Upgrade StorageManually entering a reference (Info)
Dear Zotero developers
You must hear this all the time, but congratulations for a great tool!
A few little requests to make it even nicer...
The one-click capture of references from the web is one of the most brilliant things ever, deserves a Nobel prize of literature review, and I am not sure I will ever be able to go back to a reference manager that doesn't have it.
However, when that is not an option, the process of entering references manually is currently a bit cumbersome. Here's my wish list for improving it.
1) Entering authors. This currently can be quite a significant task. One has to enter one name, then click the + sign (which is rather difficult to click), then enter another name, then click the + sign... I would love to be able to simply copy and paste an entire authors list into a single text box, with authors either separated by ";" or in different paragraphs. For example:
Gardner, Toby A.; Barlow, Jos; Parry, Luke W.; Peres, Carlos A.
or
Gardner, Toby A.
Barlow, Jos
Parry, Luke W.
Peres, Carlos A.
This would allow me to copy an entire author list from the front page of a document, for example.
2) Showing the authors in the right pane. As it is, you have one entry for each author. For papers with a lot of authors, all you can see in the right pane (without scrolling down) is the title and then Author, Author, Author, Author, Author, Author. I would find it nicer to have a single line entry showing the first two authors (Authors: Gardner, Toby A.; Barlow, Jos...) with the option of expanding the box (as you have for abstracts) to see the full author list.
3) The order of the fields. I would prefer if the top fields were the most important, i.e. the ones that end up showing in the reference and that need to be filled. As it is, some rather odd fields (that I hardly ever use) show up quite high in some reference types (e.g. for reports: Report number, Report type, Series Title). My preferred order would be:
Journal articles: title, authors, year, publication, volume, issue, pages, abstract, etc
Books: title, authors, year, publisher, place, pages, abstract, etc
Book chapter: chapter title, chapter authors, year, book title, book editors (NOT CURRENTLY IN?), publisher, place, pages, abstract, etc
Report: title, authors, year, institution, place, pages, abstract, etc
This would mean that when entering a reference manually I can enter the most relevant fields in sequence, and that the Info pane will show all the relevant fields without needing to scroll down.
All the best
You must hear this all the time, but congratulations for a great tool!
A few little requests to make it even nicer...
The one-click capture of references from the web is one of the most brilliant things ever, deserves a Nobel prize of literature review, and I am not sure I will ever be able to go back to a reference manager that doesn't have it.
However, when that is not an option, the process of entering references manually is currently a bit cumbersome. Here's my wish list for improving it.
1) Entering authors. This currently can be quite a significant task. One has to enter one name, then click the + sign (which is rather difficult to click), then enter another name, then click the + sign... I would love to be able to simply copy and paste an entire authors list into a single text box, with authors either separated by ";" or in different paragraphs. For example:
Gardner, Toby A.; Barlow, Jos; Parry, Luke W.; Peres, Carlos A.
or
Gardner, Toby A.
Barlow, Jos
Parry, Luke W.
Peres, Carlos A.
This would allow me to copy an entire author list from the front page of a document, for example.
2) Showing the authors in the right pane. As it is, you have one entry for each author. For papers with a lot of authors, all you can see in the right pane (without scrolling down) is the title and then Author, Author, Author, Author, Author, Author. I would find it nicer to have a single line entry showing the first two authors (Authors: Gardner, Toby A.; Barlow, Jos...) with the option of expanding the box (as you have for abstracts) to see the full author list.
3) The order of the fields. I would prefer if the top fields were the most important, i.e. the ones that end up showing in the reference and that need to be filled. As it is, some rather odd fields (that I hardly ever use) show up quite high in some reference types (e.g. for reports: Report number, Report type, Series Title). My preferred order would be:
Journal articles: title, authors, year, publication, volume, issue, pages, abstract, etc
Books: title, authors, year, publisher, place, pages, abstract, etc
Book chapter: chapter title, chapter authors, year, book title, book editors (NOT CURRENTLY IN?), publisher, place, pages, abstract, etc
Report: title, authors, year, institution, place, pages, abstract, etc
This would mean that when entering a reference manually I can enter the most relevant fields in sequence, and that the Info pane will show all the relevant fields without needing to scroll down.
All the best
Call number would be another field to be in the top list, since I still tend to print out things, assign them a number, and archive them. Maybe anachronistic.
Abw.
I also support arodrigues suggestions. But book chapter is right with not allowing editors. BibTEX knows a document type @incollection which is probably missing here. @incollection has authors and editors es well.
The reference comes out perfect (with authors and editors positioned in the correct slots), for example:
Wilkie, D. S. 2005. Hunting in agroforestry systems and landscapes: conservation implications in West-Central Africa and Southeast Asia. In G. Schroth, G. da Fonseca, C. Harvey, C. Gascon, H. L. Vasconcelos, & A. M. N. Izac (Eds.), Agroforestry and biodiversity conservation in tropical landscapes. Washington D.C., USA: Island Press (pp. 346-370).