A significant step in the right direction. A modern layout was the only missing piece from old Zotero. Can’t wait till we have panels reordering feature. Thank you
Thank you: like so many others I love the new interface, and it will help in convincing students to use Zotero.
One minor matter I would like to draw to your attention: In Ubuntu Linux window buttons are on the left but Zotero does not conform (the window buttons are on the right).
@MartinFisher: If you're referring to Unity, that's fixed in the latest beta (59), along with fixes for various other Linux DEs. Default Ubuntu has window controls on the right.
My suggestion would be to more clearly show the author, year and title. These three things are essential. When the "Info" part is collapsed, I still want to see them. Right now, I only see the title on top and have to open the info part just for author and year. Could be formatted like this "Author et al. 2020. Title" or over multiple lines with the title in bold like this
The side panel is great - similar to various suggestions (@waynerroper@migugg@Greg) I do think that the information is at risk of being buried. Some thoughts:
(1) The reordering feature would be essential for us, to have the abstract underneath the title. We often use Zotero as an early stage in literature review, and if the abstract is in a variable place, or needs scrolling, that adds both hand strain and cognitive load. So the reordering feature is great.
(2) Regarding the top bit (currently title), there will probably be different opinions, and maybe that could be made configurable?
(3) The extra field often fills up for us (see discussion on custom fields). I would like that field to be collapsible, either 'in place' or broken out like 'abstract'.
I wonder whether there are any plans for being able to 'undock' sections of the right-hand panel?
(4) In the middle pane, I find the alternating colours distracting, because the visual pattern of alternating lines clashes with the item type: Top-level item vs. attachment, so in my visual perception, it blurs the 'boundary of an item'. The blocking is good, but it should be the top-level items that have the same shading and then attachments etc have a different shading.
(5) Text wrapping. It would be helpful to be able to wrap the columns (esp title).
(6) Intuitively, I would expect fields to be editable from the middle panel as well. I would love to have that feature.
Also, it would be good to be able to adjust the tag colours, even as a hidden preference. I do think this is a really basic access issue, and I (and others I know) would appreciate the option to set more distinct colours.
@bjohas: point nr. 4: I agree with this point, but I would suggest that the alternating shades remain, as they help with keeping the eyes on a line and not confusing items. I guess the best solution would be that a third, separate shade is introduced which is only used for attachments etc. the colour for the attchments should be the same, independently of the shade of the main item. (maybe this is what bjohas meant already). point nr 6: I disagree. I think editing fields in the middle pane would confuse users, and potentially lead to wreckage of the database, in particular because it is possible (and should remain possible!) to type letters to jump to items in the list.
The new design is really cool! I really like what's been done with the Abstract to make it more prominent and accessible as well as the ability to add attachments and add Items to collections from within the right-hand pane. And thanks for the new web page icon. It's a tiny change but to me really helpful!
@migugg Those are going points - the shading option suggested by you (or some other way of marking the attachments, such as a vertical line at the left plus different shading) would work for me.
On (6), yes, I agree that it would need to be such that it could not be accidental. Maybe an edit more or similar. But sure, the other points would be much higher on my request list :)
My suggestion: There are lots of items in the right item-pane section that are blank and unimportant, but take up display space. If we can customize the items we need and pin them, it will make the page more concise and clear.
I like the new layout! But I can't see the Item and Collections panes very well.
I need to be able to: - change background and font colors for accessible contrast in the Item and Collections panes (especially the Item pane) - change fonts to bold in the Item pane - bring back the more visible outlines of the input fields in the Item pane - turn off the little blue folder icons in the Collections pane (they're more visible to me than the folder names, so it's hard to read folder names)
I checked the Advanced Preferences, but I can't find the properties that correspond to these. Can you tell me the names of the fields to change the values for? If these settings aren't editable in the Advanced Preferences, is there a config file I can manually put into the Zotero dir or something like that?
Thanks! (I'm on Zotero v7.0.0-beta.66+d0299a1ac, MacOS High Sierra.)
I've been using the Version 7 Beta on my Linux computer for several weeks due to a Firefox issue with the NVIDIA graphics driver on Linux. The later version of Firefox in the Beta resolves that issue and it looks and works great. However, the loss of Zotfiles in Version 7 is a deal breaker for me.
I will likely maintain Zotero7 on my Windows and Linux computers as an archive of my past work, but it will be unusable for me for new work. I am an independent scholar who has a few GB of attachments stored on the internal drives of my Windows laptop/Linux desktop and synchronized by Syncthing (free software). This has been working great with ZotFile linking files to a shared directory on both machines, even though the base directory is different between the two OSs and two machines. Since it appears that ZotFile will not be modified to work with Zotero7, I will have to find another solution to my reference management needs.
I know that I could pay Zotero to store my attachments (I have in the past), but I see no reason to do that when I have more than adequate storage on my own machines and I have a very workable (free) method of keeping them synchronized.
The vertical navigation buttons in the sidebar after version 55 of Zotero are very inconvenient to use.
The vertical navigation buttons in the sidebar after version 55 of Zotero are very inconvenient to use. For example, when previewing attachments, you need the left and right buttons to turn the page, which is very troublesome. On the contrary, in the version before version 54, the attachments are all the mouse wheel to turn the page, which is relatively convenient. I hope that the developer can take into account the applicability of the function when keeping the software interface beautiful and keeping the horizontal navigation buttons in the previous sidebar. I have also read in various forum articles that there is limited acceptance of vertical navigation in the sidebar.
Hi all, glad I decided to check the Zotero forums today—just downloaded the new beta and Zotero 7 looks great. 64-bit support for Windows is very welcome: For someone with a library of 2700 items (many with attachments), the experience is now noticeably snappier and more responsive. And attachments now open more quickly too. Love the ability to view snapshots in the app as well.
A couple questions:
1) Have you considered adding .djvu support to the reader? I know it's pretty niche and no longer used that often, but lots of ebooks from the Internet Archive, for example, are only available as .djvu downloads. It would be nice to have if possible although I understand if it isn't a priority.
2) Something I've always wondered about: I've got several parent collections for book projects that have subcollections (or even sub-subcollections). I'd like to be able to easily search all objects in the parent collection (including those in subcollections or sub-subcollections). But right now, if I search the collection I only find results that are in the collection—not items in subcollections or sub-subs. Same with searching a subcollection—I don't get results in any respective sub-subcollections.
The only way to search everything is to search my entire library, but that has items that are part of other parent collections.
So is it possible to introduce a way to search an entire parent collection, including items in subcollections? That would be great
Late to the party here. Longtime user of Zotero with large a library and several group-libraries. After having been using 7beta for a few weeks I am totally delighted. A wonderful app has become even smarter and smoother. Thanks for all the thoughtfulness that has gone into the redesign. Great job.
Upgrade Storage
One minor matter I would like to draw to your attention: In Ubuntu Linux window buttons are on the left but Zotero does not conform (the window buttons are on the right).
With thanks
Much appreciated.
Perhaps light/dark/system mode entries could be added to the View menu in order to simplify switching.
My suggestion would be to more clearly show the author, year and title. These three things are essential. When the "Info" part is collapsed, I still want to see them. Right now, I only see the title on top and have to open the info part just for author and year. Could be formatted like this "Author et al. 2020. Title" or over multiple lines with the title in bold like this
Author et al 2020
Title of the reference
(1) The reordering feature would be essential for us, to have the abstract underneath the title. We often use Zotero as an early stage in literature review, and if the abstract is in a variable place, or needs scrolling, that adds both hand strain and cognitive load. So the reordering feature is great.
(2) Regarding the top bit (currently title), there will probably be different opinions, and maybe that could be made configurable?
(3) The extra field often fills up for us (see discussion on custom fields). I would like that field to be collapsible, either 'in place' or broken out like 'abstract'.
I wonder whether there are any plans for being able to 'undock' sections of the right-hand panel?
Adding some further thoughts on the panel section and navigation here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/112251/zotero-7-panel-navigation
(4) In the middle pane, I find the alternating colours distracting, because the visual pattern of alternating lines clashes with the item type: Top-level item vs. attachment, so in my visual perception, it blurs the 'boundary of an item'. The blocking is good, but it should be the top-level items that have the same shading and then attachments etc have a different shading.
(5) Text wrapping. It would be helpful to be able to wrap the columns (esp title).
(6) Intuitively, I would expect fields to be editable from the middle panel as well. I would love to have that feature.
About 10 years worth of requests and discussion here :) https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/31698/increase-number-of-color-tags-allowed https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/74774/feature-request-colours-and-tags
point nr 6: I disagree. I think editing fields in the middle pane would confuse users, and potentially lead to wreckage of the database, in particular because it is possible (and should remain possible!) to type letters to jump to items in the list.
On (6), yes, I agree that it would need to be such that it could not be accidental. Maybe an edit more or similar. But sure, the other points would be much higher on my request list :)
Is that likely to cause any problems?
My suggestion:
There are lots of items in the right item-pane section that are blank and unimportant, but take up display space. If we can customize the items we need and pin them, it will make the page more concise and clear.
hope everything well.
When items are selected or highlighted, their icons change to colors and designs that are very hard to interpret! See this thread for examples: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/111473/item-selection-color-in-zotero-7-beta-redesign
Otherwise, I like the colors, including the alternating background colors
I need to be able to:
- change background and font colors for accessible contrast in the Item and Collections panes (especially the Item pane)
- change fonts to bold in the Item pane
- bring back the more visible outlines of the input fields in the Item pane
- turn off the little blue folder icons in the Collections pane (they're more visible to me than the folder names, so it's hard to read folder names)
I checked the Advanced Preferences, but I can't find the properties that correspond to these. Can you tell me the names of the fields to change the values for? If these settings aren't editable in the Advanced Preferences, is there a config file I can manually put into the Zotero dir or something like that?
Thanks! (I'm on Zotero v7.0.0-beta.66+d0299a1ac, MacOS High Sierra.)
I will likely maintain Zotero7 on my Windows and Linux computers as an archive of my past work, but it will be unusable for me for new work. I am an independent scholar who has a few GB of attachments stored on the internal drives of my Windows laptop/Linux desktop and synchronized by Syncthing (free software). This has been working great with ZotFile linking files to a shared directory on both machines, even though the base directory is different between the two OSs and two machines. Since it appears that ZotFile will not be modified to work with Zotero7, I will have to find another solution to my reference management needs.
I know that I could pay Zotero to store my attachments (I have in the past), but I see no reason to do that when I have more than adequate storage on my own machines and I have a very workable (free) method of keeping them synchronized.
The vertical navigation buttons in the sidebar after version 55 of Zotero are very inconvenient to use. For example, when previewing attachments, you need the left and right buttons to turn the page, which is very troublesome. On the contrary, in the version before version 54, the attachments are all the mouse wheel to turn the page, which is relatively convenient.
I hope that the developer can take into account the applicability of the function when keeping the software interface beautiful and keeping the horizontal navigation buttons in the previous sidebar. I have also read in various forum articles that there is limited acceptance of vertical navigation in the sidebar.
Thank you！
A couple questions:
1) Have you considered adding .djvu support to the reader? I know it's pretty niche and no longer used that often, but lots of ebooks from the Internet Archive, for example, are only available as .djvu downloads. It would be nice to have if possible although I understand if it isn't a priority.
2) Something I've always wondered about: I've got several parent collections for book projects that have subcollections (or even sub-subcollections). I'd like to be able to easily search all objects in the parent collection (including those in subcollections or sub-subcollections). But right now, if I search the collection I only find results that are in the collection—not items in subcollections or sub-subs. Same with searching a subcollection—I don't get results in any respective sub-subcollections.
The only way to search everything is to search my entire library, but that has items that are part of other parent collections.
So is it possible to introduce a way to search an entire parent collection, including items in subcollections? That would be great
The new UI and icon look great, the PDF viewer and dark mode are amazing!
Great work!!