only first typed letter recognized with 'find-as-you-type'

reimerth
edited April 28, 2022
I use quick search (or whatever you want to call it) a lot to find items in My Library, where I just start typing and an item will get selected in whatever column is sorted (eg Creator). Formerly I could type several letters and an item would select to match — now it will only land on the first letter typed and won't refine further. Has something changed to make this work differently (not as well)? Thanks.
  • migugg
    I have the same issue. I searched forums to see whether anyone else observed this. In my case it is happening with the latest update to zotero 6.0.6 on Mac, and it is obviously quite annyoing.
  • dstillman
    edited April 28, 2022
    We can reproduce this and will fix it soon. Thanks for reporting.

    (The term for this is "find-as-you-type". "Quick search" in Zotero refers to the search bar in the toolbar.)
  • reimerth
    edited April 29, 2022
    | "find-as-you-type" — thanks, that's the one. I've changed the thread title to reflect this.
  • dstillman
    This is fixed in the latest Zotero beta, and the fix will be included in Zotero 6.0.7.
  • djross3
    edited May 1, 2022
    Just came here to check that this had been reported.

    I also noticed since the update to Zotero 6 that this feature seems to hang a bit. Previously the library was very responsive and would instantaneously jump down (even when I had thousands of entries in a single collection). In 6, there is a delay of a few letters (even at a casual rate of typing) and then the library catches up. The effect might be a little "smoother" now, but it's less responsive and doesn't give the immediate feedback of whether you typed the right letters and/or whether there are (approximate) matches in the library. It's a minor inconvenience, but I preferred the previous version.
  • mcv2
    Thank you very much, I am glad to see that this issue has been reported and will be fixed! It's only now that it is broken that I realize how important this feature is :)
  • dsimat
    Same here. Just Googled it because this feature is broken and it causes frustration.
  • David_Wer
    Same here. Looking forward to 6.0.7
  • gelbarda
    Same for me. The feature from before of just clicking on a name and typing in the first few letters to jump down is much easier than using the search bar.
  • danmackinlay
    Thanks @dstillman <3
  • ramirma
    Glad you are working on it @dstillman since this is feature I use every day. Looking forward to the release of Zotero 6.0.7.
  • mark
    Came here to say this, glad to see others have reported and it's on the way to being fixed! Thanks for your work as ever @dstillman!
  • dstillman
    Fixed in 6.0.7, available now via Help → Check for Updates.
  • dajahö
    Thanks! I actually just searched for this issue right now.
  • seasamin
    Excellent 6.0.7 fixes and returns the 3 letter type to find sub-collections. Appreciate the effort!
  • escdotdot
    edited May 10, 2022
    An unexpected change with 6.0.7 is that type-to-search for a set of items with the same author name, rather than just stop at the first entry each time you press a new letter it jumps to the next entry. For instance, I have 5 entries by LaBelle (and no other previous items with an author name starting with 'l'), typing 'l' takes me to the first one, then typing 'a' takes me to the second one, and so on. But maybe that's a power feature I was not aware of?
  • dstillman
    @escdotdot: No, that's a bug — it should stop as long as what you type matches. We'll fix. Thanks.
  • dstillman
    @escdotdot: OK, fixed in the latest Zotero beta, and the fix will be included in Zotero 6.0.8.
  • escdotdot
    edited May 10, 2022
    @dstillman thanks!
  • dstillman
    Zotero 6.0.8 is available now with this fix.
  • escdotdot
    Thank you again, but there seems to be a new problem now. The fix works when I type the letters in a name – it goes to the correct name as expected. But then if I subsequently type the same first letter again, it jumps to the next entry from the current selection. If I keep typing that letter, it proceeds to move down one entry each time. So I type "f-o-u-c", it goes to the first entry for Foucault as expected. After a pause, if I then type "f", it moves to the next entry for Foucault, type "f" again and it goes down one more, and so on. So, these new searches only start from the selected entry, not from the beginning of the entire list. (I hope that makes sense!)
  • dstillman
    @escdotdot: That's neither new nor a bug — the tree has always worked that way. It lets you just put your finger on "f" and keep pressing it (or even hold it down) to quickly cycle through all "f" rows. It doesn't matter how long you pause.

    (You can see the same behavior in the Firefox bookmarks manager, which is based on the same component that Zotero used to use.)
  • escdotdot
    OK, so that one really is a power feature! Thanks again.
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