Upgrade StorageIcons missing from toolbar, snapshot of current page.
Ok, I read through all the new features of the beta but no where can I find where it mentions about the buttons missing. There used to be a button that you would click that would create of copy of the web page on your hard disk. Now the only option I have is to click Create new item from current page, then I have to right click on that new item and click attach snapshot of current page.
If this a bug, or is this intentional? Is the snapshot button removed for a reason? Is there w way to put it back?
I even went over the help files and none of the show zotero with the missing buttons that were in version 1.x.
Am I missing something??
If this a bug, or is this intentional? Is the snapshot button removed for a reason? Is there w way to put it back?
I even went over the help files and none of the show zotero with the missing buttons that were in version 1.x.
Am I missing something??
If you want "Create New Item from Current Page" to save snapshots, enable the "Automatically take snapshots..." option in the Zotero preferences. (This will likely be made the default in future releases, possibly with a modifier key to toggle the behavior and possibly with a separate preference for saving from translators.)
The link and snapshot buttons were frequently incorrectly used, caused quite a bit of confusion, and weren't necessary.
Additional changes are coming to reduce interface clutter for web page items with limited fields and a single matching child snapshot, which should provide an interface similar to that provided by standalone attachments (but not in as limiting a way).
The add snapshot of current page button, as well as the add link to current page are missing for me as well. I can see why this might be intentional, as it makes the organisation more consistent to always have attachments and links as children of a normal parent item.
However, it does seem slightly inconsistent as you can still add a local link or copy of a local file as a standalone item. Secondly it reduces the functionality of the "retrieve metadata from pdf" tool, as the way I use this tool most often is to grab a pdf from a site (if it hasn't got a good translator) and then retrieve the metadata to build an item around the pdf. I would imagine that many people who use zotero to annotate web pages would also use the add snapshot button.
My guess would be that this is just a bug, but if not it would be nice to see these tools back, even if only as an option which can be enabled in prefs.
In the preferences I do have automatically take snapshots checked, but it is not working. Even when I look into the data directory a copy of the file is not there.
The item in the list is a single item with no attachment.
I also would like if possible to have that button back as it was quick and easy to add certain pages as an archive to my drive for later research, or just a simple link with an attached note.
I also restarted Firefox multiple times and still no snapshot of page unless I manually add it by right clicking on the item and adding it back.
Thanks for the info Dan.
I agree with you about the ultimate goal of the interface - and that these buttons should be unnecessary.
However with the further interface changes not yet implemented it would be nice to see these buttons temporarily back as an about:config option, disabled by default.
I say this because:
1) as far as I can see there is now no easy way to grab a pdf from the browser (e.g. from the author's personal webpage - which wouldn't have a translator) and then retrieve the metadata for it. Eventually a button called something like "save pdf and retrieve metadata" that does the whole thing in one go would be excellent.
2) I, and I would imagine many other people, wouldn't want to enable "automatically take snapshots" for everything as this has the effect of cluttering up all the items added from translators ( which automatically have the pdf added, making a snapshot superfluous).
Looking forward to the bug fix :)
What is really needed as a replacement asap is a modifier key to override the chosen 'capture snapshot with item' preference. This way we don't need to clog up disk space with unwanted snapshots, but can also capture them easily when required.
I note this is a future intention - I'd just like to see it as a priority, please.
And there are still additional changes coming to make working with web page items (with or without matching child snapshots) more similar to working with standalone links and snapshots, but without the unnecessary limitations. We might make the Create New Item from Current Page button icon update dynamically based on the snapshot pref and the modifier key, which would avoid any confusion as to whether or not you'd be getting a snapshot.
It so happened that Zotero was up to now - probably unintentionally - an excellent tool to collect and maintain bookmarks (not to serve as source references, but just that: bookmarks, to quickly access frequently used sites). I realize that this is not the main aim of Zotero, but it was a very useful thing, and sites frequently used for any thematic work could be stored alongside sources in the same tool.
The links were clearly identified as such, they did not mix with everything else, they could be used to access sites quickly (double click), and the fact that they (or the snapshots) were limited did not confuse me the slightest. I fully understood that they were not reference items by themselves.
Now it seems that to have the same functionality, I will have to (1) create an Item (2) right click and create a link (3) move the link out of underneath the item (4) delete the item. Even if creating the item and the link could be done in just one go later on with some key modifier, I'd still have to separate the link from the item then delete the item.
It is true that the functionality remains there somewhere, except that as it stands now, it seems that it will become utterly impractical to use.
This effectively means that the bookmarking functionality is gone, and I will have to migrate my bookmarks out of Zotero and mix them with my general purpose bookmarks. Nice functionality lost, just because some people were experiencing confusion in telling a couple of items apart... Really, really sad.
I also googled "Zotero bookmarks" to see if I was the only one affected, and it turns out there are quite a large number of pages dedicated to just this - using Zotero as a clever bookmark management tool. There is definitely interest.
So unless this is a deliberate attempt to get rid of "light" users and keep only hardcore scholars (in which case I apologize for insisting), there might be valid reason in trying to keep the bookmarking functionality (i.e. the link/snapshot icons) intact for those of us who were not confused in the first place, and found good use of it. Maybe with an option in advanced preferences, that would bring the icons back - with a sound disclaimer of course ("warning: might cause mild to severe confusion - use at own risk").
Case in point: I've just checked in a change on the trunk that makes double-clicking an item equivalent to clicking the "View"/"View Snapshot" button in the right-hand pane. This may still need refinement—for example, the parent item expand/collapse behavior still occurs concurrently, which is a little awkward—but it extends one of the biggest advantages of standalone links and snapshots to all items.
Another concern might be the extra metadata rows in the right-hand pane, which might not be used by people using Zotero as an advanced bookmark manager. But, to me, that just suggests that unused fields could be hidden when not in use, since they clutter the interface for all users and make it harder to view the information that does exist. We've always planned to offer ways to hide unwanted/unused fields, and we'll try to get to it in the not-too-distant future.
Your comment about storing bookmarks together with thematic sources is an interesting one, but I think you could easily maintain that distinction while using web page items with a dedicated subcollection or tag for "bookmarks".
If you have other concerns or suggestions, please let us know, but before transferring all of your bookmarks out of Zotero, I'd recommend holding out a bit longer and seeing if some of the upcoming changes change your mind.
I'm thinking something like having "tag icons" as a field in the centre pane. Icons could be selected and enabled for particular tags from a dialog box accessed from the context menu of the tag (as clearly you wouldn't want an icon for every tag - two or three at most I would imagine).
What do you think?
Edit: Just noticed this thread which seems to be requesting much the same thing but as an alternative to tags, my proposal would just be a way to make certain tags more visable, so wouldn't involve any modification to the underlying data structure (other than zotero needing to remember the icons).
(On the subject of icons, though, Zotero could conceivably use site favicons (the icons that show in the address bar, on tabs, and next to bookmarks) for web page items.)
I could understand if there was a way to create a "generic" item and then I could add snapshots and other file types as children to the "generic" item. However, at the moment I cannot see any way to create a generic item. All items seem to be identified as some sort of file type.
I would suggest two things ...
1. Bring back the ability to save a snapshot of a web page as a single item. Don't force the creation of a parent item just to create a snapshot.
2. Create a "generic" item. This could serve as a parent for many different file types without being specific to any one of them.
There seems to be little advantage to having stand-alone snapshots (and you haven't seemed to indicate any) & many disadvantages.
Re. generic item: there is already "document".
My guess is that I use Zotero in a much different matter than which it is designed. Almost all my content in Zotero are snapshots of web pages. I tag the web pages (blogs, news, reference, etc ..) so I can have an archive of reference material that is searchable via key word, tag, and hierarchy. So, for me, I end up with two entries ( a parent and child) for every web snapshot I take. The ability to take a snapshot without creating a parent item saves on clutter and space in my archive.
Different people use Zotero ... "differently". I think what others and myself would like to see is the ability/option to take snapshots without addition of a parent item.
What about creating a parent item called "collection". This item could contain note fields and other generic fields that could describe the entire collection rather than a specific document type.
PLEASE, bring back the ability to create a STANDALONE Snapshot of a web page WITHOUT a Parent. The imposed requirement to create this hierarchy folder structure makes thing twice as complex as they used to be.
I am sure there is a time and place when it is useful, but don't make it obligatory! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Did I mention I hate it.
However, you do it, "icon on the toolbar" or "drop-down menu", but please, bring it back.
So if they had a good understanding of what exactly people were doing with the snapshot button (rather than that they really, really liked it) that would help a lot.
No reason to scream on a forum though.
A few examples of why it is a problem:
- I "Create New Item From Current Page". The name given to the item is specified by the page itself. More often than not I edit the name to make it meaningful to me. Because of the Parent and Snapshot I have to do the edit twice.
- I take multiple snapshots of pages strictly for the info contained in the pages themselves, and often use these when I work offline, I do not care about the author, abstract, url and so on. Having to have a Parent clutters my workflow.
- When I see a "plus" to the left of the Parent I am interpreting that there is something inside/below in a hierarchical structure. For my purposes, there is nothing inside, only redundancy.
As I also noted above, the ability to hide unused/unwanted fields is planned.
As far as I can tell these changes will address all of your stated concerns.