Why doesn't Zotero select the item I just created?

jlm

At some point in 2.0 development, Zotero stopped setting the focus to (selecting) the item I just created. Example: I create a new entry for a Journal Article. In the past Zotero selected the newly created item so I could enter the data. Now I have to scroll up to the top of the list, click on it to select it, and then start typing data.

Similarly, if I go to the notes pane and click new note, sometimes Zotero goes to the newly created note so I can type in it, but more often I have to go to the list of items, click on the triangle next to the item to reveal its children, and select the newly created note so that I can type in it. If I create the new note with the Add button in the Notes tab instead of the Add Child Note item in the New Note button's menu, it shows me the list of notes in the Notes tab, and putting the cursor over a note causes it to highlight, but clicking on it doesn't do anything. I would really like it to go to the note.

This is Firefox 3.6, Mac OS 10.6, but I had the same problems on Firefox 3.5.x, Windows XP.

dstillman

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/9562/bug-in-adding-child-note/

dstillman

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/11226/add-item-is-not-highlighted-in-list-must-search-to-annote/

jlm

OK, I understand. I create the item, Zotero immediately starts syncing; I create the note, and Zotero can't show it to me. As a work-around, perhaps Zotero should wait for an idle period before syncing. I understand if you think that's a hack and don't want to do it.

dstillman

It'd certainly be only a partial workaround, not a fix, but it's not necessarily a bad idea. I believe the post-edit auto-sync timer—which is currently 15 seconds, reset if there's an edit during that period—predated the availability of idle detection in Firefox. Really, this might be useful to avoid unnecessary syncs as much as to help address the current UI glitches (which, after all, will be fixed eventually).

However, I'd want to avoid changing the expectation that changes are auto-synced more or less immediately, so, if we did change the timer to use idle detection, the timeout would probably need to be 5 or 10 seconds. So, in other words, 15 seconds after an edit, Zotero would begin looking for a 5 or 10 second idle period and sync at that point. Any changes in the interim would still reset the original 15-second timer.