Upgrade StorageDeleting & moving items around
I find it difficult to understand what are the relations between the root folder in zotero (the "library") and the subfolders ("collections"). Or maybe there is a bug somewhere...
Suppose I import a bibtex file in my originally empty library. It creates a folder "imported ". All the imported entries are in that folder AND in the root library.
- I delete an entry in the subfolder ("imported"): the entry is *kept* in the root folder (I would expect it to disappear completely after I deleted it).
- I delete an entry in the root folder ("library"): the entry is deleted in the collection ("imported") as well. It has disappeared (except for the trash bin).
- I create a new folder (collection "untitled") and move an entry from "imported" to "untitled". (Note that the icon is a move icon, different than the copy icon with a plus sign I get if I press control while dragging the item.) The entry is copied rather than moved: it is now in the root folder, the "imported" one and the "untitled" one.
- Then I delete that specific entry from the root folder: it gets deleted in both other folders as well.
- If instead I delete that entry from the "imported" folder, it gets deleted only there.
AFAIU, the root folder is not a folder as in the folder hierarchy on my hard disk: zotero root folder displays all entries in every collections I have. I can live with that (supposing I understood correctly). But then what I don't get is why when I delete an entry in the only collection it lies in ("imported", see first bullet), it does not disappear from my library. The consequence is that if I want to delete an entry from a collection (i.e., really delete), I have to think about clicking on the root folder, find it again and delete it from there.
Also, if I have a few entries existing only in my root folder, then import a big bibtex file into an "imported" collection, this fills my root folder with 5k+ entries and after a while (and having modified entries) it becomes very difficult to distinguish between the entries that were there ("unsorted") and the imported ones.
Finally, the move entry action (using drag & drop) should not copy entries IMHO. If for some reason copy is considered a better default action than move for drag & drop (which would be a strange idea, I would say), then the default icon should be with the plus sign and then holding shift should change it to a real move action.
I don't know what are bugs and what are features among the behaviour I described, but I'd be happy to know if I misunderstood the purpose of some features or what you think about my comments...
Suppose I import a bibtex file in my originally empty library. It creates a folder "imported ". All the imported entries are in that folder AND in the root library.
- I delete an entry in the subfolder ("imported"): the entry is *kept* in the root folder (I would expect it to disappear completely after I deleted it).
- I delete an entry in the root folder ("library"): the entry is deleted in the collection ("imported") as well. It has disappeared (except for the trash bin).
- I create a new folder (collection "untitled") and move an entry from "imported" to "untitled". (Note that the icon is a move icon, different than the copy icon with a plus sign I get if I press control while dragging the item.) The entry is copied rather than moved: it is now in the root folder, the "imported" one and the "untitled" one.
- Then I delete that specific entry from the root folder: it gets deleted in both other folders as well.
- If instead I delete that entry from the "imported" folder, it gets deleted only there.
AFAIU, the root folder is not a folder as in the folder hierarchy on my hard disk: zotero root folder displays all entries in every collections I have. I can live with that (supposing I understood correctly). But then what I don't get is why when I delete an entry in the only collection it lies in ("imported", see first bullet), it does not disappear from my library. The consequence is that if I want to delete an entry from a collection (i.e., really delete), I have to think about clicking on the root folder, find it again and delete it from there.
Also, if I have a few entries existing only in my root folder, then import a big bibtex file into an "imported" collection, this fills my root folder with 5k+ entries and after a while (and having modified entries) it becomes very difficult to distinguish between the entries that were there ("unsorted") and the imported ones.
Finally, the move entry action (using drag & drop) should not copy entries IMHO. If for some reason copy is considered a better default action than move for drag & drop (which would be a strange idea, I would say), then the default icon should be with the plus sign and then holding shift should change it to a real move action.
I don't know what are bugs and what are features among the behaviour I described, but I'd be happy to know if I misunderstood the purpose of some features or what you think about my comments...
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dstillmanhttp://www.zotero.org/support/collections
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dstillmanThis is planned.
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dstillmanAlso, this has all been discussed extensively in these forums, so please do a search before posting. For example, you'll find countless threads noting that an "unfiled" search condition is planned.
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olivier.caillouxOk, thanks for replying. I should indeed have searched the forums and docs better, sorry.