Zotero 7 beta: Select text within a highlight
[Split from Announcing the Zotero 7 Beta]
Once I hightlight some text, for example a paragraph, and then if i want to copy some line of text from that highlighted text do to some further research, or web search. I can't select it again, I have to delete the previously highlight, and copy the text and then highlight again. this is definitly unintuitive, and time consuming.
Once I hightlight some text, for example a paragraph, and then if i want to copy some line of text from that highlighted text do to some further research, or web search. I can't select it again, I have to delete the previously highlight, and copy the text and then highlight again. this is definitly unintuitive, and time consuming.
This occurs with both text and area highlights (I haven’t tested others).
Occasionally, it works as expected, but not consistently.
https://i.imgur.com/DOOD751.gif
We tried with the plugins turned off and restarted Zotero.
However, in this case, we need to allow modifying the selection range when there is already a selection and attempting to extend it under an annotation while holding Shift, because currently, it just selects the annotation.
In EPUB view, it also doesn’t work as expected because Shift triggers a selection range from the last position where the cursor was previously placed by clicking.
So I think we should ignore Shift-Alt/Option completely in all views.
Using only Alt is much less efficient and precise because I have to hold the mouse button and drag over the content. Often, I either miss the first letter and have to restart or accidentally include the leading space.
Precisely targeting the beginning of the word is tricky, so I would advocate for keeping shift, also considering that this used to work fine with previous version of Zotero.
(there is also a tripple-click to start line selection mode).
I was not aware it was possible to select content this way.
The issue is that it's necessary to hold the click, which I find not convenient at all, especially when using the touchpad.
1. Shift alone will be sufficient to modify the existing selection range, even if you click under an annotation (currently, it just selects the annotation).
2. Shift + Alt/Option + Arrow (Up/Down/Right/Left) will allow modifying the existing text selection in word-level steps. Currently, you can only use Shift + Arrow (Up/Down/Right/Left) to adjust the selection in single-character steps.
The main point I want to emphasize is that Shift + Alt and click is not a conventional way to start a new text selection.
Regarding the convention, I'm curious how uncommon Shift + Click actually is for range text selection. In this context, Alt is only used for selecting text within highlights. I've used Shift + Click extensively in many applications because I find it more precise than holding a selection, especially on a touchpad.
In fact, outside of text selection, Shift is commonly used for range selection instead of dragging (e.g., in file explorers).