the address into Pangur: Pangur's server has no access to your subscriptions, but your browser does.

The extension works in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Arc (Chrome 116 or later) and in Firefox 128 or later. There is no Safari extension. On an iPhone or iPad the share sheet does the same job from Safari.

Installing the extensionCopy Anchor Link

The extension is not yet listed in the Chrome Web Store or on Firefox Add-ons, so for now it is installed from a folder you have been given.

• In Chrome, Edge, Brave or Arc, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, choose Load unpacked and select the folder.
• In Firefox, open about:debugging, choose This Firefox, then Load Temporary Add-on, and select the manifest.json file in the folder. Firefox removes a temporary add-on when it restarts, so you will need to load it again after a restart.

Pin Save to Pangur to the browser's toolbar so that it is one click away.

Signing inCopy Anchor Link

1. Click Save to Pangur in the toolbar, then Sign in to Pangur.
2. A tab opens at Pangur's sign-in page, and the extension's window shows a code to approve.
3. In the tab, sign in if you are not already signed in, check that the tab shows the same code, and approve it.

The extension waits until you approve the code. It never sees your password, because you sign in on Pangur's own sign-in page and the extension only receives a key that lets it act for your account. The key survives a browser restart, so in practice you sign in once. If the code expires before you approve it, the extension says so and you can start again.

To sign out, choose Sign out at the foot of the extension's window, beside your email address.

Saving a workCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the page of the article, book or record, and click Save to Pangur.
2. The extension reads the page and shows what it found: the type (such as Journal article, Book or Web page), the title, which you can edit, up to three authors, the publication and year, and the DOI or ISBN. It also says what it will do with the file (see What happens to the file).
3. If the work is already in the project, the window tells you and offers to open it instead.
4. Choose the Project, if you have more than one, and the Collection. The extension remembers your last choice.
5. Choose Save to Pangur.

The window reports progress as it fetches the file and saves to Pangur, and then shows Saved with the project's name, or Already in your library. From there, Open in Pangur goes to the item and Save it again elsewhere saves it to another project or collection. If you close the window and reopen it on the same tab, it shows the result again.

Your account needs a project before you can save. If it has none, the extension asks you to make one at pangur.io first.

How the extension reads the pageCopy Anchor Link

The extension looks for a record of the work in the page, trying several sources in order: the citation tags that publishers add for Google Scholar, schema.org data, Dublin Core, COinS, a DOI or ISBN in the address or the page's text, and finally the page's ordinary title and description. A DOI that appears only in the page's links counts only when the page has no record of its own and links exactly one DOI. The reason for that restriction is that a page with a reference list links to many works it cites, and any of those DOIs would be the wrong one.

When you choose Save to Pangur, Pangur's server reads the page as well, with Zotero's site translators and its own reading, and the best record from either side is used. If the server cannot be reached for this, the extension looks up the DOI or ISBN itself, or else saves the details it read from the page.

Some pages cannot be read at all. The browser's own pages are closed to extensions, and the window says so when you are on one.

What happens to the fileCopy Anchor Link

Before you save, the window says what it will do with the work's file, and after the save it says what it did.

The extension downloads files of up to 40 MB through the page and up to 100 MB once it has the site permission. Larger files are fetched by Pangur's server by address.

Saved means the item is in your library, which is not always the same as the file being there. If the file needed your institution's access or could not be fetched, the window says so, and you can add the file to the item yourself in Pangur. Videos saved this way are not transcribed by Pangur, so they use none of your transcription minutes.

PermissionsCopy Anchor Link

The extension can always reach pangur.io and Pangur's sign-in service at auth.pangur.io. It reads the page you are on only when you click it, and it asks for access to any other site only when a file there needs it, and only for that site. It keeps its sign-in in the browser's storage for extensions, and it has no settings page of its own.

Saving from the extension counts towards Pangur's limit on outside lookups, which is 20 a minute for each account (plans and limits).