I've done a poor job explaining my issue. Hopefully the following explanation will make more sense. I'm using the latest version 7 of Zotero in Windows 11.
When one does an Advanced Search in Adobe Reader of PDF content in a folder the search returns a list of pdf files that contain the searched text. One selects one of the files from the list and that file opens in the main Adobe Reader viewer. The text that was searched shows highlighted. At this point one only has to click the next or previous arrows to toggle through each instance of the highlighted text.
This behavior of searching within an individual file in the viewer is identical to searching in "Everything" mode in Zotero. The queried text is highlighted in Zotero. Like Adobe Reader one proceeds from one highlighted text to the next highlighted text by clicking the next and previous arrows buttons.
Contrast this to everything searching a Collection (folder) in Zotero. In short, Zotero does list the pdf files within a Collection that contain searched text. The issue I'm having is the searched text does NOT HIGHLIGHT in the pdf files when you select them in the Collection list. I created two Lorem Ipsum pdf files and placed them in a Collection named "LOREM IPSUM".
One pdf file contained only lorem ipsum nonsense text. The second pdf file contained lorem ipsum with SEARCHED inserted on page 2 and TEXT inserted on page 3. https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/u6bskibgov8ct0rtcc41.jpg When "Searched text" was typed into the Quick Search text box in "Everything" mode the search results showed the following:
The first pdf (the one that only contained "lorem ipsum nonsense" text) did not appear in the list of files. This was to be expected as neither SEARCHED nor TEXT were in that pdf file.
The second pdf, the one that contained the words SEARCHED and TEXT did appear in the list of files.
Firstly, the second pdf DID NOT show any highlighted text. One is left to scroll down in the file... Essentially the search is useless!
Secondly, if one uses the Quick Search in the second pdf file and then does a Collection search of a different word the previous Quick Search overrides the Collection search.
So, I don't know whether this is a bug, a Windows 11 issue, a setting problem, an overlooked feature, or user error on my part. I hope this makes sense.
I believe the ability to conduct a full text search of pdf's within a Collection and being able to see the results highlighted in the resulting pdf files is an important feature that should work. Now searching within a Collection doesn't work as expected.
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When one does an Advanced Search in Adobe Reader of PDF content in a folder the search returns a list of pdf files that contain the searched text. One selects one of the files from the list and that file opens in the main Adobe Reader viewer. The text that was searched shows highlighted. At this point one only has to click the next or previous arrows to toggle through each instance of the highlighted text.
This behavior of searching within an individual file in the viewer is identical to searching in "Everything" mode in Zotero. The queried text is highlighted in Zotero. Like Adobe Reader one proceeds from one highlighted text to the next highlighted text by clicking the next and previous arrows buttons.
Contrast this to everything searching a Collection (folder) in Zotero. In short, Zotero does list the pdf files within a Collection that contain searched text. The issue I'm having is the searched text does NOT HIGHLIGHT in the pdf files when you select them in the Collection list. I created two Lorem Ipsum pdf files and placed them in a Collection named "LOREM IPSUM".
One pdf file contained only lorem ipsum nonsense text. The second pdf file contained lorem ipsum with SEARCHED inserted on page 2 and TEXT inserted on page 3.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1342236/u6bskibgov8ct0rtcc41.jpg
When "Searched text" was typed into the Quick Search text box in "Everything" mode the search results showed the following:
The first pdf (the one that only contained "lorem ipsum nonsense" text) did not appear in the list of files. This was to be expected as neither SEARCHED nor TEXT were in that pdf file.
The second pdf, the one that contained the words SEARCHED and TEXT did appear in the list of files.
Firstly, the second pdf DID NOT show any highlighted text. One is left to scroll down in the file... Essentially the search is useless!
Secondly, if one uses the Quick Search in the second pdf file and then does a Collection search of a different word the previous Quick Search overrides the Collection search.
So, I don't know whether this is a bug, a Windows 11 issue, a setting problem, an overlooked feature, or user error on my part. I hope this makes sense.
I believe the ability to conduct a full text search of pdf's within a Collection and being able to see the results highlighted in the resulting pdf files is an important feature that should work. Now searching within a Collection doesn't work as expected.
Any comments would be appreciated.