Note count field inaccurate

gregor
I have many references that are listed in the center window as containing 1 note, when they have no notes - a note was never actually created.

Some references that do contain an actual note display as having 2 notes, but only contain 1.
  • adamsmith
    could we get a screenshot that shows that (with the items expanded in the middle panel) to make sure we're talking about the same thing. (upload to dropbox, imgur or the like, link to from here).
  • gregor
    sure, here is the screenshot:

    https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=CD32B8281813010A!46602&authkey=!AISpnXcFOHlD7zE&v=3&ithint=photo,JPG
  • adamsmith
    this looks like there's something in each of the notes pertaining to the PDF directly. If you select the PDF, is there something in the note window on the right?
  • gregor
    Ah indeed there is. The PDFs with no yellow notes but with the '1' count have a note for the PDF filled with the table of contents.

    I'm not sure how this note was populated, but now I understand that the PDF itself can contain a note, independent of the yellow sticky notes.

    Apologies. Feel free to delete this discussion or rename it to something other than a troubleshooting post.
  • adamsmith
    May have been ZotFile? I haven't looked at its ToC extraction function, but it does exist.
  • gregor
    (Yes I use ZotFile, so it is almost certainly responsible, although I can't seem to find the option that causes the note to be added on PDF import.)
  • adamsmith
    Right-click --> Manage Attachments --> Get Table of Contents
    I'm surprised it would do so automatically at any point though, it certainly hasn't for me.
  • bwiernik
    The zotfile.pdfOutline.getToc hidden preference controls automatically extracting the table of contents for new PDFs. It's enabled by default.
  • kirmaha
    Hello there,
    Same here : for some attached PDF files, the count is higher than the actual number of notes. I was wondering why and found this topic.

    In my case, it is also related to Zotfile but not to the "get table of contents" option : it happens each time I send a file to the tablet using Zotfile. When clicking a PDF file which is showing "1" in the "Notes" column, the right pane shows "(hidden zotfile data)" in gray text.

    Just sharing the info, in case some other users are searching to understand this.
    K.
  • marcocoraggio
    I noticed this too. It is rather annoying and hampers the use of notes
  • dstillman
    @marcocoraggio: Not sure what you think the issue is. As explained above, the note count includes notes on attachments.

    If there's some other problem, you'd need to say more.
  • marcocoraggio
    @dstillman I apologize for my previous laconic message. I realize it was not helpful.
    I had removed the table of contents from the notes as suggested, but I did not see the notes count change, so I thought that was not really a solution.
    However, trying again after your comment, I realized that the reason was that the field is updated only when Zotero restarts, and indeed it is correct upon restarting.

    Thank you so much.
  • marcocoraggio
    edited September 12, 2022
    As a useful note for other people, to edit the setting "zotfile.pdfOutline.getToc" see here:

    https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/hidden_preferences
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