Default intake collection

JWT
I have a structured collection/subcollection tree that fits projects I am working on. I want to bring items into the library into a global INTAKE collection rather than setting Zotero to a specific collection before I bring in each item. That way I can set up a standard workflow, i.e. do batch tagging and batch distribution to relevant collections and subcollections, saving a ton of time. Is there a way to set Zotero to always intake to the same place? I don't want to have to remember to reset to the INTAKE collection every time I visit the web. (Evernote does this quite nicely.)
  • dstillman
    edited October 10, 2014
    No, that's not possible. I think there's a plugin that will auto-tag incoming items (fbennett?), and you could untag those after dealing with them, but you'd still have check what collection was selected before saving.

    If you're saving from Chrome/Safari, a future version of the connectors may gain the ability to set a default collection to save to, since it's a bit awkward for that to use what's selected in Standalone — maybe that's what you're referring to? If so, that may be your best bet in the future. Zotero for Firefox will almost certainly always just save to the selected collection.

    Obviously, if you always save to the library root, you can use Unfiled Items to find the items you haven't put elsewhere, but you still have to select the library root manually before saving.
  • fbennett
    MLZ used to tag all items added by a Web translator with a "New" tag, but I removed it back in July. I'm not sure if there is a general plugin for it.
  • JWT
    Thanks for the info. I'm following approach in Krogh, The DAM Book, ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52357-2. It talks a lot about efficient workflow.
  • dstillman
    Well, I could see providing a non-default option — at least as a hidden pref — to always save to the root of the personal library and ignore the selected library/collection. There are a bunch of places where that would have to apply, though, so it might take a bit of work, and I'd have to think about it more before agreeing to accept such a patch.
  • JWT
    I think a hidden pref would be the way to go, but saving to the root might defeat the purpose, as new items (which had not been through the intake workflow) would be mixed with older items (which had).

    The intake workflow involves:
    1. bring into Zotero Intake collection
    2. tag (Items brought in as a batch would have characteristics in common. Ideal to tag them as a batch BEFORE sending them their separate ways or to multiple collections.)
    3. search for full text if indicated (would love to see the EndNote capability here.)
    4. copy to relevant collections in (stable) collection tree
    5. remove from Intake collection

    Note: Intake collections might have subcollection for each step (gotta play with it to see if it's worth it). Intake collection is cleared after all items processed.
  • dstillman
    Well, as I said, you'd use Unfiled Items to keep track of newly added items. As long as you were always putting items in at least one collection, that would be sufficient.
  • dstillman
    edited October 10, 2014
    Though you couldn't easily file into multiple collections using Unfiled Items, because an item would disappear as soon as you dragged it to the first collection. But you could also just sort by Date Added in the library root, as fbennett suggests in the linked blog post.
  • dstillman
    You can also batch-tag items in Unfiled Items before doing anything else to them and then switch to the library root and use the tag selector to deal with those items whenever you're ready.
  • JWT
    I think you're right. That would work, as long as incoming items went to the root by default (option set in prefs).

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