Available for beta testing: Annotations in the items list

dstillman
In the latest Zotero beta, annotations will now show up under their parent attachments in the items list.

Showing annotations in the items list makes it easier to view annotations across a library or collection, and it also makes it possible to search or filter for annotations directly. For example, you can search for all annotations in a collection with a given tag and then create a note from those annotations or copy them to an external text editor with Quick Copy.

In Advanced Search, you can use "Item Type" "is" "Annotation" to match annotations or use the Annotation Text and Annotation Comment search conditions to search for specific parts of the annotation. (It's not currently possible to restrict filtering to annotations in the main window, but it probably makes sense to add that, since, say, a given tag could be present on a regular item as well.)

You can assign tags to selected annotations by dragging them to the tag selector, just like other items.

Selected annotations show up in the item pane, grouped by top-level item. (They're not currently grouped by attachment when there are multiple child attachments, but we'll fix that.)

Please let us know if you run into any problems.
  • pcinque
    edited 27 days ago
    Very nice!
  • gustms
    This is great! Thank you!
  • iagogv
    I haven't tested, but may I ask what happens if one item has many annotations associated? Expanding such item would show a row for each annotation? If that was the case, there would be some way/preference to choose non-displaying annotations (or only displaying annotations or displaying them in some summarized way)?

    Thanks!
  • dstillman
    @iagogv: They're nested under attachment items, so they don't show up when you just expand the top-level item.
  • varmont
    Thanks, interesting!!! Is it possible to hide all annotations that don't match the search criteria (tags, annotation text, or annotation comments) and not just highlight them? This would make more sense, especially when dealing with many annotations. It would avoid having to scroll through all of them to locate the annotations that match the search criteria.

    Perhaps this is already possible and it's just my inexperience that limits me, but thanks for the new features.
  • jeremyvancleve
    Very cool feature!

    I wonder if for the "Expand/Collapse Collections or Items List" feature using the "+/–" keys, one "+" could get all first children of items, another "+" could get all the children of the children, etc and same idea for "–".

    This way, I can use "+" to get see all the PDFs and notes that are attachments of my items, and which another "+" I can see any annotations for all those PDFs.
  • abaevbog
    You can press right arrow on selected rows to expand those items and reveal attachments and notes without expanding annotations rows. Arrow left would do the opposite by collapsing only one level of rows.
  • jeremyvancleve
    yes of course, but +/– is nice for seeing rapidly the attachments etc for all items in the library.
  • dstillman
    Right, but you can do Select All + Right Arrow to expand just the top-level items.
  • jeremyvancleve
    ah, of course, thanks
  • afreedm1
    Thank you, this is a game changer!
  • ofpetek
    Thanks a lot for this cool feature. Since there is no hierarchy between the annotations other than page order, I strongly back the idea of "selective listing" in the items list. LG
  • ifranken
    Oh wow, this is working like a charm!
  • li-rq
    Good idea, but there is a problem. When there is hundreds annotations it is impratical to expand the list.
  • MollyCB
    in my version (mac desktop), when i am in a collection, and select a tag from the tag panel, the parent entry automatically expands to view the child (so, reference>pdf>annotations). although it does show all annotations while highlighting the one with the selected tag, I found that if I do cmd a (select all), it automatically ONLY selects the child/annotations that are tagged with that code across all parent entries. notably, it does this whether or not the entries are expanded (and automatically expands them if collapsed)

    Then, if you drag it into a text editor, using quick copy, it pulls only the annotations with the correct tag.

    I'm not sure if this resolves some of the concerns with collapsing/expanding across many tagged entries

    However: "For example, you can search for all annotations in a collection with a given tag and then create a note from those annotations" -- When I try to do this, the note is blank!
  • dstillman
    @MollyCB: Yes, that's how all searches in Zotero work. Select All highlights only the search matches (i.e., the black rows, not the gray context rows).
    However: "For example, you can search for all annotations in a collection with a given tag and then create a note from those annotations" -- When I try to do this, the note is blank!
    Please report that in a new thread, along with a Debug ID for reproducing it.
  • marinho.barcellos
    This is awesome. Thank you.
  • SteffenHe
    edited 15 days ago
    Edit 2: Another idea: Is it possible to refine the search function in the following way: Adding an option that limits the search (for content, but especially tags with regard to the annotation feature) to pre-selected parent items only? So currently, when I type in a tag, I can limit the search to my whole library and also folders/subfolders within that library. But it would be great, if it was also possible to check a box to "limit search to selected parent items only". Thanks!
  • coelen
    Wow this is amazing, this will supercharge researchers for sure!
  • burgarth
    It would be super cool if annotations could be moved across PDF. Usecase: preprint gets published and we want to move annotations over. It would have to be quite a smart algorithm trying to find matching words or positions while being flexible enough to allow for changes… probably asking too much ;)
  • kdb_research
    Thanks! I like this layout very much. Will it be possible in the not distant future to filter the annotations in the items list by color, much as we can now filter by tag?
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