Ability to highlight two collections so as to get stuff into both

As I go through my Amazon book orders grabbing bibliographical info I see that quite often I want to add a book especially to two or more collections.

If this can't be done (I have tried control click and shift click) then it has probably been requested before. I searched for "two collections" perhaps I should have searched for "or more collections" or "multiple collections," I say adding tags.
  • This is difficult to implement without making it confusing. Consider the following cases:

    -What if a user would choose collections from different libraries? Would this mean that the item would be added to Zotero as two copies?

    -What would the item list pane show when multiple collections were chosen? And what if both the collections were from different libraries?
  • Dear mronkko

    Thank you for your reply.
    > What if a user would choose collections from different libraries? > Would this mean that the item would be added to Zotero as two copies?

    Good point. Yes, I guess it would in that case. But the functionality might start with allowing only multiple collections within the same library.

    > What would the item list pane show when multiple collections were chosen?

    No different. I am not suggesting there should be two rows of checkboxes.

    > And what if both the collections were from different libraries?
    I think that different libraries sounds more complex. How about starting with multiple collections selectable in one library. The thing about collections is that they are not folders, they are more like playlists or tags, so adding an entry to many at once makes sense.

    Libraries on the other hand AFAIK retain (at least now) a physical separation (though there is talk of synchronisation, and sharing). As being more like folders, having to download to two folders, or copy post download, is as the user experiences when downloading files to explorer folders.
  • Being able to select multiple collections, but only within a single library could be confusing. How would you indicate that only part of the collections are ctrl-clickable. A user that finds out that multiple selection is possible will eventually try to multiple select across libraries and if this was not possible, without any indication in the UI, this might cause confusion.

    What would happen if someone decided to drag multiple collections from one library to another:
    - in the case that these multiple collections had identical names (e.g. one is a subcollection of another)
    - in the case that one collection was already in the other library


    By item list pane, I mean the list of items that belong to a collection. If multiple collections were chosen, should the item list show items that are in both libraries, or either libraries (i.e. is it a set union, or set intersection)


    What I am trying to say is that multiple collection selection might not be as simple as it seems.
  • I agree that it is not so simple as you point out, specifically with reference to multiple libraries.

    There is something similar now in that one can not link to multiple files that are not in the same directory. A box pops up and says something like "this command only works if the files are in the same directory."

    > By item list pane, I mean the list of items that belong to a
    > collection. If multiple collections were chosen, should the item
    > list show items that are in both libraries, or either libraries
    > (i.e. is it a set union, or set intersection)
    Oh, I see what you mean. The pane in the centre of zotero. Hmm...
    I see collections as tags. If the list pane shows me what is tagged with that collections name. So If I were clicking on two tags then I guess it would be the intersection. I agree this would be confusing because collections look like folders and if one were able to select two folders, one would anticipate a union I think. But collections are tag-like.

    Incidentally the use of yellow rectangles to denote collections is likely to encourage people to think of them as folders. A slightly different icon might for that reason be worth considering.
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