Zotero 7 "Rename File from Parent Metadata" not working?
Hi, I just upgraded last night and I am not sure if this has been brought up already, but I just added a few items that imported the main citation fine, but the attached PDF was just titled "Full Text PDF". When I right-clicked that and selected "Rename File from Parent Metadata", a little dialogue box says that that action is happening, but then nothing changes and The file still is titled "Full Text PDF". I thought I should quit Zotero and relaunch to see if it would update, but nothing. When I select "Show in Finder", it DOES show that the file has been renamed with the appropriate name ("Author - Year - etc etc"), but it still doesn't show it within Zotero. Is there a setting I need to change? Or is this a bug that needs to be fixed? Thanks, Samantha
edit: attaching screenshot that shows how the attached PDF title looks in Zotero, and how it looks in "Show in Finder"
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1713377/h4lfw8du564li76dvd9s.jpg
edit: attaching screenshot that shows how the attached PDF title looks in Zotero, and how it looks in "Show in Finder"
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1713377/h4lfw8du564li76dvd9s.jpg
And to be clear, Zotero has always renamed files automatically. Unless you edited the metadata after saving the item, you never need to run Rename File from Parent Metadata, and an upcoming version will automatically keep the filename in sync with the parent item metadata.
OK, that's great to hear that "an upcoming version will automatically keep the filename in sync with the parent item metadata" ! Do you mean it will then display it visually in the item itself? And do you know when this "upcoming version" may be released?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1713377/d4qgi0y0q2wpe1yfwynr.jpg
And no, it's not correct to say that the actual filename was visible in Zotero 6 — Zotero has always had attachment titles like "Full Text PDF" that were separate from the filename. Again, the linked section explains the exact difference in behavior and the reasons the title might have been getting set to the filename before.
I understand that zotero may not intend to display the full names before, but that was actually more convenient (to me, at least).
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8801794/pqs9br2a2vck2a4veygv.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8801794/l3crr95rg2xhgo6d1d29.png
Well, for the reasoning of the preference:
The current display is alright, and I see the point here - the window looks clean and neat, without showing repetitive information.
However, I personally think the previous display is more convenient, because "PDF" doesn't show any identifying information - one raw is just fine, but when you get a block of items with the same naming for the files, it's easy to click the wrong file. When the full names of the files are displayed, I won't have to shift my eyes to the right panel or other places, to double check if I'm going for the right file.
More importantly, you don't actually need to expand the parent item at all to open the attachment — you can just double-click on the parent item without expanding it. And the simpler naming prevents parent items from being unnecessarily expanded in the first place when you search for the title or author in All Fields & Tags mode. Your screenshots show exactly that: I don't know if the first screenshot was for a search, but in the second screenshot, "PDF" didn't match the search and wouldn't cause the parent item to be expanded, so you just wouldn't need to look at it at all in order to open it.
My preference could also just all because that I became familiar with the previous version, I will try to get used to the current version.
"In any case, as we've said repeatedly, we plan to offer an option to show the filename instead of the attachment title for people who prefer that. "
I am wondering if such an option is planned or not, and when available.
Timelines for development are generally not announced by the Zenodo developers.
I know this isn't existential but fwiw, I agree it's better to show the filename, not generic file format info in the list. I have read the linked page and get it but, if nothing else, the correct filename signals that the (stored) file has been updated.
Also, there are also lots of attachments in my library that persist in showing the original filename gobbledygook, not "PDF" (or anything else), even after selecting rename from parent metadata.
Bring on the option to show filename! :)
And if you are manually running Rename File from Parent Metadata after making manual updates to the metadata, in Zotero 7 we added a popup in the bottom right to show that the filename is being changed. (This will also become unnecessary soon, as we'll be adding continuous file renaming as metadata is changed.) Yes, because Rename File from Parent Metadata no longer overwrites the simpler titles unnecessarily. That was a bug that has been fixed. The linked page contains some code you can run to quickly change existing attachments with titles based on the filename to use "PDF" instead. Clean titles everywhere!
And also
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/440321/#Comment_440321
I understand @dstillman and other Zotero developers decision on management of attachment titles, but I do not understand, why, if so many users want to see the filenames in the middle pane instead, they do not offer that option, even if they believe with good reasons to it that it is a worse option.
https://www.zotero.org/support/file_renaming#attachment_title_vs_filename
The fact that all my pre-7 PDFs show the filename in the item list makes newly added items appear broken.
I am inclined to return to version 6 until this is a user-configurable option in 7.
I was running a beta test version of ZOterro thats ahead of the current version and was so annoyed that I reverted to the base version to see if it was a bug in the dev version to submit a bug report.
I dont mind if the developers prefer it that way, I would like to have the option to change it, just like it was before all these years. Thanks!