Note: I am not a Zotero developer, so just because I created a ticket does not mean that it will be implemented. (I think that this one should be implemented, though)
this has been planned forever, it's just never been implemented, so no guarantee that it will happen quickly now.
The old tickets are here
https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/781
and here
https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/1566
@mronkko and @adamsmith, just a quick note, in the Mac OS's Finder option-drag creates an alias. So I think option-dragging an item into Zotero to create a link would be consistent.
It's definitely a very important feature. But there is already an alternative to this:
In the standalone version, click on the "New Item" icon. A menu will open up. Click "Link to file". Now you can select all the files you want to add as links. This option supports selecting multiple files. And all your files will be added as links. All of them. Be it 10 or 1000.
So, here you go. THIS FEATURE IS ALREADY THERE, albeit in a different way. I wonder why no one mentioned it on the discussion.
Okay, it's still not possible to do the same with Drag-Drop, but why get so fixated to it. Adding files using menu is actually quicker.
It would be good to have a short-cut to transfer a link to e.g. a PDF file (not the target object itself, as currenty happens with a pure drag-and-drop) to the Zotero item, by extending for instance the newly introduced short-cut to link a file.
Thanks a lot, it was worth reading to the end of the thread! :-)
However, I have a Problem: shift+alt+drag&drop only works for "my library" and not for group librarys. drag&drop works, but I would like to have links as opposed to actual copies of my files in the group library.
Our group uses the same file system. Therefore, being able to attach links to files would make a lot of sense.
links to files don't work in groups, whether via shortcut or otherwise.
There are several discussion on this, but the short version is that, as long as we don't have relative links for groups implemented, there's no realistic way those links would remain stable across group members (it might be in some very specific IT set ups, but it normally wouldn't), so we'd set people up for broken links.
thanks for the quick and precise answer.
(the only thing, I would have wished for, is a meaningful error message, when trying to put the link into the group)
Upgrade Storage
The old tickets are here
https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/781
and here
https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/1566
This is also consistent with what Apple's documentation says
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343
https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/77
In the standalone version, click on the "New Item" icon. A menu will open up. Click "Link to file". Now you can select all the files you want to add as links. This option supports selecting multiple files. And all your files will be added as links. All of them. Be it 10 or 1000.
So, here you go. THIS FEATURE IS ALREADY THERE, albeit in a different way. I wonder why no one mentioned it on the discussion.
Okay, it's still not possible to do the same with Drag-Drop, but why get so fixated to it. Adding files using menu is actually quicker.
" Allow creation of linked files via drag-and-drop
Ctrl-Shift-drag on Windows/Linux, Cmd-Option-drag on OS X"
https://www.zotero.org/support/4.0_changelog
However, I have a Problem: shift+alt+drag&drop only works for "my library" and not for group librarys. drag&drop works, but I would like to have links as opposed to actual copies of my files in the group library.
Our group uses the same file system. Therefore, being able to attach links to files would make a lot of sense.
thanks again
There are several discussion on this, but the short version is that, as long as we don't have relative links for groups implemented, there's no realistic way those links would remain stable across group members (it might be in some very specific IT set ups, but it normally wouldn't), so we'd set people up for broken links.
(the only thing, I would have wished for, is a meaningful error message, when trying to put the link into the group)