Notes vs other items (like articles etc)

jodler

Hi, first of all: I am really impressed by zotero. It is actually one of the most impressive piece of software I have seen and will make my life a lot easier!

There is one thing I saw in another software for organizing your references. In this software it notes and references were clearly seperated. I like the fact that they are much more integrated in zotero. I think, however, that it would be very helpful to have an option which enables me to qickly switch between displaying both, only references or only notes. I know, I could use a saved search, but I would lose the organization of my stuff into collections.
Here is the reason why I think it makes sense to provide this opportunity: References and notes are two very different things and depending on what I am currently doing to make sense to display either of them or both. Notes are my thoughts (either in general or about a certain reference) whereas references are not my own thoughts but "only" point at the relevant literatur.

Best

Tjowens

You can actually use saved searches and still keep your organization into collections, just add "collection" "is" and the name of your collection as an additional search criteria. Does that accomplish what you need? I should also mention that there is a fair amount of interest from folks that want to integrate Zotero with mind maping tools. It could well be that one of those kinds of tools is really the place to do this kind of manipulation. (Search the forums for freemind and you should find some of those conversations.) In general, if a feature request can be reasonably accommodated through existing capabilities, like saved searche,s we prefer to avoid adding additional buttons and features to a interface that is already jam packed with icons. That said, if there are enough people that think this kind of feature would greatly enhance their workflow we could consider it.

jodler

okay, I understand but still think that their are a few things which would make this solution easier and also help for other stuff. It would be helpful to treat saved searches like subcollections so that they are only visible when I expand the collection. Otherwise the collection list just gets longer and longer.

Tjowens

Good point. Ticket created. https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/965

Jon Rubin

Is there any thought as to when this might be given a milestone?

Regards,
Jon.

migugg

I urgently need this feature, my left pane is spilling over from saved searches. A further problem is that all saved searches appear in alphabetical order, which even makes is impossible to cluster them.
Feature Request: allow to arrange the folders (both collections and saved searches) in the left pane at free will and maybe even include separators, similar to the firefox bookmarks menu.

dstillman

Combining threads: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1027/organizing-saved-searches/