Change Item Pane Section Order

tom_mclean
I've just upgraded to Zotero 7 (and am mostly quite scared to have done so, being in the middle of several projects – however, there was never going to be a gap without, so...). I'm wondering if there is a way of changing the order in which the sections are displayed in the item pane.

Presumably by default in the item pane (in that I don't think I've changed it!) I have: info, abstract, attachments, notes, libraries and collections, tags, and related – in that order. I'm also using the BetterBibTeX plugin, which is presumably what is adding the citation key field at the bottom of this area.

Can I move the citation key up the display order in this pane? Or failing that, can I get it to display in the item pane header?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Being able to change the order is planned, but we'll also be providing a way for BBT to just create an item field at the top instead of a whole section.
  • tom_mclean
    Great – I shall await the update!
  • alexispoly
    Hey,
    I had the same problem when I switched from Zotero 6 (where the citation key is at the top). I ended up using the quick copy shortcut (see screenshot below) to quickly access the key, maybe the workaround will work for you too.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u12567944/0xwsprmqf5fe73kdb2je.png

    Anyway reordering the section will be a great feature, especially with the pinning feature behaving in a weird way. Thank you for the great work !
  • innovation1
    Just wanted to underscore what a fantastic idea this is. The functionality of being able to change the order of fields in the Item Pane will be very useful. Please fast-track this improvement if possible! (especially since you've changed the order we've been accustomed to in Zotero 6 by demoting the Abstract beneath all the bibliograhic information).
  • haug
    For me too, the first thing I bumped into after upgrading was also that the citation key moved down. I figured that others will have noticed that too and so it was. Thanks for bringing this up @tom_mclean.

    Looking forward to moving the citation key back to the top (or having it placed there by BBT) :-)
  • agoldenvein
    Yes as much as the item pane is improved I think the demotion of the abstract to below all other bibliographic information is a serious mistake. It was perfectly placed beneath the authors in Z6 and I think it's a demotion of functionality. I don't think "pinning" is a good solution because then it forces us to scroll up to see the bibliographic information. Z6 was better balanced. In fact I find it hard to believe this decision was made and I wonder if whoever made that decision even uses Zotero for research.
  • haug
    @jeapordy I actually like that the abstract has been separated from the bibliographic information and placed further down. So, I think the takeaway is that users have different preferences regarding the ordering of the items, which is why it makes sense to allow users to move them around :-)
  • iansethmcphail
    I also agree that being able to change the item pane section order would be fantastic.

    My main (somewhat embarrassing) issue is I tend to misclick on "Collections" instead of "Notes" in the attachment tab view because the "Notes", "Collections", "Tags" and "Related" section icons are ordered differently than in the main view.

    If I could put "Notes" below "Related" in the main view to mirror the order in attachment tab view, I wouldn't misclick so much!
  • Negyb
    @dstillman: "Being able to change the order is planned, but we'll also be providing a way for BBT to just create an item field at the top instead of a whole section."

    Is this a way to add custom fields to a particular item type?
  • kirstenllwright
    Moving up the citation key would be so important for me as well.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    We've already provided plugins with a way to create fields at the top of the item pane. You'd have to ask the BBT developer on the status of using that.
  • ryanwwest
    I'm excited for this feature.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Changing the section order is already possible in the Zotero beta.
  • innovation1
    Hey @dstillman. Can you explain how the feature to promote or demote the Citation Key Field and other fields of the info pane (as discussed in the above 2024 thread) differs from the feature "to rearrange the order of fields in the info pane" as requested this month by @matt.quintana (and seconded by @frigidilius) here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/121656/coming-soon-new-item-fields#latest

    In response to @matt.quintana and @frigidilius, some minutes ago I wrote "The ability to rearrange item fields as suggested by @matt.quintana is a great and long-awaited innovation", and then shared a link to the above 2024 thread. I then added "Thankfully it's in beta and on its way in a coming release version."

    But you then told us "No, that's [i.e., the feature discussed in the above 2024 thread is] referring to a completely different thing" and then deleted my comment, and yours too.

    Can you explain the "complete difference"? That clarification will in turn clarify what exactly you meant above, on July 8th, 2025, by "Changing the section order" -- i.e., what exactly you're telling us is in beta.
  • adamsmith
    Section order is e.g. moving the notes section or the abstract section all the way to the top on the right. Sections are the things you can toggle on the right. All standard fields (like title, publisher, date, etc.) are all in the same section
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited today at 1:47am
    (And when this thread was created, plugins like BBT could only create entire sections, which BBT did to display the citation key. That's why the OP asked about rearranging sections in relation to BBT. As I say above, we've since added the ability for plugins to create info-pane fields, which BBT now does. But this thread was never about rearranging the standard info fields.)
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