Editing items and inputting item data

turn22 · February 16, 2015

Hi there, Some help with the following problem would be really appreciated.
The window to edit items and input idea for newly added items has vanished. I can't seem to make it come up. I can add a new item (say a book), and a book will show up in my list, but I can't add the title or any other information. I've tried double clicking, etc. and looked through all the menus and I really can't figure out what happened. One day it was opening the editing window automatically and the next it stopped working. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

adamsmith · February 16, 2015

it's just hidden/collapsed on the right. Click or click&drag on the right side of the Zotero pane.

turn22 · February 16, 2015

That worked! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I feel like an idiot for not being able to figure it out, but I am so glad that it's working now.

adamsmith · February 16, 2015

I feel like an idiot

Don't. It happens to people with some regularity since we enabled that feature a couple of versions ago. This probably shouldn't be the last word on this, GUI-wise, given the confusion it's causing.

aurimas · February 16, 2015

Maybe making the border thicker once collapsed would make it stand out more. Also the arrows could then be bigger and more pronounced. Or maybe use double/triple arrows.

dstillman · February 17, 2015

It's a platform-specific component, unfortunately — there aren't even arrows on OS X — but we could possibly at least widen it on all platforms and maybe also add a tooltip.

aurimas · February 17, 2015

I'm actually having trouble finding much inspiration in other software. AFAICT we're being the most obvious about the pane being hidden and available for expansion. Not a lot of software allows you to collapse panes, but, for instance, MS PowerPoint has even narrower dividers with no indicator whatsoever. Honestly, I never expected this to be a source of confusion :-/

dstillman · February 17, 2015

Well, I think there's usually a menu option in lieu of a visual indication. In Standalone, we could add a View menu with options to show/hide the panes, though I'm not sure what else would go in there. Not sure what to do for Firefox.

adamsmith · February 17, 2015

could we just do a first-run bubble? This seems like a great place for one. First time you collapse the right-hand panel: "You have minimized Zotero's right-hand pane. To bring it back, click on the bar at the right of Zotero" (or something like that).

zuphilip · February 17, 2015

I compared it with two other reference management tools: Mendeley has a smaller border, but an entry in the view menu and a tooltip. Citavi has the same borders (more or less), three entries in the view menu, one tooltip and the pane is not completely vanishing but the name is shown from bottom to top, see the hidden left pane in this image.

bwiernik · February 17, 2015

I like the idea of Citavi's labels on the collapsed pane (see also a very similar display in Microsoft Outlook on the left here). I think the marginal loss of screen width is worth the improved discover-ability (and click-ability).