Change Line/Row Height?

Hi all -

I'm a new Zotero user, switching over from Mendeley after a massive disaster there. My questions:

1) Is there a way to enlarge the line/row height in Zotero standalone? Right now, it has way too much of a database feel, and it's actually too dense to read and take in properly. (This isn't an issue of font size but density/ lack of white space in/ around text).

2) Relatedly: is there a way to make the Title Column text wrap? Right now, long titles -- which are most of them -- simply run into and get cut off by the next column. Again, the text density os high and plus, I can't read a full title. It also entails having to read closely and across enlarging the entire window, rather than wrapped text so it fits in the window and would also allow me to read/scan quickly downwards.

I appreciate Zotero's transparency, selective sync-at-will and other things, but the text density for me -- a social sciences scholar -- makes me skeptical about my ability to use it long term.

Thanks.
  • Technically you can adjust the row height by opening your Zotero profile directory, creating a 'chrome' directory, and creating a userChrome.css file there with something like this:

    #zotero-items-tree treechildren::-moz-tree-row {
    height: 30px !important;
    }

    But this isn't really a supported method, so you're sort of on your own there. The items list isn't otherwise customizable and can't be on a technical level as currently implemented, but we're in the process of rebuilding it from scratch, and a future version may provide more options within the app for adjusting the information density.

    This is obviously a personal preference, and if it doesn't work for you there's nothing to be done about that at the moment, but I'd suggest trying Zotero for a bit — with or without the above tweak — to see if you get used it. (Being a social science scholar really isn't relevant — Zotero was created by historians.) It's obviously a different approach from Mendeley, but the density has its advantages, particularly with large libraries. And you can of course adjust the panes and columns to give the title column more room, including switching to Stacked view so that the entire items list is wider and titles are less likely to be truncated.
  • Neither currently due to technical limitations of the platform Zotero is built on. But Zotero is currently working on moving to a new development framework that will permit a major update to its user interface.
  • edited August 15, 2019
    ok, thanks. I'll stick with it and try it out for now, and I will check out the profile directory option. But, if you are doing an overhaul, giving the text some breathing space and/or allowing for some supported customizable options in this regard (height; text wrap), would be great. Cheers.
  • Just also voting to have an option to wrap and show long titles someday, such as maybe with a toggle button :)
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