PaperShip - finally, a great iPad app for Zotero

Last week I discovered PaperShip. I've been a big fan of Zotero for years, but have been frustrated by the limited and complex options for reading and annotating my attached files on my iPad. I have Zotero set up to sync attachments with my university-provided box.com account. PaperShip syncs with both my Zotero.org citations and my Box attachments. I can open my attachments, annotate (limited free tools, or get more tools with a $4.99 in-app purchase), and attach a note. PaperShip puts the annotated version back into Box. When I sync Zotero on my computer, all of the annotations are there. Another nice feature is the ability to search and add citations from within PaperShip. If you want to follow up on a work cited in the article you are reading, simply copy the title, click the "+" symbol, and choose your search interface (arXiv, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, JSTOR, PubMed, or ScienceDirect). Find the item, click "Import" and the item appears in your PaperShip Inbox. From there you can move it into the appropriate folder(s). It will also capture the full article, when it can. The program also allows for sharing via Twitter, text, or email, and for opening in alternate reader applications. You can even attach audio notes to your documents.

There do seem to be a few minor bugs. The program occassionally crashes or requires reestablishing a Zotero connection, and the free and paid annotation tools do not work together quite as seamlessly as one might wish, but overall I am very pleased to have this tool available.

PaperShip also has an iPhone version, though it, too, seems a little buggy. The "open in" option for attachments would be useful for reading in the text-only mode in GoodReader (as pdfs tend to be too small to be legible on a 4S, and still too small to read comfortably on a 5S) . I can open an attached html file in GoodReader, but can't get PaperShip to open a pdf  in GoodReader. Also, the iPhone version seems to have trouble when there are multiple attachments. One citation with two files, an html and a pdf, opened the pdf first. I then used the arrow down to open the html. Later, I went back to the same citation, and it seems to switch between attachments, but only shows the html file. Finally, I've noticed that sometimes the annotation bar doesn't seem to be available for pdfs.

I am hopeful that the developer will work out the bugs soon, as this app is a great concept, and I use the iPad version just about every day.