Mark: I agree that there should be such a distinction, though I suspect enough people wouldn't bother to make it that any public aggregation of tags would additionally need to include only tags that reached a certain threshold of popularity for a given item. (Of course, there's the possibility that quite a lot of people never actually get around to reading Kant...)
But even for display of tags on the site when viewing a particular user's library, not showing private workflow tags would be beneficial.
It's a valid point. But then again, it can be solved in the future when it becomes more of a concern. Right now it's more hypothetical than anything.
It's a reality that people are using tags to manage their workflow, and it would be nice if they had associated visual cues. If tags with visual cues are implemented in a separate list from the tags we have (call them "icons", "marks", I don't know), they wouldn't be confused with regular tags; but I understand if the path of least resistance is to add visual cues on top of the current tag system. Actually the first method seems less messy, but it's up to the developers of course, if this even gets implemented at all!
Just wanted to add to this thread to say that it would be so helpful to have some visual cues for the references. I'd like to be able to flag the articles/books I have read, or which I think are important to go back to, etc.
Does anyone know if this might happen with future versions?
Either color coding or the ability to view colored tags with the entries would be very useful for me as well! Is there a chance to implement it in Zotero?
...also it would be useful to color the folders and or change the icons for folders in the 'my library' folder view. More ability to sort and classify is always better.
Add me to the list of people who want Gmail-like stars. I am aware of tags, but stars would be really useful to have. Gmail also has tags, but that doesn't stop it from also offering stars. They must have done a bit of research on this and concluded that it's a useful feature to have, so could we see it in future versions of Zotero please? Thanks!
Great job on the software! I am using it for several years and absolutely love it. Many my colleagues are also got excited about it. On behalf of them, I would add +N for the colors/flags. Thank you!
your software is a great help for a lot of people during their research!
But I honestly cannot understand your policy towards sharing with the community what is going on behind the curtain. Obviously the feature discussed in this thread would really be appreciated, but you wont give us *any* indication if we can expect it within the next weeks, months or years! Why?? There are other projects, which are engaging with the users far more integrative (see mendeley)... So please, shed some light on your future devlopment roadmap. Thanks a lot!!
rantanplano: Not sure why you think there's some policy of secrecy here. When we have information, we share it. When we don't, there's no point in our making things up or making promises that could very easily not be met. You can follow commits to see ongoing development. Nobody has worked on this yet, and nobody outside the core development team has offered to. I have no idea when it will happen, but I've participated in this discussion (which seems fairly "integrative" to me) and shared the solution that I think we would implement. Other than that, there's not much else to say.
As I said repeatedly: I wish zotero had a better system of a) collecting users ideas and b) keeping track of which are the next steps in programm development. Dan's answer just shows how difficult it is to follow zotero development. "follow commits" is everything but intuitive. 99% of things listed there are irrelevant to the average user and it does not help to answer the question: When will xyz be implemented. As a user, it can be crucial to know, whether if at all, a certain feature will be implemented. We do not need to know this in terms of weeks or days, but in terms of priorities. At the moment, it is impossible to find out anything about priorities. I do not think it is a matter of secrecy, but rather the inability to imagine user's perspective. As rantanplano has pointed out, there are other examples, where this is solved much better, and I think zotero could learn from them. also see here: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8684/add-place-field-for-entry-type-thesis-to-distinguish-university-and-place/#Item_5 and see this discussion, to which no developer answered: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/11133/development-roadmap/#Item_5
- read/unread (start, circle, bolding the citation)
- sort by tags.
If you allowed a sort-by tags function, we could add a tag that says "unread" and sort by those. although this is not ideal (would be better to have both features), but it might be a workaround.
Agree with comments above on read/unread circle + stars for favourites.
Also, the feedback page might be useful like Mendeley, where people vote for features, and so do not have to comment instead as noted above. With this sort of system, there is likely to be a convergence of features between both, though. It can be considered as an opinion-taker without any commitments to working on them.
Color coding would be great, for within folder organization and instant visual feedback!
Want to see what I've read, like to re-read, and definitely like to use.
I'm aware of tag/note options, but this requires much more work and these options do not offer any of the benefits of instant visual feedback and do not contribute to within folder organization.
A gamil starring thing would be great, although the column spaces are already getting cramped, maybe colour-coding is best?
For now I use an extra column (eg. Call Number, and use a 1-5 pluses "+ or +++++" for read/important, and a _ for already read, so that i can sort per folder/topic what should be read next.
Making a new folder for priority and "to read" lists, is cumbersome and requires a lot of right click remove. Tagging doesn't seem right for the job, since my tags are thematic semantic information not to-do lists. Plus its good to have each item in its folder context for oversight.
For books to pick up at Libraries i have a separate folder.
Zotero is great! Very adaptive, but so requires a lot of self-made workarounds.
I use the extra field/column and the "+ to +++++" system to be able to see within the entire thematic folder the priority of my "read next" list, by clicking on the extra column so it sorts by importance. and the underscore _++++ to mark as read so i can see within the folder how much i've progressed.
I loose sight if i have to many saved searches folders and subfolders.
+inf for color coding. Its super useful. I'm preparing a review paper and have hard time keeping track which papers have been cited, which are not, which should be and which may be in two folders in my lib. Color coding would solve this problem instantly.
I would really benefit from having a "quick visual way" to spot items that are important or need to stand out for whatever reasons at a particular time
Shifting items in temporary subfolders or adding "++++" tags doesnt work for me... and a lot of other people I presume.
Ignoring that this discussion was going on, I started a new one:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/17439/progress-chek-list/#Item_3
Anyway, my suggested feature goes basically in the same direction of all yours:
Not only flags, stars and so, but also a feature to register the progress or status regarding a specific reference. Other citation softweres like CITAVI allow to keep the record of the work in progress. I would like to have this tab for indicating whether I have already read the article, made notes or just discarted for a specific project. I imagine this feature as a chek list or to do list attached to every reference as a tab.
Tags, as designed now, do not serve these porposes, since tags are not displayed when expanding the reference. It could be great then if one could decide to display tags also in the middle panel to make it more visual. Then the suggestion ends up in improving the tags feature.
And Sure I add my vote for stars and flags as well.
I agree that this is a very important feature (simple color marking of items would be the first step, I think). Unfortunately, I read somewhere that it's not going to happen anytime soon but maybe my memory is blurred, which I hope... :)
I think that this is another of those issues that feels like it's difficult to implement because it involves so many thorny issues and possible use cases etc. But a starting solution would be to do what I suggested before: link colour-coding to certain tags (as Thunderbird does, for instance).
Rationale: Tags are currently the best way to do this and provide a solution that works reasonably well. But people keep wanting a visual cue. So let them have a quick workable solution by making it possible to assign colours to tags.
Concrete proposal: Add a third option to the right-click context menu for tags in the tag selector: "Assign colour...". Clicking this brings up a simple colour selector (the OS-supplied selectors will be fine), and a button "Default (black)". The record in the middle pane is rendered in the colour chosen (that is, what is normally black text is rendered in, say, blue).
(I considered colouring the background instead of the text but this conflicts with the visual cue for selection, which is blue/grey, at least on Windows.) On active selection of an item the text should probably be white, as now, to avoid conflicts against the blue background.)
Proof-of-concept implementation checked in on the trunk.
Just for testing at this stage and will definitely undergo some changes before it's included in a release, but feel free to create a new profile and test it out.
Among other things, there's currently no handling of multiple tags per item. The tag colors also won't sync.
Wow, that's great! I'm engulfed in work so can't afford messing with another profile now. I hope someone else can test this.
Handling of multiple tags is not crucial (and potentially very thorny) — the most common use case seems to be a moving queue in which an item moves from one status into the next. Just so you know, Thunderbird just gives an item the colour of the first selected tag.
Haven't checked yet what your implementation looks like, but Thunderbird does have another nice touch: the tags to which colours are assigned are displayed in that colour. If Zotero could do that in the tag selector (and possibly the Tags pane in the right panel) it would make for a nice visual reminder of what's what.
Upgrade Storage
But even for display of tags on the site when viewing a particular user's library, not showing private workflow tags would be beneficial.
It's a reality that people are using tags to manage their workflow, and it would be nice if they had associated visual cues. If tags with visual cues are implemented in a separate list from the tags we have (call them "icons", "marks", I don't know), they wouldn't be confused with regular tags; but I understand if the path of least resistance is to add visual cues on top of the current tag system. Actually the first method seems less messy, but it's up to the developers of course, if this even gets implemented at all!
Does anyone know if this might happen with future versions?
And it would be very useful to have the color coding/flaging in one or two click only.
Great job on the software! I am using it for several years and absolutely love it. Many my colleagues are also got excited about it. On behalf of them, I would add +N for the colors/flags. Thank you!
your software is a great help for a lot of people during their research!
But I honestly cannot understand your policy towards sharing with the community what is going on behind the curtain. Obviously the feature discussed in this thread would really be appreciated, but you wont give us *any* indication if we can expect it within the next weeks, months or years! Why?? There are other projects, which are engaging with the users far more integrative (see mendeley)... So please, shed some light on your future devlopment roadmap. Thanks a lot!!
Dan's answer just shows how difficult it is to follow zotero development. "follow commits" is everything but intuitive. 99% of things listed there are irrelevant to the average user and it does not help to answer the question: When will xyz be implemented.
As a user, it can be crucial to know, whether if at all, a certain feature will be implemented. We do not need to know this in terms of weeks or days, but in terms of priorities. At the moment, it is impossible to find out anything about priorities. I do not think it is a matter of secrecy, but rather the inability to imagine user's perspective. As rantanplano has pointed out, there are other examples, where this is solved much better, and I think zotero could learn from them.
also see here:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8684/add-place-field-for-entry-type-thesis-to-distinguish-university-and-place/#Item_5
and see this discussion, to which no developer answered:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/11133/development-roadmap/#Item_5
- read/unread (start, circle, bolding the citation)
- sort by tags.
If you allowed a sort-by tags function, we could add a tag that says "unread" and sort by those. although this is not ideal (would be better to have both features), but it might be a workaround.
Also, the feedback page might be useful like Mendeley, where people vote for features, and so do not have to comment instead as noted above. With this sort of system, there is likely to be a convergence of features between both, though. It can be considered as an opinion-taker without any commitments to working on them.
It is possible for 2.1 ????? Please, it's really important to work !
Thank you
Want to see what I've read, like to re-read, and definitely like to use.
I'm aware of tag/note options, but this requires much more work and these options do not offer any of the benefits of instant visual feedback and do not contribute to within folder organization.
For now I use an extra column (eg. Call Number, and use a 1-5 pluses "+ or +++++" for read/important, and a _ for already read, so that i can sort per folder/topic what should be read next.
Making a new folder for priority and "to read" lists, is cumbersome and requires a lot of right click remove. Tagging doesn't seem right for the job, since my tags are thematic semantic information not to-do lists. Plus its good to have each item in its folder context for oversight.
For books to pick up at Libraries i have a separate folder.
Zotero is great! Very adaptive, but so requires a lot of self-made workarounds.
Would a saved search that looks for keywords in the Extra field do what you're after?
I use the extra field/column and the "+ to +++++" system to be able to see within the entire thematic folder the priority of my "read next" list, by clicking on the extra column so it sorts by importance. and the underscore _++++ to mark as read so i can see within the folder how much i've progressed.
I loose sight if i have to many saved searches folders and subfolders.
Thanks for the proposal though.
I would really benefit from having a "quick visual way" to spot items that are important or need to stand out for whatever reasons at a particular time
Shifting items in temporary subfolders or adding "++++" tags doesnt work for me... and a lot of other people I presume.
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/17439/progress-chek-list/#Item_3
Anyway, my suggested feature goes basically in the same direction of all yours:
Not only flags, stars and so, but also a feature to register the progress or status regarding a specific reference. Other citation softweres like CITAVI allow to keep the record of the work in progress. I would like to have this tab for indicating whether I have already read the article, made notes or just discarted for a specific project. I imagine this feature as a chek list or to do list attached to every reference as a tab.
Tags, as designed now, do not serve these porposes, since tags are not displayed when expanding the reference. It could be great then if one could decide to display tags also in the middle panel to make it more visual. Then the suggestion ends up in improving the tags feature.
And Sure I add my vote for stars and flags as well.
Rationale: Tags are currently the best way to do this and provide a solution that works reasonably well. But people keep wanting a visual cue. So let them have a quick workable solution by making it possible to assign colours to tags.
Concrete proposal: Add a third option to the right-click context menu for tags in the tag selector: "Assign colour...". Clicking this brings up a simple colour selector (the OS-supplied selectors will be fine), and a button "Default (black)". The record in the middle pane is rendered in the colour chosen (that is, what is normally black text is rendered in, say, blue).
(I considered colouring the background instead of the text but this conflicts with the visual cue for selection, which is blue/grey, at least on Windows.) On active selection of an item the text should probably be white, as now, to avoid conflicts against the blue background.)
Just for testing at this stage and will definitely undergo some changes before it's included in a release, but feel free to create a new profile and test it out.
Among other things, there's currently no handling of multiple tags per item. The tag colors also won't sync.
Handling of multiple tags is not crucial (and potentially very thorny) — the most common use case seems to be a moving queue in which an item moves from one status into the next. Just so you know, Thunderbird just gives an item the colour of the first selected tag.
Haven't checked yet what your implementation looks like, but Thunderbird does have another nice touch: the tags to which colours are assigned are displayed in that colour. If Zotero could do that in the tag selector (and possibly the Tags pane in the right panel) it would make for a nice visual reminder of what's what.