Unlocked underlining in Z7?

mmplx

In https://www.zotero.org/support/pdf_reader:

> In the default, unlocked mode, with nothing selected in the annotation toolbar, whenever you select text in the document, a popup will appear with a selection of colors, and you can click a color to create a highlight or underline on the selected text.

But AFAICS it's not possible to underline the selection from the popup. You just have the option to select a color and then the text is highlighted with that color. Neither is it possible to change the style of the annotation to underlined after the fact.

dstillman

This is planned. We just need to figure out the best way to do it.

mmplx

This is an idea based on a frequent confusion of mine: when I select some text and then decide I want it underlined, I click on the toolbar button and lose the selection. Why not making the buttons one-shot when there is an active selection? Moreover, the color dropdown in the toolbar may be kept active all the time, so that color can be chosen in advance (and at least I find it a bit odd when I see that empty placeholder next to the greyed out arrow).

dstillman

Why not making the buttons one-shot when there is an active selection?

Because that would further conflate the two different modes of annotating and make for a weird interaction where you were closing an annotation popup via a click elsewhere. The change here will just be figuring out a way to expose underlining via the popup that already appears (which only doesn't support it because it predates underline functionality).

Moreover, the color dropdown in the toolbar may be kept active all the time, so that color can be chosen in advance

That's exactly how locked mode works. If you want to repeatedly highlight or underline in a given color, use locked mode.

(and at least I find it a bit odd when I see that empty placeholder next to the greyed out arrow).

The colors are specific to each tool. There's no color when a tool isn't selected, by definition.

mmplx

> Because that would further conflate the two different modes of annotating

I see your point and have thought about it but still think that the usage pattern is clear and intuitive enough (after all, it's what Preview has done for years in macOS, to give an example). Indeed, as I mentioned, I find it quite confusing right now in that after selecting text I expect the buttons to act on the selection and get surprised each time.

> The colors are specific to each tool.

Ok, I thought they were global.

> The change here will just be figuring out a way to expose underlining via the popup that already appears

I would avoid a combinatory of options (colors x tools) and also be concerned about how to accommodate future extensions (strikethrough, bold, etc). Some apps present a popup with color choices along with tool choices, if you select a color it waits for the tool to be selected, if you select a tool it uses the currently selected color.