Find out in which collection/sub-collection folder a file is stored

sakakibara
Hi Guys, when I search for a file in my Zotero library and the file comes up, I cant find in which collection and sub-collection folders the file is stored. I can access the article and read, but dont know where it is saved in my library.
If I right-click on the file title, there is the option "show file", but it shows where the file is saved in my PC.
I want to find our where the file is save in "my library" and consequently the collection and sub-collection folders.
Can anybody please, give me some hints?
Thanks ;-)
Jose
  • dstillman
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/collections_containing_an_item
  • sakakibara
    easier than anything else!
    Thanks Dan ;-)
  • oliviakptx
    On the same topic, when I choose a title and press option as described, the collection is sometimes highlighted in yellow, but not always. Why does that happen?
    thanks, Olivia
  • arggem
    If you are already viewing that collection, it doesn't highlight. Is that what's happening?
  • oliviakptx
    I am not viewing the collection. "My Library" is highlighted. I searched for various titles knowing which collection they were in and got a highlight on 3 out of 10 titles? thanks!
  • aurimas
    I think it sometimes take a second or two for the highlighting to show up. What OS are you on? Can you submit a Debug ID for an item that doe not highlight an appropriate collection?
  • oliviakptx
    Thanks. I am on Mac OS 10 and PC Windows 7. I am checking for duplicates that are in a Collection and also in Unfiled. Perhaps that is my problem.
  • aurimas
    If an item is in a collection, then it cannot be in Unfiled (since it would be filed). If you're seeing an item in both, then that is not the same item, but, in fact, a duplicate (as you say). Duplicates, as far as Zotero is concerned, are different items that look very much alike. There's a distinction here between a duplicate item and the same item placed in multiple collections (think songs in different playlists)
  • aurimas
    Oh, you can merge duplicates via "Duplicates" collection btw. Then the items would remain where they were, but would actually become the same item. The entry in Unfiled would obviously go away though, since the new merged item would be present in some collection. (Unfiled is a special Saved Search, not a collection. You can't drag items to, for example)
  • oliviakptx
    Thanks, I understand that, but am wondering if Unfiled is not considered a Collection and therefore is not highlighted as the location of a citation?
  • aurimas
    Yes, it's not a collection, it's a Saved Search.
  • adamsmith
    ...and you can't use option to show items in it. That said, if no other collection is highlighted, the item will be in option.
  • seans_potato_biz
    edited July 30, 2018
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/collections_containing_an_item is cool but not very intuitive. You'd never find that out unless you looked it up (as opposed to most other functions which seem to follow standards set and followed by most other programs.
  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    This is among the most common "how to" questions. Is there a future GUI update planned that will make the feature more evident/accessible? Maybe have a floating box that displays all the collection names if that feature is activated?
  • bwiernik
    It’s planned to add Collections to the right pane, alongside Tags, Notes, etc.
  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    Ok, good to know about that upcoming feature.
  • hupili
    @bwiernik , do you have a pointer to the development discussion thread?

    I'm new here and trying to get onboard. I recently (re-) noticed Zotero and became quite interested in this project. I think the item-to-collection mapping is very useful and implemented a plaintext version: https://github.com/hupili/zotero/commit/0d21e14aaf5605955384ec402f58904c18480968

    Hope this is useful to people who are in urgent need. Also I'd like to seek professional advise from Zotero to turn this into an official feature, if the dev team has not started yet. Feel free to comment.

    I'm not sure if I can get notifications from the Forum. Feel free to drop me a message at : e [at] hupili [dot] net

    Cheers.
  • mbrain_refs
    I realise that I am late to this discussion however I have just discovered another annoying and minor bug with this (occurs in Windows and Mac). I have a massive library over multiple projects - I thought alt/option was being intermittent as it worked on most citations except the one I had searched for but I eventually discovered that the particular listing in question was an Unfiled Item.

    Is there a way of making 'Unfiled Items' highlight like any other collection / folder when it is the only place a reference resides.

    Thank you - I have been a very happy Zotero user since 2010.
  • davidkulp
    Holding down the opt key is not obvious and not reliable (slow or fails). Three years ago @bwiernik said that it was a planned feature for another right pane. When will this be released?
  • dstillman
    @davidkulp: As far as I can recall we've never committed to adding a Collections tab. It might happen, but there are no immediate plans for it.

    Holding down the key should be perfectly reliable, so not sure what you mean there.
  • davidkulp
    @dstillman , in the thread above I was referring to the post "It’s planned to add Collections to the right pane, alongside Tags, Notes, etc."
    Also above you'll see some discussion about inconsistency or slowness - albeit from many years ago. I find the highlighting is inconsistent. And when an article is in multiple collections that don't fit on the same screen it's impossible to see them all because when you try to scroll the collections pane your mouse has to move away from article, disabling the highlighting.
  • dstillman
    edited July 25, 2021
    in the thread above I was referring to the post "It’s planned to add Collections to the right pane, alongside Tags, Notes, etc."
    Right, but bwiernik isn't a Zotero staff developer, and I'm saying I don't believe we ever said for sure that that's something we were going to do.
    I find the highlighting is inconsistent
    You'd have to say more, in a new thread. It should work consistently every time, and we're not aware of any way that it doesn't.
    it's impossible to see them all because when you try to scroll the collections pane your mouse has to move away from article, disabling the highlighting
    There's a longstanding bug where the highlighting goes away if you move the mouse cursor into the collections pane, but you can just move the cursor into the pane first and then scroll with your trackpad or scroll wheel.
  • kdnyq
    In case it helps anyone on this thread, I use this code (see link below) in the JavaScript console to see the collections in which the selected file is stored. It is admittedly a very rough solution and only works for one selected item at a time, but I'm using it as a stopgap until a full-fledged feature or extension is developed.

    https://gist.github.com/KalebNyquist/2ca3ac322751578b6d791cd90b4df15b
  • ipamdh
    Thank you for the script. I am also waiting for this function.
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