Upgrade StorageTagging items found in a search
Using Zotero standalone version 4.0.8. I have pdf files stored in a directory of my own creation and attach links to the pdf files to the Zotero parent list items.
I wanted to tag all the pdf file attachment links with _is_a_pdf. (LOL - Ok, I did a stint with OO programming...)
I did a search for pdf files using:
(1) Title CONTAINS .pdf
(2) Tag DOES NOT CONTAIN _is_a_pdf
I did NOT select "Include Parent and child items of matching items" in the Search Dialog box.
The "main" entry for each item was grayed out. I selected whole list (1000 items...) with mouse an keyboard controls. I then dragged the list to the tag.
!@#$%^&* All the parent items get the tag as well even though they are grayed out. For example a "Journal article" item itself gets the _is_a tag as well as its child pdf.
Since the "Journal article" isn't in focus this is not the behavior that I would like. I would like just the list items which are "in focus" to get the tag.
I wanted to tag all the pdf file attachment links with _is_a_pdf. (LOL - Ok, I did a stint with OO programming...)
I did a search for pdf files using:
(1) Title CONTAINS .pdf
(2) Tag DOES NOT CONTAIN _is_a_pdf
I did NOT select "Include Parent and child items of matching items" in the Search Dialog box.
The "main" entry for each item was grayed out. I selected whole list (1000 items...) with mouse an keyboard controls. I then dragged the list to the tag.
!@#$%^&* All the parent items get the tag as well even though they are grayed out. For example a "Journal article" item itself gets the _is_a tag as well as its child pdf.
Since the "Journal article" isn't in focus this is not the behavior that I would like. I would like just the list items which are "in focus" to get the tag.
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My first comment is a compliant rather than how wonderful the program does work. Sure beats hand editing html files by a mile.
Does "Include Parent and child items of matching items" do something else that would interfere with ignoring grayed out list items? To me it just seemed to flip parent items between "in focus" and "not in focus" in list.
I've been working a couple of days now to get my documents into Zotero. About half done at about 1000 items. The "select all" on search list would be so much easier than selecting each pdf file individually.
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Zotero hangs if I do a Cntl-A - which I assume is why the ticket is open.
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I had multiple selected by clicking on first item in list, using scroll-bar to go to the end of the list, then doing a shift-click.
But with EVERYTHING selected, then dragging to a tag marks EVERYTHING with the tag.
To me the "total record" had two parts.
(1) All the stuff about journal name, pages, date, article title & so on.
(2) The link to the pdf files which I stored "outside" Zolero.
List type items (1) are gray. List item type items (2) are black.
When I dragged the multiple select list to the tag I just want the type (2) list type items to get tagged and not the list (1) type two items.
If you have a search in the middle pane of Zotero, an item in that list has focus, and you press Ctrl-A, Zotero will select just the black rows and not the grey rows, and you can drag those to a tag. It's worked like this for several years.
As I said, whatever is actually selected will be tagged, so just clicking on the top and shift-clicking through the bottom won't do what you want, regardless of black/gray.
The ticket I created is because Ctrl-A doesn't do anything (and never has, I don't think) in the separate Advanced Search window. But as adamsmith says, if you save the advanced search as a saved search such that you're looking at it in the middle pane, Ctrl-A will select the black items.
If something isn't working for you, you'll need to be more specific about what exactly you're doing, where you're doing it, and what's happening. See Provide Steps to Reproduce.
I did the search & selection in the "Advanced Search" dialogue window.
The tag was in the main Zotero window.
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I missed part about saving search and using main window.
Played with saved search in main Zotero window and Ctrl-A does what I want. Only selects "black" list lines.
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The multiple select behavior is a little weird. Usually selecting first thing in list with a mouse click, then selecting last with shift-click does the same thing as Ctrl-A. In this case the behavior is different.
To recap, I wanted to tag each pdf files with either _is_an_Image_pdf or _is_a_FullText_pdf .
I created the following search and named it "No PDF Type".
(1) Title CONTAINS .pdf
(2) Tag DOES NOT CONTAIN _is_an_Image_pdf
(3) Tag DOES NOT CONTAIN _is_a_FullText_pdf
No for the kludge...
(1) With the main Zotero window, I select the "No PDF Type" search.
(2) I tag the first PDF in the list with _XXXX (which does not otherwise exist.)
(3) I use Cntrl-A to select all the pdf files in the list.
(4) I drag all the pdf files to the _XXXX tag
(5) I rename the _XXXX tag to _has_no_pdf_type (which does not exist)
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Now I can select any collection or subcollection and see which pdf files have not been typed by selecting the _has_no_pdf_type tag.
If a add a type tag, then I delete the _has_no_pdf_tag last so that the Zotero item falls off the list.
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All of this is easy enough to do that the _has_no_pdf_type tag can be deleted and recreated from time to time.
as I go to the library to work to find new articles, I would like to check to see if there are any pdf files that I could replace. A full text version is much nicer to markup with annotations within the pdf reader.