Can I suggest a new feature for Zotero? [move or copy items into folders]

claude13

Hi you all amazing Zotero Developers,

I'll start with saying that I can't thank you enough for all the amazing work that you do with this incredible application, it's crazy how much I love it.

I'm sure you value our opinion also for potential new features of the application, as well. Therefore I thought I'd just say it: would it be useful to have a pop-up window every time items from a collection are getting moved into other collections (or subcollections)?

I'll expand. Right now, what Zotero does is that it automatically creates a "shadow" copy of a file when getting moved into another folder. This means that two items of the same file exist, but only one true "mother" copy exists in the Library. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the result of some changes made at some point in the past, as before when I moved files into subcollections or others, it used to create duplicates (in fact, I have huge amount of duplicates which i will have to go through at some point!). Now it just creates what I call "shadow" copies, which are not duplicates (thank God!).

Although this is extremely useful compared to the duplicate creation, when the file is moved into another folder, and say I don't want it anymore in the folder I have moved it from, the file still stays there and so I need to "remove item from collection" every time. Wouldn't it be better if every time items are being moved, that a pop-up prompt with a yes/no button would ask "do you also want to remove the file from this collection"?

This way it could improve organisation and filing without having to go through the other step of "remove the item from the collection".

I am sure it's probably easy at this point for you to create such a feature with all the other amazing things Zotero also does. It's just an idea. Hope that it's helpful.

Thank you so much again for everything that you do, you Zotero Divinities!

Best, Claude.

adamsmith

Zotero has moved like this from the beginning, this never changed, no.
You can move items between collections (i.e. remove the item from the origin collection) using modifier keys (i.e., shift+drag on W/Linux, cmd+drag on Mac). That's much less intrusive than a pop-up for every move.
https://www.zotero.org/support/collections_and_tags#adding_items_to_collections

claude13

I see, thank you so so much for correcting me, not sure why I have tons of duplicates at this point, but also thank you for pointing me in the right direction! I knew I had overlooked something that you geniuses had already thought of! And of course I agree that this seems a much better solution that an intrusive pop-up.

thank you so much for your swift reply
Best