I would like to hide PDF attachments but show notes. Can I do that?

I am trying to develop a workflow that incorporates the zotero notes feature. For this, I would like to be able to see the notes of many different citations at once. However, if I expand the attachments by pressing + on my keyboard, the list will also show me all hte PDFs. The PDFs are visual junk in this situation, I don't need to see them. How can I control the types of attachments that are shown in the list?
  • edited October 12, 2021
    Hi,
    I could share what I did last week, tough not sure it is what you are asking because pdfs will still appear in gray. But at least you could ctrl+a to select only your child note, and manipulate it how you want it to be.

    1.Make a first saved search [@sub-notes-dum] of all your child note:
    On the advanced search menu, put :
    + child note contains %
    + element type is note ; [v] ticking include parent item and [v] look up sub-collections.

    2. Make a second saved search [@sub-notes]
    +collection is [@sub-notes-dum]
    +element type is Note ; without ticking 'include parent item' [ ]

    You should then have access to a collection [@sub-notes] that put all child notes in black, and all parent items and pdfs in gray. And you should be able to manipulate it with other search, saved search, and whatsoever criteria you might want to apply.

    Note: In my case I could only drag and drop up to 50 notes for research diary/log workflow (export all my sub-notes this month in a writing document). See a post I started: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/92216/is-50-the-limit-of-child-note-you-can-drag-drop-to-a-document/p1. By the way you will see I am also looking for a way to make this as a one-step saved search, instead of using a dummy collection cluttering the left pane. I think it is consistent with how zotero search works though, and not such a big deal after all...

    Hope it helped a bit
  • Hey there and thanks a lot for your comment!

    I tried replicating your workflow but I couldn't find "element type" in the advanced search menu. I did find "type" though.

    It would help me to understand your solution if you had a few screenshots to show what you do and what you achieve with it.

    Either way, thanks and have a nice day.
  • Might be 'Item' instead of element
    Sorry that came from the spanish version 'tipo de elemento'
  • Bump.

    Is there maybe a hacky way of getting rid of the grey PDF filenames? For example, could I edit userChrome.css and make grey linked PDFs disappear?
  • Waw I have no clue on css...
    May I ask to reformulate what you are trying to achieve?

    I could recommend another approach: check the mdnote plugin and its batch export feature in particular, then open the output from that command in a knowledge organisation manager such as obsidian, zettlkasten, dendron in visual studio or even atom (etc.) and see if you like the summary note you get.

    The summary md note should list clickable links towards item attachments and item notes, using that format [pdfdoc.pdf](local-link-toward-pdf). This with others metadata such as tags.

    Edit: I see you would need citations only... then you can use the same plugin and process described above but clicking on export to mdfile instead of bacth export. However, you will still need those steps to be able to see and make use of your notes. There is no shortest way to the little I know.

    Last option would be to see if the saved searches could help you.
    Besides all of that I personally believe the next release will enable smooth workflows with very nice features...

    Edit2: I am looking forward macros or script to move notes to collections and exports mdfiles on weekly basis (automate the mentioned) if you have any clue I would be happy to hear about it.

    Thanks for your read
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