suggestion for enhanced filter capacity for tags to record information other than keywords
Hi there,
Sometimes I may want to record some extra information for the references I imported in batch, e.g., the "searching keywords" with which I got these references, the source of database they came from, or any other useful personal_defined information that helps me keep track of these references. Otherwise, as time goes on, I don't remember why I downloaded them or other important information. It could also be any other information that one may want to record.
Since I hope that this can be done in batch, I notice that the Zutilo plugin can help us create tags in batch for selected references in one shot, so I think using tags may be a convenient way to store these information. This works; However, the performance could be further improved if the following could be improved:
1. using the above approach, these tags I created for storing special information have to be mixed up with the normal tags in zotero, which clearly carries different types of information. Currently I plan to use some symbol like "_" to distinguish with the normal ones, though in this way, these less used tags are to be displayed first, which is kind of annoying.
Hence, my suggestion is to enhance the filtering capacity of tags, e.g., we may be able to choose to only show those with or without some given symbol. Currently, we can only filter those with given symbol.
2. Another way I thought to overcome this issue is to use colors to distinguish different types of tags; however, it seems that we can not filter according to the color? If we could filter with color, this could also be solved.
3. Another issue that I found inconvenient is that we can not edit several tags simultaneously. For example, even if I highlight two of the tags, and select assign color, only one of them will be affected, hence, each time we may only edit one tag. However, if we really enable the function of 1 or 2, we could use tags to store many more types of useful information, under which we may want to edit tags more often, and edit multiple in one shot preferably. A possible way is to design an "edit mode" for tags, after entering this mode, we can select multiple tags and do some edits simultaneously, e.g., assigning color, or add some "common suffix, prefix, etc". (currently, one can't select the tags freely, because once you select one tag, some tags that does not appear in any item simultaneously with the selected tag with become grey and can't be selected; )
Essentially, what I'm suggesting here to to have different types of tags and ways of filtering different types, rather than only one types of tags. In this way, the tag system can be used to store any extra information we want. We may even design "attributes" for the tags (preferably user_defined) to distinguish what kind of tagging it belongs to, this could be essentially equivalent to create user_defined columns, similar to the "creator, year, Title, publication, etc.". The reason of using tag system for doing this is that I found Zutlio gives us great flexibility for assigining tags in batch, while we don't have a convenient way to edit other columns in one shot, or filter them as easily as for tags.
These demands are not so essential or urgent, however, it seems that following this vein, we may be able to make the tagging function very powerful to help users to store any types of customize information they want. Hope this helps.
Sometimes I may want to record some extra information for the references I imported in batch, e.g., the "searching keywords" with which I got these references, the source of database they came from, or any other useful personal_defined information that helps me keep track of these references. Otherwise, as time goes on, I don't remember why I downloaded them or other important information. It could also be any other information that one may want to record.
Since I hope that this can be done in batch, I notice that the Zutilo plugin can help us create tags in batch for selected references in one shot, so I think using tags may be a convenient way to store these information. This works; However, the performance could be further improved if the following could be improved:
1. using the above approach, these tags I created for storing special information have to be mixed up with the normal tags in zotero, which clearly carries different types of information. Currently I plan to use some symbol like "_" to distinguish with the normal ones, though in this way, these less used tags are to be displayed first, which is kind of annoying.
Hence, my suggestion is to enhance the filtering capacity of tags, e.g., we may be able to choose to only show those with or without some given symbol. Currently, we can only filter those with given symbol.
2. Another way I thought to overcome this issue is to use colors to distinguish different types of tags; however, it seems that we can not filter according to the color? If we could filter with color, this could also be solved.
3. Another issue that I found inconvenient is that we can not edit several tags simultaneously. For example, even if I highlight two of the tags, and select assign color, only one of them will be affected, hence, each time we may only edit one tag. However, if we really enable the function of 1 or 2, we could use tags to store many more types of useful information, under which we may want to edit tags more often, and edit multiple in one shot preferably. A possible way is to design an "edit mode" for tags, after entering this mode, we can select multiple tags and do some edits simultaneously, e.g., assigning color, or add some "common suffix, prefix, etc". (currently, one can't select the tags freely, because once you select one tag, some tags that does not appear in any item simultaneously with the selected tag with become grey and can't be selected; )
Essentially, what I'm suggesting here to to have different types of tags and ways of filtering different types, rather than only one types of tags. In this way, the tag system can be used to store any extra information we want. We may even design "attributes" for the tags (preferably user_defined) to distinguish what kind of tagging it belongs to, this could be essentially equivalent to create user_defined columns, similar to the "creator, year, Title, publication, etc.". The reason of using tag system for doing this is that I found Zutlio gives us great flexibility for assigining tags in batch, while we don't have a convenient way to edit other columns in one shot, or filter them as easily as for tags.
These demands are not so essential or urgent, however, it seems that following this vein, we may be able to make the tagging function very powerful to help users to store any types of customize information they want. Hope this helps.