Problem with column width adjustment

marcinkoculak
This is a bit hard to explain, but since couple of days the controls for column width adjustment behave wonky - when I click on the border between two column headers it automatically moves all borders to the right without any mouse movement on my side.
Next, when I try to pull one border to left, others also move, but to the right. When column reaches minimum size it is impossible to expand its width.
This might be correlated with the update fixing the sizes of columns from couple of days ago, but I haven't registered after which update this problem began.

I am on Windows 11 + newest beta release.
  • adomasven Zotero Team
    Can you produce a video showcasing the issue, upload it somewhere and post a link here?
  • marcinkoculak
    Yes, here is a demo
    https://youtu.be/wlDAbnFsByQ

    The first part is showing single clicks on the border.
    In the second half I am trying to resize back a minimum width column.
  • adomasven Zotero Team
    What's the resolution of this screen? Is it better if you lower the size of the window?
  • aywi
    edited May 10, 2022
    @adomasven The same thing happens to me! Just like what @marcinkoculak shows in the video. My screen resolution is 1920x1080, and it still happens when I lower the size of the window.

    Platform: Windows 10 (Version 21H2)
    Zotero Version: 6.0.7
  • marcinkoculak
    The resolution is 2560x1440.
    When I try it on another monitor (1920x1080) or change resolution to a smaller one (1366x768) results are the same.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    This should be fixed in the latest Zotero beta. If you try that, let us know if it solves the problem for you.

    The fix will be included in Zotero 6.0.8.
  • aywi
    Yes, it solves the problem for me. Thank you!
  • marcinkoculak
    Can confirm, everything is great on the 6.0.8.
    Thanks!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Zotero 6.0.8 is available now with this fix.
  • Lichengwei07
    This problem persists in 7.0.9 (64-bit)+22631.4460 (Windows 11)
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @Lichengwei07: We would need to see a screenshot in Troubleshooting Mode (Help → "Restart in Troubleshooting Mode…”), which temporarily disables all plugins. This was fixed years ago.
  • yhkang926
    @dstillman I have a similar problem, but only with Citation Key column (using Better Bibtex). Should it be fixed by Better Bibtex not Zotero?
  • emilianoeheyns
    This behavior starts after BBT calls Zotero.ItemTreeManager.refreshColumns(). If I don't do that, the problem does not appear.
  • emilianoeheyns
    edited June 25, 2025
    .
  • emilianoeheyns
    The problem is reproducible for @yhkang926 with another (non-BBT) column
    • Uninstall BBT & restart Zotero
    • Open Tools -> Developer -> Run Javascript
    • Paste in Zotero.ItemTreeManager.refreshColumns() and click run
    (The conversation can be found here but since this reproduces without BBT I don't think I need to be involved)
  • dominic-d
    edited September 14, 2025
    I've been experiencing the same issue (see discussion here https://github.com/Dominic-DallOsto/zotero-reading-list/issues/27) and think I have found the cause of the issue and a workaround.

    Basically, every time `Zotero.ItemTreeManager.refreshColumns()` is called, a CSS rule is added to the stylesheet for each custom column, setting the `flex-basis` to some value. If `refreshColumns` is called again (when re-adding the custom column or having a different plugin that adds a custom column) then a second instance of this CSS rule is added that somehow conflicts with the first and sets a different `flex-basis` value which causes this buggy column resizing behaviour.

    If you select the custom column header HTML element in the browser debug tools and disable all but the first CSS `flex-basis` rule - everything works again.

    I created a workaround for my plugins here (https://github.com/Dominic-DallOsto/zotero-reading-list/blob/master/src/utils/itemTreeStyleSheetBug.ts) that patches the stylesheet's `insertRule` function (that is called after `refreshColumns`) to ignore the adding of these conflicting CSS rules.

    I guess a proper solution would require editing Zotero custom column API to not add these duplicate CSS rules.
  • mjthoraval
    I still see the problem with the latest beta.

    Zotero 8.0-beta.25+145fbfa19 (64-bit)
    Windows 11
  • dominic-d
    If this happens for you with custom columns added by Zotero plugins, I think the issue described here (https://groups.google.com/g/zotero-dev/c/aM3I-8etB0c) could be responsible, and should hopefully be fixed soon.

    If it still happens without any plugins / custom columns added - then it's probably a different issue.
  • mjthoraval
    Yes, I observe the problem when custom columns are added by Zotero plugins. In that case, the width of all the columns are resized together, making it impossible to organise them properly.
    Thanks for the detailed report. I have no idea on the technical side, but it seems indeed to be the same problem. Glad to see the progress on it.
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