Word integration QuickFormat: some issues
1. Using the slick new Word plugin interface, PDFs come up, sometimes as first hit, and their parent items follow later in the list. Noone wants to cite PDFs so I suggest the Word plugin display only top level items.
2. I have trouble make page numbers stick in this interface. It is not clear where to click after having filled out the page number. If I click on the citation again it is not updated. Do I have to hit enter after editing the field?
I can't reproduce this it seems.
3. Deleting refs from the red bar is also non-obvious (you have to place the cursor behind one and press backspace. I suggest that clicking on one and hitting delete should also remove it.
4. Items found in group libraries need some visual indication, I think. Frequently these are duplicates of local items, and it is now impossible to tell which is the local one and which the group one. Is it possible to hide group items that have a link to local items? (I remember discussions of some kind of identifier tying it to a local item being available.) Perhaps an option to just search the local library would also help, but I do agree with the current implementation that the default should be to search in group libraries too.
2. I have trouble make page numbers stick in this interface. It is not clear where to click after having filled out the page number. If I click on the citation again it is not updated. Do I have to hit enter after editing the field?
I can't reproduce this it seems.
3. Deleting refs from the red bar is also non-obvious (you have to place the cursor behind one and press backspace. I suggest that clicking on one and hitting delete should also remove it.
4. Items found in group libraries need some visual indication, I think. Frequently these are duplicates of local items, and it is now impossible to tell which is the local one and which the group one. Is it possible to hide group items that have a link to local items? (I remember discussions of some kind of identifier tying it to a local item being available.) Perhaps an option to just search the local library would also help, but I do agree with the current implementation that the default should be to search in group libraries too.
2 I can't reproduce. What OS are you running? Can you provide a little more detail about what you're doing? (Also note that, assuming your page numbers are numeric, you can just type "p. 5" after inserting the reference and it will tag on a page number automatically.)
3 is tricky. Forward delete doesn't exist on my Mac keyboard, so if this needs to be easier, I would prefer to change something else. Click-and-backspace doesn't work because the user might be pressing delete One possibility is to add a delete button to the panel that appears. Another possibility would be to require a double click to bring up the panel.
4 we can think a little more about. We should probably hide group items that link to local items, since the Word plugin now embeds both IDs anyway. As far as restricting to specific libraries, I need to consider this a little more. The most extensible option would be to allow the user to select the collection(s) in which QuickFormat operates, but this would require designing another UI.
Re 3: I would prefer a simple keyboard action. I now see however that I can move between items with left and right arrows and that Backspace as well as Delete work. I think I can get used to that. Keeping the panel coming up on one click is preferable, BTW.
Re 4: If linked items can be hidden that helps a bit. Selecting libraries for inclusion would be very useful. Perhaps a simple right-click/context menu with a list of libraries and checkmarks would do?
7. Despite #6 moving items by dragging works well, but somehow left to right is easier than right to left. If you go right to left it is really difficult to get a cursor indicating insertion point showing up.
8. During moving there is very little indication of the insertion point (only a 1pixel vertical line). I would prefer a visual indication like that offered in many web interfaces nowadays, where the items become transparent and the repositioning is previewed.
9. (At least on Windows XP) it is very easy for the quickformat bar to lose focus. Too easy for the average user, I'm pretty sure this will lead to confusion many times. Always on top OTOH could also be annoying. Is there a reliable way to tie the visibility to whether the word processor window is active? The effect would be sth like always-on-top-of-word-processor.
(This is also a problem of classic view, by the way. In fact classic view would often open without focus.)
12. (Related to 11) QF should probably be able to parse a few common formats for writing citations. Colons for page numbers (2011:12) are really common in many styles so it would make sense to support that. Also, parse "&" as a logical sign rather than a text string so that "Zwicky & Pullum" retrieves a paper by Zwicky and Pullum.
14. More in general, one reason the QF bar feels a bit wonky despite the slick design is that the insertion point cursor positioning is a bit inconsistent. Sometimes it ends up glued to the blue frame of the citation, sometimes there's about six pixels separating it.
8 should be doable, but I don't consider it particularly high priority at the moment.
Re: 9, we could make the window always on top on Windows. We can't tie it to the Word document.
7, 13, and 14 are hard. The QuickFormat dialog is a standard contenteditable element, and Firefox has some rendering quirks. It may or may not be possible to get around these quirks.
What is problematic about always on top though is that on smaller windows the QF bar may obscure the Zotero library. I sometimes find myself citing something, then opening the item in my library to look up a page number. Having the QF bar float on top of that might be annoying.
Re: 9, I've made the quick format window come to the foreground with any Firefox window. There's also a hidden pref extensions.zotero.integration.keepAddCitationDialogRaised that will keep the quick format dialog in the foreground at all times. I'm not sure if extensions.zotero.integration.keepAddCitationDialogRaised should default to true or false.
Re: 6, I can reliably reproduce in in FF3.6.3 & Windows XP, but I can't take a screenshot because that doesn't show the cursor. Anyway, maybe it's only an issue in my antiquated setup.