feature request: directly copy PDF from right-click menu

dougwyu

Currently, i right-click to "Show File", and then i copy or drag the file to paste into emails and so on.

Request is to add "Copy PDF" menu item

dstillman

"Copying" a file is just an OS file-manager thing — that's not something that even makes sense outside of that context.

You can drag attachments in Zotero directly to OS folders to copy them there, and depending on what you use for email you may be able to drag it to emails too. If that doesn't work, you'll need to use Show File.

dougwyu

in other reference managers, such as Papers, i could select an item in the reference file, use cmd-C, and Papers would copy the PDF file onto my clipboard. So this is certainly possible to do within Zotero.

dougwyu

And it would be a nice improvement in usabiliity, which is always good.

now, when i am copying multiple PDFs, i end up with multiple open Finder windows that i have to close again. Very fussy and totally unnecessary

dstillman

Well, again, you can just drag the attachment items to a Finder window to copy them. You don't actually need to use Show File.

"Copying" a file to the clipboard is most likely not something we could do without a lot of technical work, if at all, and it's really not a thing you should expect apps to do, even if you can find some examples that do.

As just one example, you can store files in entries in 1Password, and you can even use Quick Look on them, but you can't copy them to the clipboard — you have to use Show in Finder. (And they don't even let you drag the file out to copy it.)

(I'll grant a counter-example, though: Apple's Notes app does let you use Cmd-C on an attached file to copy it to the clipboard for pasting into a Finder folder.)

In any case, I've created an issue for this, but I wouldn't expect it anytime soon. If someone wants to look into implementing it, they're welcome to.

dougwyu

just tried dragging. works for a Finder window if i resize the Zotero window so that the finder window is visible at the same time, but does not work for dragging into a new macOS Mail message.

dstillman

That's correct. You can drag to folders, and you can drag to Gmail or Thunderbird. For Apple Mail, you have to use Show File.

dstillman

And dragging doesn't have anything to do with rearranging windows. This is just basic macOS functionality. E.g., you can drag via Mission Control (even via a screen corner), Cmd-Tab, Cmd-`, etc. You don't need to move windows around to drag files on macOS.