Select Multiple/All citations in classic view

SalishSea
I'm working on a bibliographic exercise, where I have placed all of the relevant papers in a collection (great feature). Now, I'd like to cite all 200 odd papers and push them into the paper's bibliography. but I don't seems to be able to select groups of citations, even though I can see all the members of the collection.

A CTRL-A like function would be very useful for this purpose.

Thanks for an amazing tool!

Rob
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited February 12, 2013
    Click on the topmost record to highlight it. Move to the last record. Hold down the shift key. Click. All records should be selected.

    You can select individual records by holding down an OS specific key and clicking on individual records. With Mac OS the command key works for this. With other operating systems the hold-down key is either control or alt.
  • SalishSea
    Thanks!

    Under Ubuntu 12.10, Libreoffice 3.6.2.2 and Zotero 3.0.13 I cannot highlight multiple records using any of the usual strategies - including those suggested above. Can anyone validate this observation, or test that it works as expected (and described) in another O/S. Then we can turn this into a simple bug report.

    Thanks,

    Rob
  • mronkko2
    This does not work in the classic citation dialog. You have to use the "Multiple sources" button.

    (Mac and Word 2011)
  • adamsmith
    Salish - where exactly are you trying to do this?
    If you just want to add items to the bibliography in the LO plugin, click edit bibliography. There you _can_ mass select (using shift-click) items and add the to the bibliography.
    Also, obviously, you can use ctrl+a in regular Zotero to create bibliographies.
    You _cannot_ batch select items in the multiple items display of the classic citation dialog, that has never been possible and likely never will.
  • SalishSea
    Right, so the workflow I am using is:

    (in Libre document)

    Select Quick Format CItation -> (presents wizard)
    Select Classic View
    Select Multiple Sources
    Try CTRL - A -> (no success)

    Highlight a record... Highlight another record using Shift-CLICK
    or CTRL-CLICK -> (only initial record is highlighted)

    Can someone verify this behaviour under a similar/different O/S?

    Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    we overlapped, but just to restate:
    You _cannot_ batch select items in the multiple items display of the classic citation dialog, that has never been possible and likely never will.
  • SalishSea
    What I am trying to do is to highlight all citations in a collection using a simple workflow (e.g. CTRL A). CTRL-A, or SHIFT/CLICK or CTRL CLICK are now working as expected.
  • adamsmith
    right, but you're trying this in the "multiple sources" dialog of the classic version of the LO plugin. As I say - that has never worked and likely won't in the future.
  • SalishSea
    "AdamSmith"... the ability to group-select within multiple citations window would be a useful feature and this is why I posted the request to the "New features" component of the board.

    From the outside, it would seem to be a small thing... allow group selects using the usual keystrokes, ... then loop through the selected citations and throw them in to the reference, just as if you did them one at a time...

    In my case I need to include the citations in the paper (e.g. have
    fn 1-202), and not simply work with a bibliography, thus the need for the group inclusions.

    I've done this by hand now - having some odd results - but this is a different post.

    I still submit this would be a useful feature.
  • adamsmith
    what's the exact use case here - in what scenario do you insert more than 10 citations at once?
    The reason this is unlikely to happen is that the classic plugin isn't getting develope anymore beyond bugfixes. I can't say how hard this would be to do in general if someone wanted to submit a patch.
  • SalishSea
    Use case: When writing a meta-analysis or similar review document one starts with a large corpus of potentially relevant papers (in my case organized as a collection), and this would often number over 100 citations. The comprehensiveness of the list is a key feature of the reliability and validity of the paper.


    Also, you write: "in what scenario do you insert more than 10 citations at once? " is there a specified (or unspecified) limit in Zotera on the number of citations used at once?
    in what scenario do you insert more than 10 citations at once?
  • adamsmith
    "is there a specified (or unspecified) limit in Zotera on the number of citations used at once?"
    no, I was just wondering. So to understand that correctly - you do the meta analysis, and the first citation (or one of the first) you insert contains all relevant papers, hence the 1-200?
    There's no good solution for that at the moment.
  • dtwrublewski
    Apologies for resurrecting this old thread, but I just got a question from a patron about this exact thing, "command click a number of items or shift click a list of items" to add to the list in Multiple Sources for a citation. I'll find the New Features section and add a comment there as well. Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    (there are no separate forum sections; posting here is all that's needed. Nothing has changed on this)
  • dtwrublewski
    Ahh, ok! Thanks for letting me know!
  • sschneewind
    Greetings. I used Zotero to create a bibliography of all articles on a large topic (Ming history). I used to be able to select all of the items and create a single bibliography that I can share with others. I can not do this any more. When I highlight the top item, hold shift, and go to the bottom, it only includes items to the bottom of that page. Is there any way to create a bibliography of all items? thank you.
  • adamsmith
    Nothing about this changed, but if shift+click doesn't work, ctrl+a (cmd+a on a Mac) will also -- and more quickly -- work to select all items.
  • sschneewind
    Thank you, I had tried that, following some suggestions above, but if I am on a certain record it selects all of THAT record. Where should I be hovering or what should I have clicked on before I do control a?
  • adamsmith
    You should click on the llibrary/collection you want to export on the left, then in the middle panel, and select all.

    Note this all is about the dektop application of Zotero. This works differently online and I'd generally not recommend it.
  • sschneewind
    I'd be very happy to download the whole list from the web, which -- I guess? -- is where I've been adding to it, to my desktop to do this. How? I already have Zotero downloaded on my desktop, I think?

  • sschneewind
    https://www.zotero.org/groups/270384/ming_studies/library
  • adamsmith
    https://www.zotero.org/support/sync
  • miyalatex
    edited July 26, 2021
    To "adamsmith" and Zotero development team:

    Of course this feature is very useful and can save a lot of effort in clicking the mouse. For example, if you want to cite 5 items, currently you need to click the item, and the right-direction arrow, one-by-one, with 10 clicks. If you can hold the Ctrl-key, you need only 6 clicks. If the 5 items are close to each other, you hold the Shift-key, need only 3 clicks.

    And also the Ctrl+A ability is very useful, for the people who write manuals or teaching materials etc. This ability is offered by Mendeley/Endnote, just Ctrl+A and click the Double-Quotes button, quite convenient. It is also like Bibtex's \nocite{*} as well. Why would they provide this ability?

    I would not deny a useful ability of a tool even if it is NOT used by normal citing use cases.

    Really hope Zotero can provide this Ctrl-/Shift-, and Ctrl+A, selection ability for "Multiple Sources" function.
  • bwiernik
    The classic citation window is no longer being updated. A future version of the word processor plugin will provide a new interface for browsing the library.
  • dstillman
    While it's true that the classic dialog generally isn't seeing further development, we've fixed selecting multiple items in Zotero 6.0.6, available now.
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