BUG in Zotero 6: some item types missing for manual reference creation

till.grallert
Today I came about a weird bug: there is a mismatch in the most current version of Zotero 6 between the item types listed when clicking on the small green "plus" icon to manually add references and the item types available once a reference is created. I cannot, for instance, manually add reference of the item type "web page". I have not compared the two sets of item types but it may well be that "web page", being at the end of an alphabetically sorted list, is the only one missing.
  • mjthoraval
    Since it's almost always better to visit a webpage in your browser and use the “Save to Zotero” button, the Web Page item type is not included in the “New Item” menu. However, if you really want to create a webpage item by hand, you create an empty item of another type and switch the item type to Web Page in the right-hand pane.
    https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#manually_adding_items
  • till.grallert
    Thank you very much for this quick response. Even though this apparently isn't a bug, it feels weird that the developers have to suggest a work around for something they clearly think is a feature.
  • aborel
    It is not a workaround, it is the official way to add web pages as references. Adding them manually would be more tedious, various fields would be difficult to fill... in other words, the result would be inferior.
  • till.grallert
    Well, it is clearly a workaround. Let me explain:

    1. we all agree that automatic extraction and recording of metadata from webpages is the preferred way of input
    2. we also agree that there are cases when one wants to manually create a reference for a reference be it because Zotero does not recognise a webpage as such, be it that I the web page in question is no longer available.

    Developers recognise the second option and claim that since the first option will work in the vast majority of cases, we do not need the second option at all.
  • adamsmith
    Just to clarify that
    be it because Zotero does not recognise a webpage as such
    does not exist: Zotero may not get great metadata, but it lets you add every page of the web as a webpage item with at a minimum access date and snapshot.

    But there are generally plans to change this in favor of a first-run warning since it's a common cause of confusion.
  • till.grallert
    I do beg to differ. Try adding https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Revenue_stamps_of_Turkey to your Zotero library.
  • mjthoraval
    If the default translator does not work (Wikimedia Commons here), you can always choose to import as a webpage by right-clicking (click-and-hold in Safari) on the Zotero save button -> Save to Zotero -> Save to Zotero (Webpage with Snapshot).
  • moore.709
    Just to be supportive all around,
    I get all the points here, but it does seem normal to have all the item types in the New Item list , for whatever reason someone wants to create something manually; seems like it can't hurt anything.

    I was also just going to report it as maybe stopping short alphabetically since Web Page is the last item :)
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