Zotero Advanced Search limits?

tzucker

I understand that in theory there are no limits to the amount of items you can put in the advanced search box, but in attempting to do his I have found a practical limit - the display of the computer. Since there seems to be no scrollbar in the advanced search dialog (read, Feature Request), I can't get more than a screen's worth of search items on (although it lets me continue to enter search requirements, I can't see if I've entered them correctly).

Any ideas?

adamsmith

while I agree there should be a scrollbar -
Linux has a modifier key (alt) you can press that allows you to move a window around by clicking anywhere on it. Using that, I'm able to enter an unlimited number of search conditions - I tried around 50.

I don't think that exists on other OS by default, but I think there are tools that allow you to do the same.

tzucker

I'll look for something that will let me do that. Thanks!

tzucker

@adamsmith

I tried several applications. I haven't found anything yet that will "add" a scrollbar to a window that doesn't have one, although I have found several that will let me scroll the display. There is a problem though. At least on my windows box, when the advanced search box gets too large (vertically) it seems to first "push" the search results box out of the way to make room, then the toggles above the results box, finally the search parameters themselves seemed to be pushed out of the window altogether. No amount of scrolling outside he window lets me see the search criteria/terms and I can't scroll inside the window.

I have screenshots if that is any help, but I don't see any way to attach them here.

adamsmith

As I said - there really should be a scrollbar, so I've added that to the ticket here:
https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/118

As for your issue - I saw that effect when I tried this out - when the window goes outside the screen it loses the actual search box.

On linux I was able to prevent that by moving the window rather than the scrolling the screen -
along the lines of what you get using alt+space and then "Move" on Windows.
http://ask-leo.com/i_cant_see_the_top_of_a_window_so_i_cant_minimize_maximize_or_close_what_can_i_do.html
But on Windows it wont let me put down the window with the menu bar outside of the screen afaict - maybe in combination with the screen scrolling apps, though?

tzucker

I got it working - at least this problem is done.

Thanks

adamsmith

out of curiosity - how?

Gracile

Directly related: first bug raised here, i.e.:

- when pressing the + or - button in a maximised Advanced Search window, the window restores down to a normal window

tzucker

I ended up using GiMeSpace Ultimate (http://download.cnet.com/GiMeSpace-Ultimate-Taskbar/3010-2072_4-75157381.html) (free version didn't do what I wanted - only horizontal scrolling, not vertical). I am currently using the trial version. It allows me to scroll larger than my display - virtually.

I did find a couple of things:

1. I couldn't get it to work before because I needed to restart Zotero and it doesn't seem to work on already saved searches.

2. It turns out I needed to resize the window from the top not the bottom. If I go to the bottom of the window and position the cursor so I get a double arrow, dragging down just pulls the whole window down. If I do the same to the top of the window it resizes the window making the search results area larger.

3. On the editing of saved searches, it doesn't seem to have all the capabilities of creating a new search. For example, the maximize and minimize window buttons are missing. If the saved search was done before installing GiMeSpace, I am unable to expand it to include more search parameters.