Zotero 7 Beta: State of left-hand sidebar in pdf/epub reader should be remembered

sojusnik
edited August 31, 2023
When opening the pdf/epub reader, the left-hand sidebar is always collapsed, but it would be helpful if its last state, opened or closed, would be restored, even after restarting Zotero. This should apply for all documents, so if you have an opened sidebar on one document and you open another document, the sidebar should be automatically shown there as well.

Happens on Zotero 7.0.0-beta.38+b79e0b3d7 (64-bit) on Ubuntu 23.04.
  • martynas_b
    The left sidebar's open/close state should be preserved. Are you perhaps terminating the Zotero process instead of quitting it properly?
  • sojusnik
    Usually I'm quitting Zotero (the main window, thus the whole program) by ctrl+q or pressing the "x" in the title bar.

    Even when closing the new reader with "x" in the title bar or ctrl+w, the sidebar is always closed when opening another document.

    Maybe it's an Ubuntu only bug?
  • poettli
    Maybe it's an Ubuntu only bug?
    I am on Ubuntu 22.04 with Zotero 7.0.0-beta.38 and the state of the left-hand sidebar is preserved. When the sidebar is toggled, it is for all documents. And it remains toggled after restarting. Same when it is not toggled. I have no plugin installed.
  • sojusnik
    To be sure, I'm speaking about the left-hand sidebar in the PDF/EPUB/HTML reader.

    I also don't have any plugins installed and created a fresh Zotero profile roughly one week ago.
  • martynas_b
    I'm waiting for someone else to reproduce this.
  • poettli
    edited September 7, 2023
    To be sure, I'm speaking about the left-hand sidebar in the PDF/EPUB/HTML reader.
    Me too (while I didn't test the epub reader).
  • sojusnik
    Do you open the new reader in a new window or just in a new tab of the main window? I always open it as a new window, maybe this is why the sidebar is always hidden here?
  • poettli
    I only use the default behavior (reader in tab). Is the left-hand sidebar toggled in the tab view? If yes, it will always be toggled in window view, as far as I can see. The state of the left-hand sidebar in tab view imposes the state of the left-hand sidebar in the window view.
  • sojusnik
    Ok, I've found the reason!

    In order for the sidebar to save its state, you have to open a document in a new tab, then open the sidebar, close the tab, open another document in a new tab and you'll see that the sidebar remains open there. Then you can enable the setting to open documents in a new window and next time you open a document in a new window, the sidebar will opened.

    And if you would prefer not to see the sidebar opened, then you have to open a document in a new tab, close the sidebar there and only then in a new window the sidebar will be hidden upon opening the document.

    To sum it up, the state of the sidebar is only remembered when documents are opened in tabs, not in new windows. This is counterintuitive and seems to be a bug.
  • mjthoraval
    To sum it up, the state of the sidebar is only remembered when documents are opened in tabs, not in new windows. This is counterintuitive and seems to be a bug.
    I can reproduce in both Ubuntu 23.04 and Windows 10.
  • martynas_b
    Thanks for investigating. We'll fix this.
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