{"id":31927,"date":"2024-12-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readcube.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=31927"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:17:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:17:02","password":"","slug":"readcube-desktop-app-vs-web-app","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/readcubestg.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/help-center\/readcube-desktop-app-vs-web-app\/","title":{"rendered":"ReadCube Desktop App vs Web App"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A common question we get is what are the primary differences between the web and desktop app &#8211; 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tab Restoration \u2013 Remember open PDFs when closing the app<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Default Citation Style \u2013 Select from over 10000 styles to quickly copy and paste references from<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/file-management\/\">File Management<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Keep files organized on your local disk with predefined naming conventions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/citekey-management\/\">Citekey Management<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Generate citekeys for all references using predefined naming conventions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/watch-folders\/\">Watch Folders<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 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<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/downloading-pdfs-offline-access\/\">Offline Access<\/a>\u2013 Interact with your library without internet and sync up when you regain internet access<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/import-endnote-library-into-readcube\/\">EndNote Import<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Advanced EndNote import allows you to grab PDFs &amp; references from Endnote quickly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/support.papersapp.com\/support\/solutions\/articles\/30000026491-how-do-i-import-from-another-reference-manager-\">Zotero Import<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 Advanced Zotero import allows you to grab PDFs &amp; references from Zotero quickly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/migrating-from-mendeley-to-readcube\/\">Mendeley Import<\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 Advanced Mendeley import allows you to grab PDFs &amp; references from Mendeley quickly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readcube.com\/en\/help-center\/introduction-to-smartcite-for-citekeys\/\">SmartCite for Citekeys<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Turn papers with citekeys into a formatted bibliography through the Papers desktop application<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A common question we get is what are the primary differences between the web and desktop app &#8211; the quick answer is that most of our features are the same&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[1545],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-31927","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-getting-started"],"acf":[],"year_month":"2026-04","word_count":214,"total_views":"1699","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"cary","author_nicename":"cary","author_url":"https:\/\/readcubestg.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/news\/author\/cary\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Getting Started","term_url":"https:\/\/readcubestg.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/docs-category\/getting-started\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.10 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - 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