Search collection (folder) names?

adeldaoud1
edited April 9, 2019
I wonder how I can search for collection (folder) names? My collections are getting large and I have a set of duplicate folders with similar purpose and similar names.

The documentation does not define such searches: https://www.zotero.org/support/collections_and_tags

Best,
  • adamsmith
    You can't really search for them. They're available as search conditions in advanced search, but there, too, you need to select them.
    You can also start typing with the collection tree selected to jump to a collection starting with a specific string.

    I believe searching for part of a collection name is planned, but not ETA, might still take a while.
  • adeldaoud1
    Thanks for the reply.

    re: "You can also start typing with the collection tree selected to jump to a collection starting with a specific string."

    is there a way of ordering my folder alphabetically to facilitate such search? With 100+ folders this option is less lucrative to use.

    It is almost as my large library of folders needs an own organizer to find information faster. Looking forward to the day this functionality is implemented.


  • dstillman
    is there a way of ordering my folder alphabetically to facilitate such search?
    Why would that matter?

    Note that you can press + to expand all collections before typing to search. If you have multiple collections that begin with the same string of letters, waiting a second and then typing them again will move to the next match.
  • sdflewrit783
    +1 for searching for parts of collections names, preferable via a dedicated search live at the top of the collections pane. It would also be great to be able to drag references into the found collection without selecting it first (2 or more windows would also help here).

    Another useful thing would be to know the path to the selected/found collection. It can be confusing with multiple groups, one is not sure what group collection belongs to as the group is not in view with many collections in the list.
  • pjweiss
    My workaround for this issue is a standalone note for each collection, with the full hierarchy and the name of the collection. I also include alternate names (synonyms, abbreviations, etc.), alternate hierarchies, and related collections. Using a note makes all that searchable.
  • sdflewrit783
    @pjweiss Thank you for the idea. It might be useful, we shall give it a go. We already do it for individual references. In general, this approach might be better for one person but will be harder in a research group where this will result in a substantial overhead/overlap and the need for policing.

    For larger libraries, it would be great to have more flexible navigation, search and management tools, in case developers are following this conversation. Ideally, all content should be searchable, taggable, visible through multiple windows, exportable, countable, linkable, etc.
  • pjweiss
    Agreed that those things would be great!
  • justinrr
    Thanks, @adamsmith and @dstillman. Another +1 for collection search functionality.
  • heurrevex
    +1 for this too o/ :D <3
  • schoukah
    +1 also. Would be a huge time saver considering the number of collections I have
  • alexfleischmann
    +1 this would be really great - and it works already in the iOS ipadOS version! but not on mac/windows
  • JulianMoore
    +10 for searching collection titles: free standing note is a good workaround*, but I discovered it too late to retrofit because of the large number of collections that already exist. There is a search field - a checkbox beside it to control collection/content searching would be perfect. (*but not perfect: collection titles presumably reflect terms that are likely to be common in the collection, so too many results will be returned, in general, for a simple copy of the collection title; fixing search scope would avoid this)
  • MarcoDS94
    +1 for this!
  • Quinnium
    Update: The latest version of Zotero 7 beta included the ability to filter collections.

    A huge thank you to the Zotero devs!
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