Zotero 7 Beta: Ability to hide the preview in the Attachments section of the Info Pane

mjthoraval

In some cases, I just want to see the list of attachments of an item, as well as the number of annotations on it. In that case, I don't need to see the attachment preview.
Is it possible to add an option to hide the preview?

This will also help navigating faster between items, as loading the preview every time takes too much time and memory. I am still interested in seeing the list of attachments, so collapsing the whole section does not work.

dstillman

Right-click on the Attachment header → Hide Attachment Preview

(We also played with moving the preview to its own collapsible section. There are pros and cons, but it's possible we'll explore that again.)

mjthoraval

Thanks, very nice.

mjthoraval

I liked very much the design of the preview in the (defunct) PDF Preview plugin, so in a separate sub-pane rather than its own collapsible section. There may be some other ways to make it work nicely, but after more testing, I feel that the current design does not work as well for me.

1) The main use of preview for me is to check very quickly the content of the item when navigating with the up and down arrows in the list of items in the center pane. If I need to scroll down in the item pane for every item to see the preview, it looses its purpose. I can collapse the Info and Abstract sections, but I don't want to loose the Info section. Putting the Preview at the top would be a bit better, but I would still prefer seeing the Info first.

2) The Preview takes longer to load. So it is very different from the rest of the text data in the Item Pane that gets displayed immediately. I feel that integrating the Preview in the Item Pane is disturbing, taking the attention away from the other text information while it is loading. Moving it to a separate sub-pane would avoid the problem.
Try also navigating between items alternatively with and without attachment to preview. The sections below the Preview keep jumping up and down.

3) The main advantage of having a separate sub-pane is that it can be resized as needed. On a 16:10 monitor, I will keep the first page in full. On a 16:9 monitor, I will only display half of it to keep sufficient space for the Info section. I don't always need to see exactly one page to get an idea of the content (I liked the ability to scroll in the preview rather then the current page turning).
Also, the preview could extend all the way to the right-hand side of the screen, using the empty space at the bottom of the sidenav.

4) The main thing missing there was a quick way to open and close it, either with a toggle button or a shortcut.
The PDF Preview plugin had a try to use the key "P" to toggle the Preview, but that was in conflict with the "find-as-you-type" feature, even if the ordering in the center pane was using "Date Modified". So this shortcut question was left open until this update of Zotero 7 Beta:
https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-pdf-preview/issues/19
Maybe having an icon at the bottom of the sidenav to toggle the Preview in a sub-pane could work nicely.

dstillman

The main use of preview for me is to check very quickly the content of the item when navigating with the up and down arrows in the list of items in the center pane. If I need to scroll down in the item pane for every item to see the preview, it looses its purpose.

You don't. That's the point of section pinning, which replicates separate tabs but in a much more fluid way. Double-click on Attachments in the sidenav to pin it, and as you move through items, you'll see the preview at the top. It's exactly like having selected the Preview tab, except when you want to see the rest of the content, you can just scroll up or down, without having to manually click other tabs and click back to Preview.

We're going to be working on speeding up and caching the previews, which will avoid or greatly reduce the load delay and any jumping of content below (as well as memory usage). Showing a page at a time is part of what will let it be fast and efficient.

Note, also, that sections can be collapsed/expanded with a single click anywhere on the section header.

(The developer of that plugin now works for Zotero and implemented this functionality.)

mjthoraval

I appreciate the ability to pin one section and collapsing/expanding sections by a single click. But it is not the same as having sub-panes, because you can only pin one section at a time. And even reordering and collapsing sections will always make the second section displayed jump around when switching between items (eventually out of the screen). It is very comfortable to simply see the information I am looking for (Info and Preview) at fixed locations.

It's exactly like having selected the Preview tab, except when you want to see the rest of the content, you can just scroll up or down, without having to manually click other tabs and click back to Preview.

To clarify here, I have never used much the Preview in a separate tab, but the Preview at the bottom of the Info Pane. Pinning the Attachment section indeed replaces the Preview in a tab. But it does not replace the functionality of having the Preview at the bottom of the Info Pane.
I would like to get the preview in a fixed position, resizable sub-pane, so that I can see and navigate in both sub-panes separately.
In the current design, I can either see the Info section OR the Preview section at a fixed position. I have to scroll on every item if I want to see both.

You mention in the other thread:

We're currently working on providing hooks to allow plugins to create sections in the new item pane. As I say in the announcement, better support for plugins is one of the biggest advantages of the new design.

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/111074/available-for-beta-testing-zotero-redesigned
If the main interface sticks to scrollable sections only, maybe sub-panes should be done in plugins. Will there also be options to make sub-panes for plugins? Or two-columns Item Pane? Or mixed layout with both Standard View and Stacked View panes?
I am not sure what is the best way to organize the information in the Item Pane. But the sub-pane of the PDF Preview plugin was working nicely for me.

dstillman

To clarify here, I have never used much the Preview in a separate tab, but the Preview at the bottom of the Info Pane. Pinning the Attachment section indeed replaces the Preview in a tab. But it does not replace the functionality of having the Preview at the bottom of the Info Pane.

Ah, OK — I wasn't aware of that functionality (and I was confused as to why you were calling tabs sub-panes!).

But then it sounds like this is just the same thing you already asked for in an earlier thread: the ability to pin a section outside the main pane flow.

mjthoraval

But then it sounds like this is just the same thing you already asked for in an earlier thread: the ability to pin a section outside the main pane flow.

Yes, indeed. Sorry for mixing the topics here.
I had tried to formulate it in a more general way in that thread (for any section), while focusing here on the special nature of the Preview, replying to your first comment.