Colored folder names

gernot
I'm a big fan of the new color tags, so here's another suggestion.

My library currently holds ~3000 items, and to organize that efficiently, my explorer pane on the left has grown to hundreds of folders and nested subfolders over the years. I'd like to flatten the folder hierarchy again without losing the overview.

The simplest solution I can think of are colored folder names, i.e., to add an option to the 'rename collection' context menu which allows to assign different colors (eye-friendly, ideally user-definable) and also bold fonts to the folder name.

I guess that would be relatively easy to implement, remain hidden for those who don't need it, but super-useful for those of us with a large library.
  • adamsmith
    there were specific examples of existing software - Thunderbird, gmail e.g. - that developers looked at as inspiration for the colored tags. Do you have any example that's approximately what you're asking for?
  • Gracile
    It's not a Thunderbird native option but some (popular I think) extensions (example) help doing this (actually it can be done manually but that's slightly more cumbersome)
  • gernot
    No, I don't actually mean to paint the folder icons, rather the text itself. It's not the best example, but look to your left at the navigation pane for the forum threads: the main categories are bold, the subcategories are red - already that gives a better overview than a simple nested hierarchy with the same font and color.
  • Gracile
    (Yes sorry, I had actually understood your suggestion. It's just that the first google result for "thunderbird color folder" was this extension.)
  • gernot
    Sure, no worries :)
    Painted folder icons would probably achieve a similar purpose, but I guess colored text might look somewhat better (more subtle).
  • gernot
    Also, the possibility to rearrange folders manually instead of alphabetically would be much appreciated. I'm currently putting special characters (-, ., : etc.) in front of the folder names but that's a bit of an awkward solution.
  • mac
    I second these suggestions. I am growing increasingly frustrated sifting through my library and to have colored folders as well as the ability to rearrange folders manually would be a big plus to deal with the issue of large library that gernot alluded to.

    One great example of this done very well is Scrivener, which gives the user many different color and icon shapes to choose from.
  • mmni
    I am also looking forward to this "Colored-Folder" Features.
  • rameloot
    Has there been any progress on this colored folder feature?
  • adamsmith
    no. I don't know how the lead devs feel about this in general (i.e. if they'd consider it at all), but I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near the top of priorities, so absent a third party patch, I wouldn't expect any movement on this in the next couple of years.
  • mac
    Please consider making it a priority. My library has grown so large as to become unwieldy with the internal constraints (mentioned by others above). In order to continue to make Zotero practical it needs to give users the ability to identify their folders/collections visually and to arrange them at will.
  • floriand
    Dear community, developers. I stumbled on this thread while searching for discussions around a coloured folder feature (preferably the folder text [bold, coloured, ...], potentially the entire folder box). I don't have anything useful to contribute to the discussion, apart from also expressing my interest in the feature. My number of folders and branches start to extend considerably, and would like to have the option to mark and colour some of them for easier reference and navigation.
  • a.e.kostakis
    After years of using Zotero, I too need colored folders or colored text.
    It's becoming too difficult to access library when you have thousands of entries.
  • floriand
    As a sidenote/workaround: I'm using currently font symbols to distinguish/'mark' specific folders I would like to stand out. ★, ●, ♡, ║, .... It's not perfect, but it's something :)
  • danielborek
    @floriand thank you for the idea
    Still having colorful folders (even as a plugin) would be really nice!
  • thurstonet
    I'm now quite an extensive user of Zotero, I would really appreciate the addition of folder colour selection, or a way to separate projects.
  • OsmanHB
    edited July 18, 2024
    Is there any updates on this feature? Do you know any GitHub extensions that could do this?
  • LWTaylor
    @floriand I like the symbols idea - that helps, thanks.
    For what it's worth, just adding my vote to an extension or option for adding colour to collections and sub-collections folders please. (I wish I had the programming skills!)
  • OsmanHB
    Yes!!! Use of symbols is a good idea but having different colours for collections -which could also be automatically applied to its sub-collections- would make it so much easier to navigate the library, I can't emphasize enough.
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