Thanks John. Yes, that was the case, because I had no intention of downloading the pdfs. So I had set (setq doi-utils-download-pdf nil) and left org-ref-pdf-directory nil. Setting it to a valid directory gets rid of the error. Thanks. I would find it useful (given that I've disabled auto-download) if I was prompted for the location of the pdf. That way I could either (a) provide a link to the pdf wherever I've stored it, or (b) not provide a link (yet). Just a thought. Thanks again for all your help. Andreas On 26 December 2015 at 00:37, John Kitchin wrote: > What about the value of org-ref-pdf-directory. This seems to be where your > error is coming from. Your debugger info suggests it is set to nil. > > Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil) > file-name-as-directory(nil) > org-ref-open-bibtex-notes() > doi-utils-insert-bibtex-entry-fr > > John > > ----------------------------------- > Professor John Kitchin > Doherty Hall A207F > Department of Chemical Engineering > Carnegie Mellon University > Pittsburgh, PA 15213 > 412-268-7803 > @johnkitchin > http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu > > > On Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 10:16 PM, Andreas Kiermeier < > andreas.kiermeier@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I've set the HOME environment variable to "C:/Users/andre_000/Documents" >> and hence need the .. to get into the Dropbox folder. >> >> Executing (find-file org-ref-bibliography-notes) does find and open the >> correct notes file. >> >> Using an absolute path, as in: >> >> (setq org-ref-bibliography-notes >> "C:/Users/andre_000/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org" >> org-ref-default-bibliography >> '("C:/Users/andre_000/Dropbox/_biblio/refs.bib")) >> >> results in the same error. >> >> After dropping a PDF file into the .bib file I end up with the following >> additional entry (for example) in the bibnotes.org file. I thought I'd >> include it just to ensure that nothing gets chopped of - this entry >> correctly reflect the PDF. >> >> ** TODO 2007 - Taenia Saginata in Europe >> :PROPERTIES: >> :Custom_ID: dorny_2007 >> :AUTHOR: Dorny \& Praet >> :JOURNAL: Veterinary Parasitology >> :YEAR: 2007 >> :VOLUME: 149 >> :PAGES: 22-24 >> :DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2007.07.004 >> :URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2007.07.004 >> :END: >> >> Does the notes file need a specific set up in terms of headers etc? >> >> >> -- >> Dr Andreas Kiermeier | Director >> Statistical Process Improvement Consulting and Training Pty Ltd >> Mbl: +61 (4)23 028 565 | Email: andreas.kiermeier@gmail.com >> Australia >> >> On 25 December 2015 at 13:17, John Kitchin >> wrote: >> >>> That is an odd looking path. On Mac that would expand to something like >>> >>> /Users/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org >>> >>> and on linux >>> >>> /home/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org >>> >>> usually you should not have permission for that, and neither make sense >>> to me. >>> >>> Does (file-exists-p org-ref-bibliography-notes) return true? >>> >>> or alternatively does (find-file org-ref-bibliography-notes) actually >>> open a writable file? >>> >>> I would think this is what you want (unless you have some unusual setup >>> and permissions): >>> >>> (setq org-ref-bibliography-notes "~/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org >>> " >>> org-ref-default-bibliography '("~/Dropbox/_biblio/refs.bib")) >>> >>> i.e. no .. in the path. >>> >>> Andreas Kiermeier writes: >>> >>> > Hi John, >>> > >>> > I've set it at follows (based on your setup) in my init.el file: >>> > >>> > (setq org-ref-bibliography-notes "~/../Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/ >>> bibnotes.org" >>> > org-ref-default-bibliography '("~/../Dropbox/_biblio/refs.bib")) >>> > >>> > So, non-nil. >>> > >>> > Andreas >>> > >>> > On 25 December 2015 at 00:45, John Kitchin >>> wrote: >>> > >>> >> >>> >> On Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 1:04 AM, Andreas Kiermeier < >>> >> andreas.kiermeier@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >> >>> >>> org-ref-open-bibtex-notes() >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> That looks like a different error that occurs in >>> org-ref-open-bibtex-notes(). >>> >> Up to that point everything looks normal. >>> >> >>> >> What do you have your org-ref-bibliography-notes variable set to? The >>> >> default value is nil which would cause that error. >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> John >>> >> >>> >> ----------------------------------- >>> >> Professor John Kitchin >>> >> Doherty Hall A207F >>> >> Department of Chemical Engineering >>> >> Carnegie Mellon University >>> >> Pittsburgh, PA 15213 >>> >> 412-268-7803 >>> >> @johnkitchin >>> >> http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu >>> >> >>> >> >>> >>> -- >>> Professor John Kitchin >>> Doherty Hall A207F >>> Department of Chemical Engineering >>> Carnegie Mellon University >>> Pittsburgh, PA 15213 >>> 412-268-7803 >>> @johnkitchin >>> http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu >>> >> >> >