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