Question about fields searched by Quick Citation

dclarke
I've noticed that when I type text into the Quick Citation dialog box, it searches some fields but not all. (The documentation says it searches Author, Title, and Year, but in fact it searches Short Title as well.) Is there any way to configure it to search other fields?

I ask because I give all my items an abbreviation (for example, "NYT 2017" for an article in the New York Times) that I use when writing an initial draft so that I don't get bogged down in the citation process while writing. I put that abbreviation in the "Extra" field. Thus, when it comes time to put the citations in properly, I'd like to be able to have Quick Citation find items by using that abbreviation. But it doesn't search the "Extra" field. I can go to Classic View and find the item that way, but of course that takes more steps that I'd like to eliminate if I can.

(Putting my abbreviations in the "Short Title" field doesn't solve the problem, because when a citation style uses the Short Title, something like "NYT 2017" isn't going to be appropriate; short titles should be, you know, short titles that recall the title in the original source.)

Suggestions?
  • adamsmith
    No way to customize, no. Note that quick copy always offers items currently selected in Zotero first, so going that way might be an option?
  • dclarke
    Not sure what you mean. I looked up Quick Copy in the documentation, and it seems to mean (1) being in Zotero, selecting a citation, and hitting Ctl-Shift-C, then going to your Word document and pasting the citation, or (2) having windows for both Zotero and Word open on your monitor and dragging the citation into the place where you want it in your Word doc. In both cases, it gives you a plain text entry, not the Zotero-coded entry, so it's fixed in that form forever. It also requires going back and forth between your Word doc and Zotero. These all take much more time than just using Classic View to find what I want, so I guess I'll just have to go with that. Not a disaster.

    I'm not sure what you mean by saying it offers items currently selected in Zotero first, as if there were some kind of list that appears somewhere.
  • adamsmith
    Sorry I meant quick format citation dialog -- writing quickly
  • dclarke
    By "Quick Format Citation" dialog are you referring to the long white box outlined in red that pops up when you click on "Add/Edit Citation" in Word? That doesn't list any items until you start entering text. And it doesn't list any item that doesn't match the text you entered in the fields it searches, even if that item is currently selected in Zotero. Again, the problem is that it won't search in the Extra field, and that's where I've put my unique identifier for the item in question. So when I enter "NYT 2017" it will not offer that at all, even if I've currently selected it in Zotero. So I don't know if I'm misunderstanding you or you're misunderstanding me. Sorry!
  • adamsmith
    Which Zotero version are you using?
    . So when I enter "NYT 2017" it will not offer that at all, even if I've currently selected it in Zotero.
    Should absolutely be the case, even before you type anything
  • dclarke
    Aha. I see there's a new version (7). Downloaded and installed it, and it works as you said. Nice to have that as an alternative method. I'll see which is more efficient for me. Thanks!
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