How to use Rectoly for Mendeley and Rectoly for Zotero on Windows, Linux, Mac, iPad and Android — from signing in to exporting your notes.
New — translation that runs on your deviceTranslationRectoly translates papers with a model that runs on your own device — nothing is uploaded. Download the model once and read with the translation under each paragraph. New — AI that runs on your deviceOrganizing your notes with AIThe AI groups the comments and sticky notes you wrote across many papers by topic and turns them into a research theme. It writes only the headings; your notes stay as you wrote them, and each one leads back to its place in the paper. New — AI that runs on your devicePaper cards and the literature review tableFor each paper, the AI writes out the research question, method, data, findings and the limitations the authors state, from the paper's own text, into a literature review table with one row per paper. Every sentence carries its page, and a sentence the text does not support is left out.Show the steps for your app:
The first time you open Rectoly, you agree to the terms and then choose how to start: sign in with Mendeley or Zotero, or start without an account.
Sign in with your Mendeley or Zotero account so Rectoly can read your library. You can add several accounts and switch between them.
Try every feature free for 14 days, then buy once to keep them. It is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and one purchase covers Windows, Linux, Mac, iPad and Android.
New features in the latest version of Rectoly, by system and edition, newest first. Each item links to the page that explains it.
See the papers in your Mendeley or Zotero library, narrow the list down, and open a paper.
Bring in papers that were added or changed in Mendeley or Zotero, so the list in Rectoly matches your library.
Keep the PDFs of your papers on the device so they open instantly and can be read without a connection.
Add a PDF from your device to your Mendeley or Zotero library, so it is kept with your other papers and reaches your other devices.
Read a PDF from your device in Rectoly without adding it to Mendeley or Zotero. It stays on this device only, and no account is needed.
Keep your papers' files on a server of your own — Nextcloud, InfiniCLOUD, a university drive — and use them in Rectoly.
Open the PDFs that ZotFile or ZotMoov keep in a Dropbox or Google Drive folder, by pointing Rectoly at the same folder on this device.
Rectoly notices the PDFs you save into a folder, such as Downloads, and adds them to your library, gives them a tidy name like "Devlin (2019) BERT", or both.
How the screen where you read a PDF is laid out, and how to turn pages, zoom, jump to a page, use the outline and set bookmarks.
Choose which tools sit on the tool rail beside the page (the toolbar above the paper on Windows and Linux), put the ones you use most first, and hide the ones you never use.
Reading Mode rebuilds a two-column paper into one column, in reading order, so you can read it like a book. Highlights, sticky notes and handwriting still work.
Rectoly translates papers with a model that runs on your own device — nothing is uploaded. Download the model once and read with the translation under each paragraph.
Keep another page of the same paper — a figure, the references — in view while you read, or put two papers next to each other.
Keep several papers open at once — up to eight — and jump between them without going back to the library.
Keep a figure or table pinned beside the text while you read, so you no longer flip back and forth to "Figure 3".
See which paper a citation like [12] or (Smith, 2017) points to without leaving your page — and open it with your notes if it is in your library.
In the Zotero edition, Rectoly reads the text of scanned pages on your device, so you can search and highlight them. Nothing is sent anywhere, and the PDF itself is not changed.
Mark important sentences in color, underline them, or draw a box around a figure or an equation. They use the same eight colors as Mendeley and Zotero, and they sync.
Stick a note anywhere on a page. It syncs to Mendeley or Zotero as an annotation, so you see it on your computer and your other devices too.
Write directly on the page with Apple Pencil, a stylus, a pen, a mouse or your finger.
In the Zotero edition you can make Zotero's own kinds of annotation — text, image and comments — so they look the same in Zotero on your computer.
Rectoly exchanges your highlights, underlines and sticky notes with Mendeley or Zotero, so your computer and your other devices show the same annotations.
See the handwriting from your tablet on your PC and your other tablets, and the other way round. Where it travels depends on the edition and on where you wrote it.
Undo a mistake right away, or go back to an earlier version of an annotation from its history.
Find a word in the paper you are reading, find a paper in your library by its details, or search the full text, annotations and handwriting of every paper on your device at once.
Rectoly reads your handwriting into text on your device, so searching a paper or across papers finds what you wrote by hand. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Find paragraphs in your other papers that use similar wording or cover a similar topic to the one you are reading. The search runs entirely on your device.
A research theme is one Markdown note per piece of work. Send quotes and highlights into it from many papers, with their sources, arrange them under headings, and export the result to start writing. Every quote can take you back to its place in the paper.
The AI groups the comments and sticky notes you wrote across many papers by topic and turns them into a research theme. It writes only the headings; your notes stay as you wrote them, and each one leads back to its place in the paper.
Show the manuscript you are writing, in Word or another app, beside the paper you are reading. Each time you save it in its own app, Rectoly's view catches up.
Copy a quote ready to cite, with its page number or with its source in APA, Chicago, MLA or another style, and copy a paper's BibTeX entry or citation key straight into Pandoc, Quarto, Obsidian, LaTeX and similar tools.
Keep a Markdown file for each paper, with its highlights and notes, in a folder you choose, ready for Obsidian and other note apps. Rectoly keeps the files up to date as you read.
Save every figure of a paper as a PNG image and every table as a CSV file, with an index, for one paper or many papers at once. No AI is involved; Rectoly reads the paper's own layout.
Put the abstract, methods, results, conclusions and other sections of many papers into one table, one row per paper, to compare them side by side. No AI is involved; Rectoly lays out the opening of each section as the paper has it.
For each paper, the AI writes out the research question, method, data, findings and the limitations the authors state, from the paper's own text, into a literature review table with one row per paper. Every sentence carries its page, and a sentence the text does not support is left out.
Get your work out of Rectoly as an annotated PDF and Markdown notes, and send your notes to the paper in Mendeley or Zotero.
Bundle your annotations and handwriting into archive files, to move them to another device or keep a copy of your own. The same files work on iPad, Mac, Windows, Linux and Android.
On iPad and Mac, Rectoly backs up your annotations to iCloud automatically, and can also back up and sync your handwriting between devices with the same Apple Account. Reading progress stays in step too.
Do the common things from the keyboard: open papers, switch views, highlight and move around. You can see every shortcut in the app and change the keys to suit you.
With a mouse or trackpad, right-click for the menu of what is under the pointer, use the wheel to zoom and scroll, and drag PDFs and documents in to open them.
How to read and write with your fingers, Apple Pencil on iPad, or a stylus on Android, including E Ink tablets and left-handed layouts.
The buttons you meet in Rectoly, described in words, with where they are and what they do. Pick your system in the switch to see only its icons.
Where Rectoly's settings are on each system, what each group holds, and which page of this guide explains it.
Choose where translation, Organize with AI and paper cards are run. Normally they run on a model on your device and nothing is sent anywhere. With your own API key, the provider you choose does the work.
An API key is the password that lets Rectoly ask an AI company to do the work under your own account. What it costs, the steps for OpenAI, Google Gemini and DeepSeek, and how to keep the key safe.
For anyone who has never used one. What an API key is, which AI company to choose, how to get a key and paste it into Rectoly, what it costs, what is sent, and how to stop.
Step by step on OpenAI's site, for Rectoly. Make an account, add US$5 or more of credit, create a key, copy it and paste it into Rectoly. Then how to keep spending in check and how to delete the key.
Step by step in Google AI Studio, for Rectoly. Sign in, create a key, copy it and paste it into Rectoly. What the free tier means for your text, how to move to the paid tier, and how to delete the key.
Step by step on DeepSeek's platform, for Rectoly. Sign up, top up your balance, create a key, copy it and paste it into Rectoly. Prices, peak hours and how to delete the key.
What to try when a paper is missing, annotations or handwriting don't arrive, search misses something or Reading Mode looks wrong, and how to send us diagnostic data.
How Rectoly tells you about a new version, what happens when an update is required, and where to get it on each system.
What Rectoly does on your device, what it exchanges with Mendeley or Zotero, and the little that goes anywhere else.
Short answers to the questions people ask most, each with a link to the page that explains it in full.