Zotero

Zotero separates its window into three panes:

1. This is where you create folders or what Zotero calls collections.  These can be organized by class, paper, conference, etc.  Come up with a system that makes sense to you!
2. This is where you can view the items you have saved in each collection.  These can be sorted by title, author, date, when you added the item in Zotero and more. 
3. This includes the information about an individual item.  Look here to make sure Zotero imported the citation correctly.  You can edit or add data as needed. 

So many options, so little time!  Zotero's Preferences section can help you get just what you need out of Zotero.  From the menu section, click 'Edit' then 'Preferences:

You don't need to use all the tabs within Zotero Preferences, but here are the ones that are very useful:

• General: Change where Zotero appears, the font size and some miscellaneous options.
• Sync: Create a Zotero account and select 'sync automatically' so your items are available on any computer that has Zotero installed.
• Search:  Make sure the PDF to Text indexer is installed If you want to be able to pull citation information from PDF files.
• Export:  You can set your default citation If you use a certain style manual (APA, MLA, Chicago) most of the time.
• Cite: Here's where you find the write and cite tool if you did not install the add-in for Word during the initial Zotero install.  The Styles tab has all the basic citation styles.  But, you can find even more by clicking on the 'Get Additional Styles' link.