My monitor is widescreen (like many these days)...it'd be nice to be able to stick the zotero panels on the left or right rather than just the top or bottom...wonderful tool...I am really impressed
I also agree. I value vertical space over horizontal space, and it would be very helpful to be able to put the Zotero panels beside the content I'm reading so that I can display more content without scrolling.
The only other thing I can think of to add is better ability to rename Items (particularly title-less pages) - maybe right click options to rename pretty much anything. It would be easier to organize things with better rename ability.
Again though, this is an amazing tool. Thanks for making my research tasks a ton less annoying.
Notice how the space allocated to each section is identical to that used in the bottombar. But with widescreen desktops, the webpage at the side is still perfectly readable. Support this feature too.
Another vote, though I'm not sure I agree about mheim's mockup. What I really want is to see the third pane of the Zotero interface in that pane. I'd love to be able to take notes using Zotero in the sidebar.
Another vote for a sidebar. I need vertical space for the documents I'm looking at and there's isn't enough vertical space when Zotero is open. I have plenty of extra horizontal space for Zotero. Ideally, users should be able to have a choice of either (1) putting all three of Zotero's current columns into a single column on the left side of the browser window, or (2) putting two of the current columns on one side, and one of the current columns on the other, leaving the "middle" free for document display.
A sidebar would be nice. But it would be even nicer if the whole Zotero pane could be seen as a separate window (like the current edit note in a separate window option).
This would allow us to take Zotero notes alongside another PDF reader which is, unfortunately, the only option for those of us using Intel Macs.
We're planning to abstract the Zotero interface so that it can be used in various configurations, including a sidebar, tab and separate window, and so that individual panes can be hidden and even rearranged. Someone on the dev list has volunteered to do this work, though we don't know how soon it will happen.
No need to add additional comments unless you have other suggestions.
That's awesome. I can't wait to see this. Zotero right now feels so clunky and I can hardly see anything when I have it open (like most people noted, most monitors are widescreen, and when you're on a mini-notebook with a widescreen the Zotero panel can make pages look ridiculous.)
I love mheim's mockup with one exception, the library choice could be squeezed into a dropdown selection box and be placed amongst the other top buttons to save some more vertical real estate.
I have been hoping to switch from Scrapbook to Zotero because Zotero has more powerful features.
Unfortunately, Zotero does not load in a sidebar, and I'm unwilling to sacrifice any of my limited vertical screen-space. (I have plenty of extra horizontal space.)
As soon as Zotero can load in a side-bar, I think that thousands of Scrapbook users will start to make the switch.
Is there something in firefox's architecture that means vertical sidebars are a no-no? If not, it seems to me a big boost for little effort issue (at least it would be in Java Swing :-) ); imo it'd attract more new users than implementing yet more very hard, complex functionality like rss feeds etc that 1% of the users use 1% of the time.
I also vote for sidebar. Ill be very happy if there will be possible to have zotero panel on the left side. If implementing this feature will be problematic, maybe it will be easier to make two separate versions of zotero: one with zotero bar under or above displayed page and another version with zotero panel as sidebar.
Dan (or anyone) could you write about current possibility of zotero as a sidebar? Dan's last post on this topic was posted in 2007.
I've had the same irritation as y'all about this. One solution is to run Zotero on a second monitor: open a new Firefox window (ctrl+n or File->New Window), put it on your other monitor, and show Zotero full-screen in that. Plenty of vertical elbow room for both. I posted a screenshot here if that's helpful.
Dan (or anyone) could you write about current possibility of zotero as a sidebar? Dan's last post on this topic was posted in 2007.
AFAIK, Zotero 2.0 is feature frozen until 2.0 Final, so it won't be a possibility before then. However, 2.0 Final shouldn't be too far away - 2.0 is feature frozen because the developers want to iron out any bugs in existing functionality before final release.
In 2.0 the developers' main focus seems to have been sync, sharing and collaboration features. Just speculating here but their focus may change in the next beta series, and abstracting the interface to allow sidebar use (plus lots of other GUI customisation awesomeness) might get looked at again then.
Disclaimer: I am not a developer or otherwise affiliated with Zotero, nor am I a mind reader or fortune teller; I'm just offering my thoughts as a Zotero user.
I agree that a sidebar would be great, especially for working on my widescreen laptop. In the meanwhile, I have a hardware solution. I use my monitor in vertical orientation when using Zotero. I can see a full page of text and still have the Zotero panel at the bottom. Many flatscreen monitors can be positioned vertically, and you can change the orientation in the graphic properties.
I also have a workaround like that, in the form of a second monitor where I put a fullscreen copy of Zotero. But it's kind of crazy that we're coming up with hardware workarounds for what should be solved at the software level. Really hope the Zotero team can devote some time to making the interface more flexible.
Upgrade Storage
The only other thing I can think of to add is better ability to rename Items (particularly title-less pages) - maybe right click options to rename pretty much anything. It would be easier to organize things with better rename ability.
Again though, this is an amazing tool. Thanks for making my research tasks a ton less annoying.
Notice how the space allocated to each section is identical to that used in the bottombar. But with widescreen desktops, the webpage at the side is still perfectly readable. Support this feature too.
I even moved my windows taskbar to a sidebar because it is so much more efficient at displaying text.
This would allow us to take Zotero notes alongside another PDF reader which is, unfortunately, the only option for those of us using Intel Macs.
We're planning to abstract the Zotero interface so that it can be used in various configurations, including a sidebar, tab and separate window, and so that individual panes can be hidden and even rearranged. Someone on the dev list has volunteered to do this work, though we don't know how soon it will happen.
No need to add additional comments unless you have other suggestions.
I love mheim's mockup with one exception, the library choice could be squeezed into a dropdown selection box and be placed amongst the other top buttons to save some more vertical real estate.
Any idea when this interface will happen?
Unfortunately, Zotero does not load in a sidebar, and I'm unwilling to sacrifice any of my limited vertical screen-space. (I have plenty of extra horizontal space.)
As soon as Zotero can load in a side-bar, I think that thousands of Scrapbook users will start to make the switch.
Jay
A +1 from me regarding this change...
Dan (or anyone) could you write about current possibility of zotero as a sidebar? Dan's last post on this topic was posted in 2007.
In 2.0 the developers' main focus seems to have been sync, sharing and collaboration features. Just speculating here but their focus may change in the next beta series, and abstracting the interface to allow sidebar use (plus lots of other GUI customisation awesomeness) might get looked at again then.
Disclaimer: I am not a developer or otherwise affiliated with Zotero, nor am I a mind reader or fortune teller; I'm just offering my thoughts as a Zotero user.