Move item to Trash confirmation

Bookdoctor
Is there a way to disable the alert box that asks "Are you sure you want to move this item to the trash?" I'm cleaning up a library and I'd love the option to turn off this, and some other notifications, in preferences.
  • arggem
    While this probably wouldn't happen to you, but I can foresee the outcries of someone who sets that preference then forgets to change it back; or if they inadvertently set it, then accidently deleted something and wasn't warned.

    What if you just moved said items to a "To Delete" collection (or tagged them "To Delete"), then when you are finished 'Select All," right-click, then "Send item to trash"?

  • dstillman
    You can just use a modifier key (Cmd on macOS, Shift on Windows/Linux) and Backspace/Delete to bypass the confirmation prompt.
  • Bookdoctor
    I'm on macOS. Using the modifier keys did not work.
  • dstillman
    edited September 18, 2024
    It definitely works.

    To be clear, Cmd-Delete will skip the confirmation prompt for moving to the trash in the library root. In a collection, Cmd changes the action of Delete from "Remove Item from Collection" to "Move Item to Trash", but the latter will still show a confirmation prompt.
  • Bookdoctor
    In Zotero 7.06 Cmd-Delete works once or twice just after I start the program, and then doesn't work any longer.
  • dstillman
    Zotero has had this behavior for many years, and we've never heard of anything like that, so I think either you'd have to be doing something wrong (e.g., trying in a collection instead of the library root) or something on your system would have to be interfering.
  • ShotaiFumei
    Both Shift+Del and Ctrl+Del don't work on Windows. I also want to skip the delete confirmation.
  • ShotaiFumei
    It would also be great if no modifier key is needed. Zotero already has a recycle bin. On Windows you don't get a warning when deleting files if the drive has a recycle bin, which I think is the behavior that makes sense.
  • dstillman
    edited 3 days ago
    @ShotaiFumei: Shift+Delete bypasses the confirmation prompt in the library root, where Delete sends the item to the trash. As I say above, in a collection, Shift modifies the default action from "Remove Item from Collection" to "Move Item to Trash", so there's still a confirmation prompt.

    We could consider removing the confirmation prompt, but I think we'd need to add support for Undo first.
  • ShotaiFumei
    @dstillman
    It is as you described. I almost never work in the library root. Another way I guess is to make one of `Shift+Del` and `Ctrl+Del`, or a customizable shortcut move the item to trash directly. Currently `Ctrl+Del` has the same behavior as `Del`.

    I just noticed that indeed, undo doesn't work for deletion and editing tags.
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