Why: Only 9 tags in each library can have colors assigned?

fabbraun
I have various tags which I planned to group into categories using their color, e.g., tags A and B are green, tags C to F are yellow, and G to Z are blue.
I saw that there are a maximum of 9 different colors available for tags. It makes sense to me to limit the number of COLORS.
However, in my case where I assign the same color to multiple tags which also seems to be limited to 9 for which I have a hard time to understand the logic behind.
Why can't I assign the same color to 10 different tags and assign the other 8 colors to 8 other tags?
Thanks in advance for clarification!
  • bwiernik
    Colored tags are also assignable using the number keys on your keyboard. Typing 1-9 will assign the colored tag in that position to the selected items. Typing 0 will remove all colored tags.
  • fabbraun
    I understand that point and I understand the limitation of having only 9 keys (1-9) for the "hotkeys" to quickly assign a colored tag.

    However, if one assigns multiple times the same color the other colors become unavailable.
    In this case it would make sense to assign hotkeys (1-9) to specific tags (max. 9, independently of their color) and independently being able to assign (a limited number of) colors to some tags.

    This would mean to separate the 9 special hotkey tags from the 9 colors and let the user choose the colors freely.
  • dstillman
    I don't think this makes sense. Part of the point of the colors and numbers being linked is that the colors appear at the top of the tag selector, in the order of their assigned numbers, so that you can easily remember which tag has which number. And the reason you can safely assign colors via single keypresses is that you have the visual feedback of the color right in the item list. Without the colors, you'd have no way of knowing whether a tag was applied or removed. And I think it would very confusing to show a color in the items list that potentially corresponded to an unnumbered tag that you couldn't toggle off with the number key assigned to that color.
  • fred_dev
    It is great that you can filter tags by a key press, but this is for sure a secondary function of the tags. Seeing coloured tags on files is most useful for organisation and a fast visual overview. As actual items cannot be coloured (this would be great) tags are all we have for a non text based overview. IT would be great that the secondary use of tags (the key press) does not limit thier primary use - Tagging. It would be a trivial change to have a colour picker for any tag, and versy useful.
  • emirsale
    In my workflow, I work in parallel with many projects. I would like to assign colour de novo in each subcollection belonged to separate project. A workflow that is available in Zotero in advance limits reference management across all the library except the first where I assigned coloured tags. Thus, it forces me not to use tags for other projects but the first, at all.
  • benitok
    I am constantly frustrated by not being allowed to assign a color to my tags (more than 9). It could help a lot with visually organizing the entries (e.g. giving tags of a similar topic/area of your mental model the same color).
    Why not give all Tags beyond the 9 ordered tags with shortcuts a position of 10 (or gray out the position field or something) and let the users use as many colors as they like?
  • iagogv
    edited 13 days ago
    +1 for @fabbraun @fred_dev @benitok comments. I would like to know how many Zotero users actually use numbers for tagging colors. And I would say more, for me it is a quite unfortunate feature, as one can press unvoluntarily a number in the keyboard and assign a tag to an item having nothing to do.
  • waynerroper
    edited 13 days ago
    I rarely use numbers to assign tags to library items, but I understand why numbers are associated with the top tags. Hotkeys work well for people who frequently assign the same few tags to items.

    One way I have considered resolving the issue is having different levels of tags.

    Level 1 = 1-9 hotkey tags,
    Level 2 = "Favorite" tags. These are not hotkeys, but still sit higher in the tag pane
    Level 3 = categorized tags. These can have different icons than hotkey tags and can also be associated with colors
    Level 4 = Uncategorized tags. All other tags with no icon or color.

    There may be a plugin that does something like this, but I am not aware of it.
  • benitok
    edited 5 days ago
    @waynerroper I would imagine it looking something like this (preferably the right one) with the option of just dragging tags to a wanted position in the favourites section. If the tag is in position 1-9 it gets a hot-key. You can use all colours of the zotero colour palette/the zotero ui as many times as you want.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u14172583/8k69ec77jq64vcitn29h.png

    Categorized tags could be some kind of nested tags feature (see zotero-style plugin). I would also love the option to sort/catergorize tags without changing the tags of the entries, but all of that is probably a different discussion. (one step at a time)
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