create parent Document item when dragging a file w/o metadata into Zotero

erazlogo

When I drag a file from the file system into Zotero and it can't generate metadata based on its content, no parent item type is created and the file stays at top level.

It would be nice if in that case Zotero could create a parent Document item for the file automatically, with the filename as document title, and then set the attachment file title as "PDF," "Audio," etc., as mandated by the new file title rules.

Thanks!

adamsmith

The reason for not doing this is that the add parent dialogue has the very useful option to create the parent from an ID. That'd be hard to do when automatically creating empty parents. I think that would be worth revisiting once updating metadata is implemented

erazlogo

Yes, I'd love to get update metadata options for existing parent items - update by ID AND "clear metadata" to get a plain Document parent item with all fields empty.

Use case for the latter: When I drag (or add via web) an H-Net book review PDF into Zotero, it automatically creates an incorrect parent item set as the book the review is about. I then have to change item type from book to article and clean up every field to reformat into an H-Net book review. It would be easier if I could delete all metadata at once.