Rename attachment file - new file name not shown - Error ID: 864572657

anbuwi

The following issue occurs with Zotero 7.0.5. Windows (64 bit):

1. Navigate to any entry that has a PDF attachment.
2. Make changes to the PDF attachment file name via side bar field "filename" in the attachments subsection
3. Changes to the file name are not reflected in the main view but they are in the side bar.

See this screenshot as an example.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u13288026/6s1w2zi7ytca06uzifss.png

Is this a bug or am I missing something? Seems like a very basic functionality and this bug should have been detected in beta testing?

dstillman

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/attachment_title_vs_filename

anbuwi

OK, thanks. Noted. Just to add for others that the attachment name can be changed in the side panel. It took me a while to realize this. So what I will be doing is copy-pasting the filename into the attachment name field.

dstillman

Why? As explained on that page, we really don't recommend that. Among other things, it interferes with searches.

wayneholmes

@dstillman

I mentioned this issue before and (sorry) having continued to work with it, I still don't like this new approach.

It would make my life much easier if the Title of the attachment could be the name of the attached file.

Yes, I can look in the right hand panel but, if I have a lot of attachments, I'll need to select each one, one at a time, to find the right one. Here's a simple example:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u37763/4j9wr5kobk8usvytoh33.png

Could we not be allowed to choose what we would like to see here? Those who want to see 'pdf' could choose that, while those of us who want to see the filename could choose that.

Many thanks.

dstillman

Yes, I can look in the right hand panel but, if I have a lot of attachments, I'll need to select each one, one at a time, to find the right one. Here's a simple example:

@wayneholmes: But why do you need to do this? Why wouldn't the attachment title tell you which file is which? I'm not sure what your screenshot is meant to show.

wayneholmes

Thanks Dan.

Sorry that my previous screenshot wasn't helpful.

To answer your question, I frequently have several PDFs attached to one parent item. Here are two examples.

First, when I have multiple translations of a single item:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u37763/hw8ec0defxagk2y4jj78.png

Second, when I have multiple versions of a single item, for example when it is a paper going through the review process (redacted by me):
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u37763/8rmzdlicreanir46jmlv.png

Unfortunately, if the attachment's title shows the original file name at time of import (or the file type), and not the name of the file once I have used 'Rename from Parent Metadata', the display is unhelpful.

Here's an example:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u37763/ue93zmxfyf8cka1qwp31.png

To find any one particular file, rather than just scanning the list, I now have to click each one, one at a time, to reveal its filename in the right hand details panel.

In fact, I really do not understand why it is supposed to be useful for me to see the original filename or file type (e.g., PDF - which in any case is obvious from the icon). Could that name not be preserved in the right hand details panel while I display the title I want the file to have in the main list? Or, could I not have the choice of what to display in the main list?

I'm not against progress, but in this instance, I just want back what I found useful for more than a decade. ;-)

Many thanks for an amazing tool and your amazing support.

Best,

W

redactie-audiologieboek

I support this request of having the attachment title being the same as the attachment-file-name

wayneholmes

Any further thoughts @dstillman?

Best,

W

ssauerw

+1: I support this request of having the attachment title being the same as the attachment-file-name

mingreiciute

There are +2 supports (+ 1 from me, +1 from my colleague using Zotero daily ) for the feature that automatically renames the attachment's title to match the file name.

wayneholmes

Any further thoughts @dstillman?

Many thanks and best wishes,

W

erazlogo

I am surprised that Zotero developers dismiss experienced users' need to find and display information in a piece of software dedicated to storage and retrieval of data, especially information that was previously easily available. Users could find and display filename in Zotero previously (via a duplicate field, to be sure, but we could); now we cannot.

Facebook and Google make information difficult to find and display in their databases, but that's because they are for-profit platforms. This is what Cory Doctorow called "enshittification." But Zotero is free software for researchers.

Developers promised two fixes as far back as February 2024:
1) an option to display filename in the list view
2) search for filename (developers apparently did add the search via "All Fields & Tags" in the quick search window but not via Advanced Search)

These fixes would solve the problem for a number of users who posted about this issue. Are they still planned?

I apologize if the option to display filename in the list view is now available somewhere in the Preferences. I have not seen the announcement for that. But I also have not seen the announcement that filename was added to "All Fields & Tags" search and that has apparently been done. I would be grateful if these fixes were announced and also included in Zotero Knowledge Base.

I would also be grateful for a reply to this question from @dstillman or someone else on the developer team.

Many thanks,
Elena

dstillman

Facebook and Google make information difficult to find and display in their databases, but that's because they are for-profit platforms. This is what Cory Doctorow called "enshittification." But Zotero is free software for researchers.

@erazlogo: We think the changes in Zotero 7 are better for the vast majority of users. I think you know that we try to make Zotero as flexible and powerful as possible, but our first priority is creating a default experience that works best for the largest number of people.

Users could find and display filename in Zotero previously (via a duplicate field, to be sure, but we could); now we cannot.

The attachment filename is still visible in the item pane, as it always has been. It takes literally one click on the attachment row. The filename also now wraps to multiple lines, making it more readable than ever, and it can be copied to the clipboard, which it couldn't before. We're still working on additional changes here, but let's not overstate things.

iagogv

Dear @dstillman,

Why don't you answer to other comments on this same issue such as https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/474847/#Comment_474847 (here in this discussion) or https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/477848/#Comment_477848, which give good arguments for modifying current behaviour?

we think the changes in Zotero 7 — which you're still misstating — are better for the vast majority of users
...
our first priority is creating a default experience that works best for the largest number of people.

In this case at least, there are a few discussions with quite many people asking for the alternative, if not modifying attachment titles, at least showing attachment file names in middle pane instead. So, that vast majority may be non so vast.

dstillman

@iagogv: I said that we're still working on additional changes to support other workflows. That doesn't change the fact that most Zotero users — who aren't represented in these forums to begin with — just click "Save to Zotero" and end up with a single PDF. And it doesn't change the fact that a huge number of people simply misunderstood what was happening before and were manually running Rename File from Parent Metadata on every single file they added to Zotero, thinking the files weren't renamed until they did so. Again, people can have different ideas about what would be ideal here, but the previous behavior absolutely needed to be fixed.

@wayneholmes: It's possible your examples are from earlier during the beta before we made some refinements, but if I'm understanding you correctly, the new behavior shouldn't really affect much of this. Additional files dragged onto an item beyond the first one already get their titles set based on the original filename (which should address the first example from 9/21) and continue to have their titles changed to match the filename (minus extension) if you manually run Rename File from Parent Metadata without having previously set a custom title (which should address the second example). So for both of those, even without an option to show filenames in the items list, it's only the first attachment's title that you might need to set manually if you weren't happy with first file having the initial default title ("PDF", "arXiv Full Text PDF", etc.). But you would've already been performing a manual step before — running Rename File from Parent Metadata on files that had already been renamed — to get titles based on the filename for any files saved from the web.

I'm not sure how you ended up with the third example. From an earlier beta? By merging items? Or is it a contrived example? You shouldn't get that set of titles in normal usage with the current behavior.

Your examples also highlight how the changes can make things both cleaner and less tedious. To get the titles in your second example from 9/21 now, I'm assuming you're 1) manually running Rename File from Parent Metadata and 2) manually editing the title to add the prefix/suffix. Z7 includes much more powerful filename renaming functionality, with support for conditional logic, and we're working to support continuous renaming as metadata is changed. Once everything is in place, what you'd be able to do is just set the title — which you're already editing manually — to something like "Review […] R1" and have the filename automatically incorporate both that title and the metadata, without needing to repeat the metadata in the items list or manually run Rename File from Parent Metadata on every attachment you drag in.

erazlogo

Removed