Searched content appears in indexed text

tonycolaneri · December 30, 2015

Request for consideration of a feature where a search doesn't just return the PDFs where the text appears inside the document, but also shows the *indexed* text within the document. Zotero indexes text content and searches that index, so it should be able to show the user the surrounding text (and highlight the searched term) very quickly, as the actual PDF would not be loading.

dtSsearch does this, and it's a great way to get search results. You can specify how many pre- and post- words you want to see. You do a search, and the bottom window shows the indexed text (not the PDF itself).

adamsmith · December 30, 2015

Generally planned, and the basics are in place, but may still need significant time until it lands

tonycolaneri · December 30, 2015

Thanks, Adam.

This is similar to what I had in mind...

(Free) Docfetcher also provides search results from the indexed text...

picture: http://www.snapfiles.com/screenfiles/docfetcher.gif

dtsearch indexed search results:

http://geeknewscentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/search-results.png

sdspieg · April 2, 2017

I'm still quite interested in this feature. DTSearch does the trick for me quite nicely now; but 200$ is probably a bit steep for many academic projects, And it seems to me that all search operators it includes (boolean, proximity, fuzzy searches, etc.), are also available in open source. So since a) pdfs are indexed in Zotero already and b) there are open source search options - couldn't these two be put together within Zotero?

Sinisa93 · May 19, 2019

Hi!
I'm planning to migrate from Qiqqa to Zotero. The one crucial thing for me is ability to search the documents and have the preview of the search result. Are there any news when Zotero will move to Electron platform and be able to do this?

dstillman · May 19, 2019

@Sinisa93: This doesn't actually depend on Electron, but it will require the items list to be reimplemented and redesigned. Work on the former is underway and will likely roll out (hopefully without noticeable changes) within a few months. No ETA on the latter, but it will at least be possible at that point.