Is there a way to move a document from one folder into another in zotero? I want to put a document in a group folder into a personal folder so that it's in both...
Right clicking an item opens up a dialog with, among others, duplicate, remove from collection and move to trash options. And as @dstillman said, dragging, copies an item.
However, there is not an option for moving an item between collections. As of now one needs to copy (dragging) and remove (the original) from collection. I mistakenly lost some papers by moving them into trash. I think a proper moving option is very necessary.
This might be unrelated, but repeated online searches while troubleshooting the issue hereunder led me to this thread. I urge admins to leave this comment here since it is plausible that others with the same issue will arrive here too, and perpetuate the frustration I found in following the above advise.
The Issue: "Moving" items between collections may result in a scenario where a "copy" of the item is left in the original collection. Deleting the item in the original collection will then also delete the item in the new collection.
I found a workaround that worked for me, but I do not know if it is advisable. I exported the items manually and then imported them into the new collection. I could then delete the items in the original collection without there being an affect on the new collection.
If you drag an item between collections, it just adds it to that collection while leaving it in the original collection. I explain in the post immediately before yours how to move items instead. That's all you need to do if you want to move something between collections.
Even if you didn't move the item originally, all you have to do is remove it from the original collection, which has no effect on any other collections. You seem to be talking about actually moving items to the trash, which does exactly that — it moves the item in your library to the trash, which obviously will affect all collections, since there's only actually one item.
And then talking about exporting and reimporting is just totally off-base — that's creating a duplicate item in your library for no reason. Don't do that. Read through the linked page to better understand how to work with items and collections.
Summary: I think it would help if the collections under a library weren't accompanied by folder icons.
I think the visual metaphor of folders is contributing to the confusion here. Those of us old enough to have organized filesystems think of a file being in a single folder. The fact that there's a collection system with little icons of folders, and separately a tagging system, lends itself to thinking that the collection system is a hierarchical, item-can-only-be-in-one way of organizing, and the tagging system is the more free-form taxonomy.
It's extremely confusing, and I still can't figure out why my item is now in 2 separate folders. I have all of my unread references in one folder and want to move them to the folders I made. When I do that the reference is still in the old folder. When I delete it in the old folder, it gets deleted in both places and then I have to retrieve it from the trash. It's very frustrating.
Have you read the link above? I get that this is unexpected (and agree about the icons making that worse), but it really isn't complicated once you've gotten the basic idea
Well, it's explained above. Collections really aren't folders, they're more like playlists. A song can be on lots of playlists. You don't want to delete a song (that destroys it everywhere), you want to remove it from a playlist.
Look for the "remove item from collection" action instead of deleting. (I see now that @adamsmith got here first)
Once you understand the 'playlist' analogy, that is that Zotero's Collections are *not* like (operating system) folders, it's good to get a few key things under your belt:
That all items you have will always remain in the Library, unless you send them to the Trash (ie delete them). The Library is not a Collection. How to COPY an item between Collections: drag-and-drop from current collection to desired collection How to MOVE an item between Collections: hold down the shift key (Windows) and drag-and-drop item from current collection to desired collection How to REMOVE an item from a Collection (it remains in your Library, and any other Collections it's in): right-click 'Remove item from Collection' How to DELETE an item from your Library/all Collections it was in: right-click 'Move item to trash' (anywhere where the item exists) Understand what "Show Items from Subcollections" under the View menu does, and how you should usually have it set to OFF if you don't *really* need it set to ON (it's easy to set it and then forget later, and then wonder how items appear in Collections where you didn't place them).*
*another way to work is to always save items in a logical 'parent' Collection first, and only then *copy* them to sub Collections where they are needed. That way you can confidently remove items from sub Collections later (or delete the sub Collection altogether) and know that the item will still be in the parent Collection/Library (ie you won't lose items from their overall categorization). And items will *never* appear in Collections where you did not explicitly place them (which happens when "Show Items from Subcollections" is ON).
The Issue: "Moving" items between collections may result in a scenario where a "copy" of the item is left in the original collection. Deleting the item in the original collection will then also delete the item in the new collection.
A small addition here to complete the other replies: it is possible that "deleting" an item from a Collection A (pressing Del on the keyboard, which triggers the "Remove Item from Collection") also removes it from another Collection B, if Collection B is a sub-collection of Collection A and the option "Show Items from Subcollections" is ON. In that case, "Remove Item from Collection" will actually perform a "Remove Item from this Collection and all Subcollections" (you will get a confirmation popup explaining this). So double check if the option "Show Items from Subcollections" under the View menu is activated or not, as mentionned by @tim820. This is not explained in the documentation yet. See this discussion.
Another thing to clarify is that pressing Del on your keyboard can trigger different things depending where you are:
- "Move Item to Bin" if you are at the top level of a library: This will remove the item from the whole library (including all its child items, all annotations you could have made on the attached PDF files, "Related Items" links and break the connection with Zotero if it was cited in a Word document), and therefore also from all the collections and sub-collections in there. This can be undone, as explained in the documentation.
- "Remove Item from Collection" if you are in a collection: The item will remain in your the library and other separate collections. The removal from sub-collections depends on whether you have activated the option "Show Items from Subcollections", as mentioned above. This cannot be undone yet, as discussed here (as well as moving and copying between collections).
All this is designed to be powerful and intuitive. But it is worth spending some time testing everything to understand the logic behind and benefit from it.
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However, there is not an option for moving an item between collections. As of now one needs to copy (dragging) and remove (the original) from collection. I mistakenly lost some papers by moving them into trash. I think a proper moving option is very necessary.
Thanks.
The Issue: "Moving" items between collections may result in a scenario where a "copy" of the item is left in the original collection. Deleting the item in the original collection will then also delete the item in the new collection.
I found a workaround that worked for me, but I do not know if it is advisable. I exported the items manually and then imported them into the new collection. I could then delete the items in the original collection without there being an affect on the new collection.
If you drag an item between collections, it just adds it to that collection while leaving it in the original collection. I explain in the post immediately before yours how to move items instead. That's all you need to do if you want to move something between collections.
Even if you didn't move the item originally, all you have to do is remove it from the original collection, which has no effect on any other collections. You seem to be talking about actually moving items to the trash, which does exactly that — it moves the item in your library to the trash, which obviously will affect all collections, since there's only actually one item.
And then talking about exporting and reimporting is just totally off-base — that's creating a duplicate item in your library for no reason. Don't do that. Read through the linked page to better understand how to work with items and collections.
I think the visual metaphor of folders is contributing to the confusion here. Those of us old enough to have organized filesystems think of a file being in a single folder. The fact that there's a collection system with little icons of folders, and separately a tagging system, lends itself to thinking that the collection system is a hierarchical, item-can-only-be-in-one way of organizing, and the tagging system is the more free-form taxonomy.
Look for the "remove item from collection" action instead of deleting.
(I see now that @adamsmith got here first)
That all items you have will always remain in the Library, unless you send them to the Trash (ie delete them). The Library is not a Collection.
How to COPY an item between Collections: drag-and-drop from current collection to desired collection
How to MOVE an item between Collections: hold down the shift key (Windows) and drag-and-drop item from current collection to desired collection
How to REMOVE an item from a Collection (it remains in your Library, and any other Collections it's in): right-click 'Remove item from Collection'
How to DELETE an item from your Library/all Collections it was in: right-click 'Move item to trash' (anywhere where the item exists)
Understand what "Show Items from Subcollections" under the View menu does, and how you should usually have it set to OFF if you don't *really* need it set to ON (it's easy to set it and then forget later, and then wonder how items appear in Collections where you didn't place them).*
*another way to work is to always save items in a logical 'parent' Collection first, and only then *copy* them to sub Collections where they are needed. That way you can confidently remove items from sub Collections later (or delete the sub Collection altogether) and know that the item will still be in the parent Collection/Library (ie you won't lose items from their overall categorization). And items will *never* appear in Collections where you did not explicitly place them (which happens when "Show Items from Subcollections" is ON).
Delon the keyboard, which triggers the "Remove Item from Collection") also removes it from another Collection B, if Collection B is a sub-collection of Collection A and the option "Show Items from Subcollections" is ON. In that case, "Remove Item from Collection" will actually perform a "Remove Item from this Collection and all Subcollections" (you will get a confirmation popup explaining this). So double check if the option "Show Items from Subcollections" under the View menu is activated or not, as mentionned by @tim820.This is not explained in the documentation yet. See this discussion.
Another thing to clarify is that pressing
Delon your keyboard can trigger different things depending where you are:- "Move Item to Bin" if you are at the top level of a library: This will remove the item from the whole library (including all its child items, all annotations you could have made on the attached PDF files, "Related Items" links and break the connection with Zotero if it was cited in a Word document), and therefore also from all the collections and sub-collections in there.
This can be undone, as explained in the documentation.
- "Remove Item from Collection" if you are in a collection: The item will remain in your the library and other separate collections. The removal from sub-collections depends on whether you have activated the option "Show Items from Subcollections", as mentioned above.
This cannot be undone yet, as discussed here (as well as moving and copying between collections).
There is also some extra fun for child items.
All this is designed to be powerful and intuitive. But it is worth spending some time testing everything to understand the logic behind and benefit from it.