Is there a way to colour code or otherwise mark read/unread papers?

solderandchaos

I've tried having a look through the forum but can't find anything yet. I will quite often go "paper shopping" and dump a load of them into one directory to look at later, then I want to sift them by abstract to decide which might be important (and mark them somehow), then once read sift them again. Ideally I want to keep them all in the same directory for whatever project I'm currently on, so moving them to other directories isn't really a solution for me. I would ideally want to highlight each title in a different colour, or put a marker in a column.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

EatonAn

This is a very interesting and I would be keen to read the outcome.

aborel

You probably don't need to move your references to another directory: if that was what you meant, collections in Zenodo are not directories (they are more like tags, i.e. a reference can belong to as many collections as you want). You can create a collection for a project if you want. Or you can use tags, of course.

https://www.zotero.org/support/collections_and_tags

Now if you meant directories in your local hard drive, then just don't do this :-) Import your "paper shopping" results into a specific buffer collection of Zenodo, and remove them for said collection when you read them. Problem solved?

solderandchaos

I mean directories within Zotero, apologies for not being clear.
So I'll create something like "2014 policy changes" and drop all the papers in there.
Then I'll go though reading and making notes on the papers.
BUT
I can only see which ones have notes on by expanding the entry for that paper - what I want is a quick way to sort them so when I come back to reading I know which ones I still need to read and note. Kind of like in your email when you have read and unread in bold or not bold.

solderandchaos

Aha! That link was helpful, ended up on the Sorting page of the docs.

Have now added a column to the view that shows Notes. I'd still like the inbox thing though, as a feature request.

Still getting used to using the software but it's really useful.

aborel

Congrats for finding the column trick on your own! Looks like you're getting into the Zotero spirit ;-)

solderandchaos

The gentle prod in the right direction helped!

bwiernik

Colored tags are the way to do this. Colored tags add a little colored square next to the item title in the list. If you make the colored tag an emoji, that character will show instead, such as ⭕️❌✔️

https://www.zotero.org/support/collections_and_tags#colored_tags

hsiangyu_wong

See https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-tag

This Zotero Tag addon can add tags, such as 'unread', to new items and remove them after you open them.

Add tags in the batch is also very useful.