Double-click on Zotero entry suddenly now opens snapshot instead of web page.

maliana

Normally, double-clicking on an entry in my library has been equivalent to Right Click > View Online. But starting around 4:15 today, double-clicking on an entry in my library brings up the saved snapshot in my browser instead. (It doesn't happen that way every time, however. For a few entries, double-clicking seems to be still equivalent to "view online".)

Sometimes when a snapshot opens, an error window pops up with heading "Javascript error" and the text inside the window reads simply "Problem: ". I have never encountered this error window before today; however, I hadn't been in the habit of viewing snapshots before this weird behavior started.

How can I switch it back so that double-clicking on an entry is once again equivalent to "view online"?

I am using Zotero Standalone version 3.0.8 and Chrome 20.0.1132.57

I wasn't sure if this question should go in the Troubleshooting or Standalone forum categories. If I'm posting in the wrong place, just let me know!

dstillman

Are you sure you're not just trying to open items with no value in the URL field (or the DOI field)? Those will open the snapshot instead.

adamsmith

I can't really tell you what changed on your end, but opening the attachment - be it snapshot or pdf - has always been the default behavior on double-click and afaik that's not customizable.

dstillman

adamsmith: Double-clicking the parent item does open the URL/DOI if there are values in those fields.

maliana

Thanks for the quick responses!

Adamsmith, thank you for clarifying that all items that *have* a snapshot or pdf attachment open the attachment by default. Based on that information I think I know what happened on my end, and I have resolved the issue. You probably don't care to know the specifics, but I'll go ahead and spell it out just in case somebody with the same confusion I had finds this thread:

Since installing Zotero, I have kept unselected the option to "Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages" (Preferences > General). But I went and looked again at that option just now and sure enough, it *is* selected. I probably inadvertently selected it at some point today when I was in my Preferences for some other reason altogether. From that point forward, however, items that I added to Zotero included a snapshot and therefore opened the snapshot; items that I had added earlier didn't have attachments and so still opened with the DOI or URL.

Again, thanks to both of you for your help.

dstillman

Adamsmith, thank you for clarifying that all items that *have* a snapshot or pdf attachment open the attachment by default.

No, again, that's incorrect. That only happens when the parent item doesn't have a URL or DOI. If that's not the case for you, something is wrong.

adamsmith

That only happens when the parent item doesn't have a URL or DOI. If that's not the case for you, something is wrong.

that's not the case for me. I just retested on Zotero 3.0.8 in Firefox - URL definitely present, the attachments opens on double-clicking the parent item (that true for both a pdf and a html snapshot). I was sure that has always been the case, but if that's not intended (why not?) that's a bug then, let me know if you want debug output.

dstillman

fcheslack gets the same behavior. We're looking into it.

adamsmith

(FWIW I prefer the attachments to open - especially with pdfs)

aurimas

I agree with adamsmith. Though it would be nice to have the URL/doi open via shift+double-click or something similar

dstillman

Entirely my mistake. I was apparently testing with items with missing attachment files and items with link attachments (which aren't opened).

The order is oldest PDF attachment matching parent URL, oldest non-PDF file attachment matching parent URL, oldest PDF attachment not matching URL, old non-PDF file attachment not matching URL, live URL, resolved DOI.

Sorry for the confusion.

dstillman

(I think I was thinking that we made it follow the top option in the Locate menu (which does put "View PDF" above "View Online" when it's available), but "View Online" is above "View Snapshot" and it still opens the snapshot, so it's not quite that simple. We could put "View Snapshot" above "View Online" for consistency, but I'm not sure that's necessary.)

_Ceridwen_

This thread dates from 2012. Still having the same wish in 2016, wanting the online view to open first (for all items, with or without attachment).

Is this customizable somewhere (and I didn't see it)? If not, are there plans to implement it? It doesn't seem like a small issue to me. (I am considering not having the translator archive a snapshot for the only reason to maintain the nicer doubleclick-refers-to-online-record beahviour.)

adamsmith

Not customizable, no, sorry, and I'm not aware of any plans to implement. You're the first person in years to ask about this at all.

pbk1

If it's worth anything, I would like to second @aurimas comment about having an option like a Shift+ double-click or Shift+ Enter keys to open the DOI/url instead of the snapshot.

Use-case: I like to read research papers in the online html version and hence avoid saving PDFs, but I do like to save snapshots - just in case I need to access them offline or if I loose academic access someday.

So usually my default behavior is to open the online version from Zotero and it would be good to have that as a possible shortcut key combination without doing right-click.

doviettung96

Hi there,
For me, I would like to open the latest/newest attachments (PDF for example) instead of the oldest because on my Ipad, Papership open the latest. Thus, when I return to my MacBook, I can not see my annotations by default but have to choose the latest attachment to open -> Quite painful :(

crouet

Like @pbk1 and @aurias, I would also be interested in a option that open the online version on double clicking

I have attached pdf that are not on all my machines. So I would like to open online version instead of having an error on double-click

dstillman

If you want to open the URL/DOI, you can just click the URL or DOI label in the right-hand pane.

If a file is attached to the item but isn't available, Zotero will try to download it from the online library if it's a stored file. If it's not available in the the online library (e.g., because it wasn't synced from the other computer), or if it's a linked file, Zotero will show you an error letting you know that it couldn't find the file, since that shouldn't happen in a properly working installation and you should be notified. I don't see that changing.

pbk1

Wow, never realized that the words 'URL' and 'DOI' on the right pane was a clickable hyperlink!
I think this solves my issue for a quick way to open the links.

Thanks for the tip @dstillman

johnmy

@pbk1 +1 for that, thanks

RedeyeFR

This post is quite old but I would like to be able to acces my online pages with a double-clic even though I saved a snapshot in case the website goes down.

Is there any update on that subject ?

Thanks in advance and make sure to have a nice day !

MartinCurrie

This has been more recently discussed at https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/66643/when-i-double-click-an-entry-with-multiple-pdf-attachment-how-does-zotero-decide-which-one-to-open
where there is quite a lot of support for customisation