Zotero 7 beta: Select text within a highlight

IamAlaminIslam
[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.
  • dstillman
    Hold down Option/Alt to select text within a highlight. (You can also select the text from the annotation widget.)
  • IamAlaminIslam
    Ohh, Cool. it works. Thanks a ton, I didn't know that, that solves my problem..
  • nicolas.lienart
    @dstillman I used to do this trick without issue, but since switching to Zotero 7, pressing Ctrl+C often copies the entire highlight instead of just the selected text, even when the selection appears correct in the interface.

    This occurs with both text and area highlights (I haven’t tested others).

    Occasionally, it works as expected, but not consistently.
  • AbeJellinek
    @nicolas.lienart: Can you provide steps to reproduce that issue? And does it still occur if you run Zotero with all plugins disabled (Help -> Restart in Troubleshooting Mode...)?
  • nicolas.lienart
    @AbeJellinek To clarify the situation when it works vs it doesn't, I have made a recording.
    https://i.imgur.com/DOOD751.gif

    We tried with the plugins turned off and restarted Zotero.
  • AbeJellinek
    Thanks, I can reproduce that.
  • martynas_b
    In PDF view, this only happens when holding Shift in addition to Alt/Option, right? That’s a bit unconventional—you should only hold Alt/Option when beginning a selection under an annotation. But we’ll fix it or disable Shift + Alt/Option completely to prevent the annotation from staying selected while text is also being selected.

    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.
  • nicolas.lienart
    edited March 5, 2025
    Using Shift allows me to start the selection precisely by double-clicking the first word before extending it until the end with a simple click.

    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.
  • martynas_b
    But you can use Alt + double-click to select the word and start word-level selection, can’t you?
  • nicolas.lienart
    Alt + double-click only selects a single word, but it doesn’t work for selecting multiple words. This is where Shift is used to extend the selection.
  • martynas_b
    A double-click alone is sufficient to start word selection mode, and then you just keep holding the mouse button to select a range of words. Alt is only necessary to do this under an annotation. Doesn’t it work that way for you?

    (there is also a tripple-click to start line selection mode).
  • nicolas.lienart
    Yes, this works when holding click.
    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.
  • martynas_b
    We’ll make two changes to improve this in the PDF reader:

    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.
  • nicolas.lienart
    I'm not sure if I fully understand (1.)—will this restore the old behaviour that I'm missing?

    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).
  • martynas_b
    Yes, Shift is normally used to modify an existing selection—shrinking or extending it—but not to start a new one (except in text editors). The same applies to the PDF reader, except for a bug where an annotation gets selected when attempting this under an annotation. We’ll fix that.
  • nicolas.lienart
    Thanks for the explanations and the expected fix!
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