Upgrade StorageBetter Boolean Searches
Currently, the advanced search feature is not as useful as it could be. Here are two suggestions for improvement. These have been mentioned elsewhere in other threads (e.g., here, here, and here), but I place them together here because I think it is useful to think about the whole package.
1. The ability to create a search logic involving AND, and OR, preferably allowing for brackets. That is:
[Tag CONTAINS {tree OR bush}] AND [Creator DOES NOT CONTAIN {Smith OR Peterson OR Davis}]
2. An entry for "Any" - as in any field contains x...
3. For tag searches, a pull-down menu of tags. That is, when you add a Tag to an advanced search, you can indicate Tag contains _____, and the blank is left for the user to fill in. Currently the field uses autocomplete, but a drop down would be nice, too.
4. Nested tags. In a Boolean search for articles meeting x, y, and z criteria, if Z were one of the major branches of the tag tree structure, you would find all sub-branch items. For instance if you had nested trees for region, state, county and town, you could do a search in which you found all articles published after 2000 that were tagged with "demography" or "census" in New England. This would bring up all articles tagged for Boston, Hartford, etc.
I know that Zotero developers have a ton of work to do, and limited resources. I hope user feedback is still useful for thinking about future priorities.
1. The ability to create a search logic involving AND, and OR, preferably allowing for brackets. That is:
[Tag CONTAINS {tree OR bush}] AND [Creator DOES NOT CONTAIN {Smith OR Peterson OR Davis}]
2. An entry for "Any" - as in any field contains x...
3. For tag searches, a pull-down menu of tags. That is, when you add a Tag to an advanced search, you can indicate Tag contains _____, and the blank is left for the user to fill in. Currently the field uses autocomplete, but a drop down would be nice, too.
4. Nested tags. In a Boolean search for articles meeting x, y, and z criteria, if Z were one of the major branches of the tag tree structure, you would find all sub-branch items. For instance if you had nested trees for region, state, county and town, you could do a search in which you found all articles published after 2000 that were tagged with "demography" or "census" in New England. This would bring up all articles tagged for Boston, Hartford, etc.
I know that Zotero developers have a ton of work to do, and limited resources. I hope user feedback is still useful for thinking about future priorities.
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dstillmanIt's a bit more work, but you can do most of this now nested saved searches (though it might be a bit buggy). Unlikely. People can have thousands of tags.