[PROPOSAL] Better regex for Google Docs

rutyggi
edited June 2, 2021
When using Google Docs, when I insert a citation and in the search box I type "ali", search results include papers with "sexualised" and "egalitarinism" in the title, I believe because there is an "ali" inside those words.

I propose a regex of the form "\bali.*\b", so that the search box would return only papers which contains a word that starts with "ali", but not search papers that contains the characters "ali" in the middle of another completely different word
  • arggem
    Does the Advanced Search feature accomplish what you want?
    https://www.zotero.org/support/searching#advanced_search
  • rutyggi
    It looks like this is a feature of the Zotero Desktop software, not of the Google Docs search box.

    If that is the case, no, it doesn't accomplish what I want
  • adamsmith
    If I understand the request, it's not actually about regex in the Word add-on. You just want the search to be left-bounded, i.e. only refer to the beginning of words?

    I think that's not unreasonable and may actually have advantage in terms of speed.
  • rutyggi
    edited June 2, 2021
    Maybe I should restate the proposal and drop the terms "search" and "search box" because they create confusion. We shall never use those terms again.

    I am talking about _Google Docs_. Not Microsoft Word.

    In Google Docs, I insert a citation by pressing CTRL+ALT+C on my keyboard.

    Then a message box pop ups, titled "Quick Format Citation".

    This message box contains a text box.

    In the text box I type "ali".

    Then it gives me all sort of results, like papers with "generALIty", "equALIzing" in the title.

    I don't think the user expects this behavior?

    I think we should look for "ali" at the start of the words that make the title, not in the middle.

    The problem is that too much _suggestions_ are returned, and most of them are irrelevant and doesn't make sense to me.

    If it speeds up things even better :)

    P.S. Even more suggestions are returned which doesn't seem to have "ali" in the title at all. I still don't know how it matched on those other suggestions.
  • dstillman
    edited June 2, 2021
    @raffaem: We understand what you're asking for — adamsmith said exactly that. It has nothing to do with Google Docs specifically. The same citation dialog is used for all integrations.
    Even more suggestions are returned which doesn't seem to have "ali" in the title at all. I still don't know how it matched on those other suggestions.
    It would match creators and publication titles as well.
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