Layout in new version of Zotero not showing short titles

amymcools

I really need to be able to see and create short titles for all the newspaper entries in my library but the new layout doesn't show them, and I couldn't find a way to make it do so. Does anyone know how I can make it show that field so I can enter short titles quickly and easily? If not, does anyone know how I can re-download the previous version?

poettli

Right click on column headers > More Columns > Short Title?

amymcools

Thanks! It shows it in a column, which is nice, but it doesn't allow me to quickly click on and edit it. I've just gone back and downloaded Zotero 6, but it no longer has the functionality I liked that it had before. Oh well. I can edit the short titles much more easily on the web version, but it was nice to be able to do it in the downloaded version because I already have it open whenever I'm writing.

adamsmith

Short Title is visible and editable in Zotero 7 -- are you looking in the right place?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2433/132zvv76chbwc92g88wq.png

amymcools

Thanks, adamsmith! I do see it, but in the old layout, I was able to see all that info within the column without having to navigate to the window at the bottom and scroll. I'm just going to shrug my shoulders and deal with it. It was easier to access, view, and edit the short titles at a glance in the downloaded version. Now, it's easier to do it in the browser interface, so I'll just do that when I need to change a lot of short titles at once.

dstillman

You are either misunderstanding or misremembering something here. If you provide some screenshots of what you're looking at, we can try to figure out the source of the confusion, but you obviously don't need to switch to the web library to accomplish a basic task.

There's absolutely nothing unique about the Short Title field here. That's just one metadata field of many. So the fact that you're even referring specifically to that suggests some broader confusion here.

dstillman

OK, my guess — from "old layout" and "navigate to the window at the bottom and scroll" — is that you ended up in Stacked View (View → Layout → Stacked View), either because you switched to it or because your window is too narrow and Zotero switched into it automatically. Stacked View isn't a "new layout" — Zotero 7 just switches into it automatically when your window is too narrow. If you're in Stacked View and don't want to be, make sure your window is wide enough and switch to Standard View from View → Layout.

amymcools

I can't take a screenshot of the way it looked before because I can't find a way to make it look like it did before. I've been using Zotero heavily nearly every day over the last few years because I've been writing a book and doing a huge research project concurrently. When Zotero prompted me to upgrade to Zotero 7 I was right in the middle of creating short titles for all my newspaper entries because it works better for the book footnotes. When I upgraded, the interface changed, and I was no longer able to see and access the fields in the way I had just been able to up to a few moments before. So no, no memory lapse. Anyway, I'll just use the web portal now when I need to change a lot of short titles all at once, since that's the easiest way I can find now. The book deadline's coming up and no time to keep trying to figure this out! But thanks everyone for your advice and efforts to help.

dstillman

You should read my previous comment. That's almost certainly all this is.

amymcools

I did read it, dstillman, thank you, and checked it out, observing how it changes from standard to stacked view when narrowed to half-screen. I had been previously able to see all the fields both in narrowed and full-screen modes (I often have it narrowed to half-screen so I can consult my Word research docs as I go). I was able to see all the fields in both cases in Zotero - again, this is a matter of me having been able to do so for weeks and weeks on end. The only thing that changed was the update.

dstillman

"Narrowed" and "full-screen" are not modes. The modes are Standard View and Stacked View. As I say, starting in Zotero 7, it will automatically switch into Stacked View if you make the window narrow enough. That didn't used to happen in Zotero 6. But that's not a "new layout", and there's no mystery as to why it changed with the update — I'm telling you why it changed.

In Stacked View, with the item pane at the bottom of the screen, you're obviously going to see fewer fields at once unless you drag the splitter up to make the item pane taller. If you're frequently 1) narrowing your window enough to force-switch it into Stacked View and 2) editing a field further down the list like Short Title, you'd want to make the pane taller. It will then keep that pane height whenever you switch it into Stacked View. That's all you need to do here.