Opening Entire Folder Files at once

nayr497
Hello,

I'm hoping this is a simple yes/no question...

I have my files stored in folders in Zotero. I can highlight all of them in the center window/pane. I'd like to be able to open all of them at once so I can quickly browse them. As it is now, I can only open one file at a time.

Can you somehow open all of them at once?

- I'm on a Mac, these are digital photo files of documents that I took myself. They open in Preview.

As it is now, I have to go find the set of files in a folder on my computer, then open all of them. Not the end of the world, but it would be much easier/faster if I could open all of them at once from my Zotero library.

Thank you!
  • adamsmith
    Selecting them --> right-click (ctrl+click) and --> Open File or Open in External Viewer should work. Does for me at least.
    You may also find https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/zoteroquicklook/ handy.
  • nayr497
    Hi Adam,

    I'm not at home and don't have my laptop. Thanks for the reply, I'll try this as soon as I get home and bet it will work.

    I knew it was likely an easy solution.

    Thank you for your time, thank you for your reply!

    Ryan
  • nayr497
    Just getting around to this, sorry for the delay.

    If I do a Command A and select them all, then right click I get these options:

    Remove Items from Collection
    Move Items to Trash...

    Export Items
    Create Bibliography from Items...
    Generate Report from Items...

    Create Parent Items
    Reindex Items

    If I just select one item, highlight it, right click I get:

    View File
    Show File

    Show in Library

    Remove Item from Collection
    Move Item to Trash...

    Export Item...
    Create Bibliography from Item...
    Generate Report from Item...

    Create Parent Item
    Reindex Item

    I hope I'm just doing something wrong. I tried to follow your instructions but it won't let me open them all at once. I hope I'm just doing something incorrectly.

    Ideas?
  • adamsmith
    ah yes, sorry, I had forgotten about that. Those options don't get displayed if you have more than 20 items selected.
    Dan would have to say whether that's purely a UX decision or whether there are other reasons for that, too. I imagine the main reason is that people opening 100 PDFs by accident might be rather frustrated.
  • dstillman
    I imagine the main reason is that people opening 100 PDFs by accident might be rather frustrated.
    Yes, this. The limit was arbitrary, I think, but it almost certainly wouldn't make sense to show the options when, say, an entire library was selected.

    Out of curiosity, how many are you trying to open?
  • konstantinos_29
    Is there a way to overcome this arbitrary restriction and select more than 20 items at a time and open the respective folders?

    I create the items with pdf attachments, sync them with the server and then delete the local copies of the attached files. But it takes for ever in my case because of the above mentioned restriction.
  • adamsmith
    I don't think so, no, sorry.
    So you're using show file and then deleting the items on your harddisk? Any reason you're doing that in particular?
    FWIW, given that there's no versioning on the Zotero server, I'd feel uneasy about relying on that as the only storage for files of any importance: While Zotero obviously won't lose them by itself, any mistake you make may lose them irretrievably.
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