Old citation interface

rf.fuchs
I have carried out the update and unfortunately had to realize that the old citation interface no longer exists. It is now significantly more time-consuming and considerably less intuitive to add citations. Is there any way to restore the previous interface?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    No. Can you explain what you're finding confusing?
  • iris1127
    I have the same issue with the new citation interface. The new dialog moved from the old fixed search box interface to a single-line search box with a dropdown menu. This makes the citing processes involving more clicks. Even under the library style, I need to search and click on the reference - click the dropdown menu - type in page/click and choose other suffix - click to confirm my citation. the items on the dropdown menu now used to be fixed with boxes, and it is much more straightforward. I hope there is a way to reinstall the old citation interface. Can you just retain the old citation interface as a choice?

    I've been using Zotero since 2014, when I started my PhD. This citation interface change is so significant and I feel so frustrating.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 25 days ago
    This sounds mostly like a misunderstanding. Read through this post to better understand what the default method of citing has been for the last decade-plus, what actually changed here, and how to efficiently add page numbers.

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/506880/#Comment_506880

    The new dialog is faster, not slower. As with the previous default (red bar) dialog, you don't actually need to click at all to use it.
  • iris1127
    Thanks for clarification. But I don't see how this is faster.

    I often need to cite cases and identify the page number plus paragraph number. In the old interface, when I choose a specific case (which in both versions require clicking), I type in page number in suffix., and click the dropdown menu to choose paragraph and then type in the paragraph number. These boxes are fixed and I do not need to search for them. And I confirm the citation. It was done.

    Now to do that, I have to click on the case, use the dropdown menu to fill in the boxes. What changes is that I do not see the items on the dropdown menu unless I click on the case I chose/or put the mouse on it. And I find that pressing enter key can lead to confusing results. After I typed in citation info in the bar and press enter, sometimes a new reference will pop into the search line.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 25 days ago
    I promise you you don't need to use the mouse at all, and Enter shouldn't be doing anything unexpected.

    If you wanted to cite something with paragraph number "4", you can type a search term, press Enter to select the top match (or down-arrow + Enter to choose a lower search result), and type "para4" + Enter to enter the paragraph number. If you just need a page number, you can just type the number after choosing the item.

    If you need to enter a suffix as well, you can click the bubble and click in Suffix, or you can get there via the keyboard (left+down or left+space to open the citation popup and tab twice to Suffix). Once you've entered a suffix, press Enter. That's it.

    I don't know what you mean by "searching" for the boxes. They're in the same place every time, and citing in Zotero has worked this way by default for over a decade. (You can see the screenshots for Zotero 7 and earlier in the Customizing Citations documentation.) If you've been using the classic dialog for the last decade, it might take a few days to adjust to the new interface, but it's not like things are appearing in random places.

    The main change in Zotero 8 is bringing the speed of the previous default (red bar) citation dialog — input-field page numbers (and now any locator type), keyboard-based item navigation, and Selected Items / Open Documents — to a library browser for people who were still using the classic dialog.
    After I typed in citation info in the bar and press enter, sometimes a new reference will pop into the search line.
    You'd have to show some screenshots or link to a screen recording to show what you mean. The new citation dialog, like the previous default one, is optimized for quickly adding items via the keyboard, so Enter will select the top matching item from the entries below.
  • iris1127
    Please see the attached images.

    After having typed in the citation info, I pressed Enter. And it did not create the citation. I pressed Enter again, and a new reference popped into the line.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2105197/l1om20nelr0aaettqkln.png

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2105197/10nhiukebfhedxfdlmbw.png

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2105197/w7oonklulqf36ws35ttp.png
  • iris1127
    Why I feel it is less easier than the old citation dialog (not the red bar), is that what displays after clicking the bubble (which is for me a dropdown menu), used to be displayed in the same page with the library.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    After having typed in the citation info, I pressed Enter. And it did not create the citation. I pressed Enter again, and a new reference popped into the line.
    OK, that's a bug. If you use a mouse to select an item, focus remains in the items list even after clicking on a bubble. If you select an item with the keyboard (by pressing Enter after entering a search term that only matches a single item, or by using the up/down arrows to select an item and then pressing Enter), focus remains in the input field and a second Enter will close the dialog. We'll fix — thanks.
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