Add paper to collection without drag/drop (by name)

pcavdwel

Hi,

Coming from a competing platform, I am trying to adjust to the Zotero way of life. Previously I was used to having hierarchical collections to file papers. This works well, but becomes a chore when doing it fully by drag/drop. Is it possible to file a paper (already in Zotero) to collections by searching the collection names?

For example, if you have a paper about blue mopeds with a complex folder structure, like:

Boats > cruise ships > red cruise ships
Boats > sail boats > blue sail boats
(+ other colors and boat types)
Cars > trucks > blue trucks
(etc)
Bikes > mopeds > red mopeds
(etc)

Then it would be nice to add a paper on blue paint options to collections with the work blue in the name. Previously, I was able to use a "add to collection" command in which I could filter/select the collection names by text. Is something like that possible in Zotero?

I.e. this would mean:
- select paper of interest
- read and decide how to file it
- click "file to collections" button/key command
- start typing "blue" and filter
- select (with mouse?) applicable collection with word "blue"
- click [ok/file] button.

(The pure mouse-based protocol becomes very troublesome with a deep hierarchy, which is the case with my library with >9K papers)

Patrick

Tuetschek

I've been working with Zotero for years, I really find this cumbersome since the number of collections in my library is growing, and I'm not aware of this functionality – is it possible to add it?

pcavdwel

Thanks for taking the time to respond. It is too bad that it is missing. It really makes a huge difference to the usage of the program. Perhaps it could be added in a future version...