Papers Desktop vs Web App

A common question we get is what are the primary differences between the web and desktop app – the quick answer is that most of our features are the same across both, so it really is more down to preference than functionality. Having said that, there are some specific features, listed below, that are unique to the desktop application:

• Tab Restoration – Remember open PDFs when closing the app
• Default Citation Style – Select from over 10000 styles to quickly copy and paste references from
• File Management – Keep files organized on your local disk with predefined naming conventions
• Citekey Management – Generate citekeys for all references using predefined naming conventions
• Watch Folders – Add a local file folder to be watched by the desktop app so that it can automatically upload new PDFs into your library from within that folder
• Offline Access– Interact with your library without internet and sync up when you regain internet access
• EndNote Import – Advanced EndNote import allows you to grab PDFs & references from Endnote quickly
• Zotero Import – Advanced Zotero import allows you to grab PDFs & references from Zotero quickly
• Mendeley Import  – Advanced Mendeley import allows you to grab PDFs & references from Mendeley quickly
• SmartCite for Citekeys – Turn papers with citekeys into a formatted bibliography through the Papers desktop application