[CLOSED] Suggested improved functionality when adding tags

DO_part73
edited June 19, 2017
Suggestion: when adding a new tag in an item, make [ENTER] key to automatically switch to a new field.

Explanation: When I'm entering tags in an item, I go to the TAGS tab, click on "add" and start writing. If the tag exist, a drop-down menu opens and I can select the existing tag using the keyboard arrows. Once I selected the desired tag, I press [ENTER]. But this only closes the drop-down menu and shows me that the tag has been confirmed (which I already knew by pressing [ENTER]). Now if I want to add another tag I have to press [ENTER] again and start the process again. This means I pressed [ENTER] two times in a row. This can be cumbersome when you have to add several (eg 15) tags per new article.

I think it would be more functional if by pressing [ENTER] one moves to the next field already, ie do in ONE [ENTER] what it is done now in TWO [ENTER]. So when I press [ENTER] in that context, Zotero understands that I like the currently selected tag and not only closes the drop-down menu and confirm the selected tag, but also moves to the next tag, ready to start typing new text in the tag field.
  • bwiernik
    You can type Shift+Enter to open a multi-line text entry to add many tags to an item at once. I personally like the current behavior when selecting tags from the prompt list, as I often want to edit a tag before finally saving it to an item.
  • DO_part73
    edited June 19, 2017
    Hi, thanks for your reply.

    "...I often want to edit a tag before finally saving it to an item."
    OK, I understand there might be personal preferences, but editing each auto-completed tag kind of defeats the purpose of having pre-existing, selectable tags, right? I'm not sure how common is this usage. My educated guess is that modifying pre-existing tags should be much less common than using the pre-existing tags as they are. If this is true (and I don't have statistics to back it up, just subjective common sense), then a software should (when two options are mutually exclusive) make it it easier for the most common usage. Again, my educated guess is that people use pre-existing tags as full tags to be used and not so frequently as a "base" tag upon which to add more details to create another tag (I don't say this doesn't exist or it's not good, just less frequent).

    One more thing: If I understand correctly, by using the multi-line text entry you lose the ability to re-use the pre-existing tags and have to write down all of the tags yourself, again kind of defeating the purpose of the existence of pre-existing tags, right?
  • DO_part73
    I found what I needed: instead of using [ENTER], after selecting the tag from the drop-menu just press [TAB]. Zotero updates the TAG fields and moves to the next one so you can enter text for your next tag. It takes a little more than I would like, but computing power will solve that very soon.

    Again, Zotero solved my needs!!! Thanks for such a great software!
  • bwiernik
    From the perspective of flexibility, the current behavior permits a wider range of behaviors. It is much faster to quickly type Enter twice than it is to type Enter, then re-select the entered tag (which involves finding it in the alphabetized list) and editing it. So, while editing a recommended tag may be less common, the behavior you describe would make it extremely difficult to do. Whereas developing the habit of typing Enter twice seems fairly easy?
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