Upgrade StorageCounting Items in Zotero
Zotero seems to have an interesting approach to counting items - although this may be a deliberate action, rather than a problem.
I want to count the number of items in my database in "My Publications", but the behaviour is different in this special library than in the main library.
When I select all the items in "My Library" it gives me a total count without expanding the attachment /note/other associated items (effectively creating a visible "line" which Zotero then counts). If I want to count all these associated lines, I can use the plus key to make them visible.
However, when I select all the items in "My Publications" this action firstly expands all the associated items and then gives me the count of all the expanded lines - which is a count greater than the actual number of items. When I use the minus key to hide these lines, it gives the correct count of bibliographical items.
Although I've not gone into it in any detail, the select al (Ctrl-A) in the other user generated libraries seems to not expand as for "My Publications", but it does behave differently from "My Library": Ctrl-A selects all items and gives the correct count, but while the plus key expands, the associated items are not counted.
I hope this makes sense - I'm happy to provide screen snips if of assistance.
I want to count the number of items in my database in "My Publications", but the behaviour is different in this special library than in the main library.
When I select all the items in "My Library" it gives me a total count without expanding the attachment /note/other associated items (effectively creating a visible "line" which Zotero then counts). If I want to count all these associated lines, I can use the plus key to make them visible.
However, when I select all the items in "My Publications" this action firstly expands all the associated items and then gives me the count of all the expanded lines - which is a count greater than the actual number of items. When I use the minus key to hide these lines, it gives the correct count of bibliographical items.
Although I've not gone into it in any detail, the select al (Ctrl-A) in the other user generated libraries seems to not expand as for "My Publications", but it does behave differently from "My Library": Ctrl-A selects all items and gives the correct count, but while the plus key expands, the associated items are not counted.
I hope this makes sense - I'm happy to provide screen snips if of assistance.
The Select All behavior is a side effect of how My Publications works. Unlike My Library or Collections, My Publications doesn't necessarily include child items — you can toggle them on or off. When they're on, they match the underlying search that generates My Publications and are selected by Select All, the same way that Select All in another view will select child items that match a search from the search bar using All Fields & Tags mode. If no child items are included, only parent items will be selected. Maybe this could be considered a bug, but there's a logic to it, and I don't think it's really worth changing.
My need for a separate count relates to counting the number of specific item types - perhaps there is a need for a brief note in the appropriate help page noting this behaviour.