Feature Request: select multiple lines with "click + shift-click" in PDF viewer

wc222

This is very useful for touchpad users: click the starting position, hold down Shift, and click the ending position to select a range of text. This operation is widely supported in other applications, such as code editors, note editors, and browsers. Therefore, I hope Zotero can support it as well.

dstillman

That works fine for me. Can you provide a Report ID and a link to a PDF where this isn't happening?

gustms

As Zotero doesn't have a cursor, like a text editor, you have to first click and hold to select something (even a single letter is fine), then hold shift and click at the ending position.

Just single clicking the first time doesn't work. This is what @wc222 seems to be trying.

dstillman

Ah, yeah, that might be.

dstillman

I guess browsers and other apps with non-editable text do allow you to just click at a point within the text and then use Shift-click. We'll see if we can enable that in the reader.

wc222

Yes, what @gustms said is exactly what I wanted.
Thanks to @gustms, the "hold click + shift click" works for me, so I can use it for now.
However, it’s still not as convenient as "single click + shift click," because holding click is not user-friendly for touchpad users.
Also, thanks to @dstillman for creating the GitHub issue.

dstillman

You can just double-click the first word to select it and Shift-click the end. You don't have to drag to select anything unless there's punctuation or something that won't be selected by the double-click.

wc222

Wow, that’s really a great idea! @dstillman

wc222

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Zotero already supports this feature when I tried it out. I checked on GitHub (https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/5342) and saw that it was the result of your efforts — thank you all for your contributions and support in making this improvement happen!