Adding tags in zotero mobile

ericweir
I would like to be able to add tags to the tag list in zotero without necessarily adding a tag to a note. At present, while this is possible on desktop zotero, I see no way to do in mobile zotero. Sometimes thoughts about needed tags that occur while working in mobile zotero are lost when put off till working in desktop zotero.

Actually, I would like to edit the tag list more broadly in mobile zotero, e.g., to rename and delete tags, as well as add tags
  • dstillman
    edited 20 days ago
    This isn't possible in the desktop app either. All tags in Zotero have to be associated with an item — the only exception is if you make a tag a colored tag and then delete all of its associated items.

    Tags are a property of items, so there's literally no way that tags could be synced on their own (again, other than colored tags). You could have a dummy item that was just a repository for tags, though.
  • ericweir
    edited 17 days ago
    Thanks.

    I imagine there is a good reason for this. That said, not understanding the rationale, it is something I would very much like to have.

    I use Bookmark Ninja. In Bookmark Ninja, tags are created in the process of bookmarking a webpage, but they are not the property of the bookmark for which they were created. In Bookmark Ninja I have many tags. Among them are redundancies and misspellings; often I want to rename tags or to replace multiple tags with a single new tag. Thankfully, in Bookmark Ninja I can do this.

    Tags are a way of thinking about, a record of my thinking, a guide to my thinking, about my subject. Thoughts evolve. If it is to be helpful to my thinking rather than an obstacle, my tagging system ought to be able to evolve with my thinking.

    I am an inexperienced Zotero user. Perhaps in time I will find a way to make tagging in Zotero more helpful to my thinking than it is. As it is I find it minimally helpful.

    I would like to access my tags independently of the process of creating a bibliographic entry. I would like to edit my tags.
  • adamsmith
    You can access and edit tags globally in Zotero desktop (that's the tag selector on the left), just not on the mobile app (which is designed principally with reading in mind)
  • dstillman
    edited 16 days ago
    (The tag selector is available for filtering in the mobile app too. It's just not possible to do all the same operations, like renaming/deleting tags or mass-assigning items to tags, that you can do in the desktop app.)
  • ericweir
    The fact that bibliographic records/entries can appear in more than one collection makes collections function, in that respect, like tags.

    The tiny little window that the tag selector appears in irritates me. (I acknowledge limited (recent) experience with Zotero. My opinion could change.)

    I am unclear what function tags serve, how they are used in Zotero. Nothing happens when I select a tag in the tag selector. I was guessing selecting multiple tags, or single tag for that matter, could be used to initiate a search. I don't see a way. (Again acknowledging limited experience.) I don't see what function the tag selector serves. Initiating searches? Applying tags to entries? Seems--to me--not.

    If I have two tags that are similar/redundant, if I rename one of them to the other, or rename both to a new name, will that work? If so that will go some of the way toward my desirabilities?

    But that cramped little window!
  • ericweir
    I need to thank dstillman and adamsmith for responding so patiently and helpful to my wordy, judgmental, likely simply ill-informed posts. Thank you dstillman and adamsmith.
  • adamsmith
    edited 16 days ago
    The tiny little window that the tag selector appears in irritates me.
    I won't claim that Zotero has a great tag manager, but you can drag that window both up and to the side to make it take up most of your Zotero.
    Nothing happens when I select a tag in the tag selector.
    Not sure what exactly you're looking at, but tags serve as "AND" filters for the list of items displayed in the middle column. So if you have "great!" selected, only items with the tag "great!" are displayed (in addition to their parents and sibling items which will appear greyed out) and if you select "great!" and "awesome" only items with both tags are displayed.
    If I have two tags that are similar/redundant, if I rename one of them to the other, or rename both to a new name, will that work?
    yes, that'll work to merge tags (obviously if Zotero prioritized tags for organization, there'd be a fair amount of functionality one could add to the tag selector around that but my sense is that most users focus on collections over tags)
  • ericweir
    I'm beginning to get the picture. Things are not quite so dire as I was imagining.

    I see that the tag selector is not necessarily tiny. Previously all the tags appeared greyed out to me. and nothing happened when I selected them. I see now that that's either because the items in the central column had no tags, or had tags that were hidden in the selector. Now I see if I select my library instead of a specific collection all the tags display as in use.

    And I see that if I select a tag or combination of tags, items with those tags are displayed in the central column.

    Thanks again adamsmith.
  • dstillman
    It also sounds like you have "Display All Tags in This Library" enabled, which it isn't by default. That will cause you to see lots of gray (non-matching) tags when you're in a collection. That mode is useful for assigning tags that aren't yet assigned to any items in a given collection, but for just filtering, you'd usually want to leave that off. You'll then see the list narrow down to just the tags on the items in the collection you're viewing, and when you click a tag it will narrow down further to tags that are on the remaining items.
Sign In or Register to comment.