Upgrade Storage[feature suggestions] A few ideas for Zotero on iOS/iPadOS
Hi there,
I don't know if this has been extensively suggested before (I couldn't find it by searching them) but there are some features that would help a lot on Zotero for iOS/iPadOS in my personal perspective:
1- Add by bibtex/RIS entry - I'm using inciteful (inciteful.xyz) and it saves a .bib file with references I've found. I'd love to import this file (or maybe copy/paste it's contents) and have it added as entries in a given folder/collection
2 - Adding paper and retrieving metadata from it - I frequently find myself adding the metadata first (by using the /save feature) and then uploading the pdf file. If Zotero could retrieve the paper's metadata, or maybe allow us to link a metadata to a pdf file right after adding it and vice versa, that would help a lot.
A few interface improvements I'd love to see:
3 - The "fade out" effect in the modal pane right after deleting an annotation is not consistent to the initial appearance of it. To me it seems that removing this effect would improve interaction;
4 - One thing that I haven't seen in other apps is an option to bookmark the References page. I find myself going back and forth by scrolling to find a specific Reference; if we could have a bookmark feature, or maybe a "go to references page" button that you can assign to to go a specific page that would be nice;
5 - Another nice feature I'd love to see is a draggable pane for the paper annotation menu. Depending on how I'm sitting it is too distant to reach the top of my tablet with a pencil or my fingers.
6 - Double tap on Apple Pencil to erase or a custom action would also be nice (I've seen that it's already being implemented by it worth to mention :-)
7- Full screen mode (that could be possible if we have feature request 5) :-)
8 - Not very popular but have you thought about allowing users to add handwritten text on sticker notes? Would that be possible?
Finally a not very common request I think but in my opinion it would be awesome is to support other file formats, such as ePub and Markdown. For markdown, if we could have a way to have a "personal theme" for rendering the markdown file, that would be amazing.
It might be too much to request, so consider them as suggestions :-)
I don't know if this has been extensively suggested before (I couldn't find it by searching them) but there are some features that would help a lot on Zotero for iOS/iPadOS in my personal perspective:
1- Add by bibtex/RIS entry - I'm using inciteful (inciteful.xyz) and it saves a .bib file with references I've found. I'd love to import this file (or maybe copy/paste it's contents) and have it added as entries in a given folder/collection
2 - Adding paper and retrieving metadata from it - I frequently find myself adding the metadata first (by using the /save feature) and then uploading the pdf file. If Zotero could retrieve the paper's metadata, or maybe allow us to link a metadata to a pdf file right after adding it and vice versa, that would help a lot.
A few interface improvements I'd love to see:
3 - The "fade out" effect in the modal pane right after deleting an annotation is not consistent to the initial appearance of it. To me it seems that removing this effect would improve interaction;
4 - One thing that I haven't seen in other apps is an option to bookmark the References page. I find myself going back and forth by scrolling to find a specific Reference; if we could have a bookmark feature, or maybe a "go to references page" button that you can assign to to go a specific page that would be nice;
5 - Another nice feature I'd love to see is a draggable pane for the paper annotation menu. Depending on how I'm sitting it is too distant to reach the top of my tablet with a pencil or my fingers.
6 - Double tap on Apple Pencil to erase or a custom action would also be nice (I've seen that it's already being implemented by it worth to mention :-)
7- Full screen mode (that could be possible if we have feature request 5) :-)
8 - Not very popular but have you thought about allowing users to add handwritten text on sticker notes? Would that be possible?
Finally a not very common request I think but in my opinion it would be awesome is to support other file formats, such as ePub and Markdown. For markdown, if we could have a way to have a "personal theme" for rendering the markdown file, that would be amazing.
It might be too much to request, so consider them as suggestions :-)
Yay!
[quote] You mean this page? Why would you be using that if you're using the iOS app? You save to the iOS app from the share extension in the browser, which works similarly to the Zotero Connector on the desktop, automatically attaching a PDF if one is available. (PDF metadata retrieval will be available on iOS eventually, though.) [/quote]
Wow I didn't know that was possible! This just eliminates 1) and 2) from my list :-)
[quote]
Note that, if you follow an intra-PDF link to the references, if you show the page scrubber at the bottom there's a back button you can tap to get back to the original page. [/quote]
Again, didn't notice it :-) A few additional suggestions:
1- Not sure if it is possible but highlighting (with a 1 sec fade-out) the reference whose link we've just followed would be nice for eyes to quickly find the right one.
1.1. - A more profound suggestion is to have the option to save the reference for later (I often highlight references to take a look in another moment)
1.2 - Another one would be to "quick look" at the reference instead of going to the references page.
2 - The flow for going back to the "original" page takes 2 actions (click to see the button, then click again to go back to the page). This is bad for the reading flow. I'd show these buttons (to go back and forth) right away when we follow a link, instead of having to touch once to show them. If a person follows a link to a reference, it seems natural to me that it wants to go back to its original page. The way it is now it seems that going back and forth is secondary, while I think it's a primary action.
[quote] Do you mean the toolbar with the tools? It will be possible to move those to different screen edges in the next version, along with hiding the main toolbar. [/quote]
Awesome! Can't wait :-)
Thanks so much for all the hard work with Zotero, by the way! Oh, and Happy New Year!