[Zotero 7 Beta] Pdf Reader Text Selection For Touch Screens (Bug?) + possible feature request

edited May 13, 2024
Firstly massive ups on the devs and community improvements to Zotero 7. I used it last a couple months ago, switched back to 6 for stability, and then redownloaded it again today. The experience is so much smoother than it was the last time I used it. And aesthetically its all looking very modern. Im most excited to try out epubs for my research in future.

I have checked other discussions and it doesnt seem like it has been mentioned before. the closest I got was this thread but I dont think its about the same thing: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/107271/touchscreen-behavior-in-zotero-7-reader-windows

I dont know if this is a bug, but I have noticed that when I use a touchscreen (Surface Go 1) on Zotero 7 (7.0.0-beta.77+adaa61f2c (64-bit)), I am not able to highlight sentences in a PDF unless I had already clicked on the highlighter or underline tool. In other applications, the hold finger and move over sentence method works to select text normally, but I am only able to do it if I am already using one of the annotation tools(highlighter, underliner etc). When using a mouse or touch pad it works perfectly and brings up the mini colour pallete which is awesome for when I am using mouse and keyboard, but not for touch.

With Keyboard and Mouse on 7 beta:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9395983/nn0nh9r1nt0taz4agks1.png

With touch on 7 beta:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9395983/o3fhvv0kuepenu0bri44.png

Zotero 6 has the option I am looking for, only instead of hold down and highlight I have to double touch on a word and then on the second touch I scroll to where I need to be. Then I have to hold down on the highlight to bring up other quick options. So two movements:

First movement on 6: https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9395983/cpd273ucwscr3eb06qpk.png

Second movement on 6:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9395983/g7ren81o5s5zwcvdq93e.png

Im not sure about other users but I think the hold down and move method is more fluid (like in kindle app where after you let go of the finger it brings up the highligher pallete as well as some quick options), as opposed to the double touch and then touch again for quick options method.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9395983/kd3vsywgu82ksjwdakpy.png


Would it be possible to integrate quick options into highlight pallete?

Sorry that this was so long, initally it was supposed to just be about the Z7 no text select bug. Thank you for reading this far and thank you for this app, its been amazing for my Academic Life and learning in general!
  • We have a custom text selection layer and it's difficult to avoid text selection and scrolling interference. But we'll see what we can do here.
  • edited June 22, 2024
    I have the same need and really hope it can be improved.
  • edited June 22, 2024
    I'm using the ARM version of Zotero 7. This is what I found, I hope it can be useful:
    When I press and hold on a word, the blue selector and the right-click indicator box appear at the same time.
    If I lift my finger off the screen, the blue selector disappears and the right-click menu is invoked.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u14023496/tqdz5egbvtkiv87uc9sf.gif
    If I slightly move my finger before lifting it off the screen, the right-click indicator disappears, the blue selector remains, and I can drag it normally.
    However, the blue selector doesn't select any text at any time.
  • I can confirm that the behavior changed from Z6 to Z7. I use a Surface Go 3 with Win11 and a MS stylus or just my fingers. In Z6 I just can select text with hold and drag afterwards the color bar appears and I can color it. In Z7 I have to always switch between Highlight mode, change the color, highlight the text and go back to default "scroll mode".
    As @malaa456 wrote, the behavior of Z6 with fingers is more like the mouse mode in Z7 and it was very intuitive in my opinion.
    Anyway a big thanks to all the work for Z7 it looks and feels amazing!

    Z7 up-to-date as of 30.7.
  • I have the same issue! I can't really read PDFs on my Laptop with Zotero 7 now. Is it somehow possible to return the settings of the PDF reader to the wy it was in Zotero 6 or is this a device issue (i have a HP pavilion)?
  • I mainly want to use my pen (Slim Line 2 on Surface Pro 9, Win 11, Zotero 7.05) to select and highlight text in the Notes tab. I am unable to do this. I have "use pen as mouse" selected in the pen options.

    I can understand issues in the PDF reader, but shouldn't selecting text in Notes be pretty straight forward? Is there perhaps a setting in Win 11 that I have (un)selected correctly?

    All advice appreciated.
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