Is there a shortcut for finding items in a large library?

Julia Thornton
Hi, Is there a shortcut key that when used with a letter of the alphabet takes you to an item in your library beginning with that letter? (Or alternatively some form of click > start typing item name or author?) It seems simple and obvious, but I have searched the discussions to no avail and the FOI's don't seem to answer this question either.
  • aurimas
    You can just start typing and it will jump to whatever you're typing. Keep in mind that this depends on what the items are sorted by. If they are sorted by title, then it will jump to a matching title. If it's sorted by Creator then it will jump to a matching creator.
  • Julia Thornton
    Thanks. I had a feeling it would be something simple.
    It would be useful if this was in the FAQ's or the Zotero 'basics' instructions. I can't believe how long I have been using Zotero without knowing that! Definitely makes it easier to move around.
  • aurimas
    FWIW, I didn't really know about this feature either, but my library is also not big enough for me to need to use this feature.

    This find-as-you-type (sort of) feature is pretty standard across a large number of applications (including file explorers on pretty much every OS), so I don't think we need to explicitly cover it in the FAQ. It's the sort of feature that is assumed to be there. Similar to Ctrl (or Cmd if you're on Mac) + A (to select all), + F (to search), etc.
  • Julia Thornton
    :-) "...sort of ... assumed to be there" except by people like me. I don't use other databases much. Didn't know you could do it on file explorers either. I'm the sort of person they write "dummies" manuals for.
    If it were up to me, I'd add it to the "search" instructions.
  • adamsmith
    oh I definitely would like little tricks like this to be in the documentation, it's just hard to find a good place
    Could be here:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/tips_and_tricks
    but I'm not sure how many people every get there

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