assign one tag to multiple book entries by selecting all entries...

ahondroulis
...one is interested in, and then applying a tag to them. Also being able to
copy/paste into a currently edited entry from the tags already assigned to
a previous entry.

Thanks much,
Antonios.
  • dstillman
    More extensive batch editing is planned, but you can assign multiple tags at once by selecting multiple items and dragging them onto a tag in the tag selector. If in a collection, it may be necessary to click "Display all tags" first.
  • ahondroulis
    Thanks Dan! Is there a way to massively REMOVE/CLEAR a tag from multiply selected
    items?
  • dstillman
    Is there a way to massively REMOVE/CLEAR a tag from multiply selected items?
    I'm afraid not, though you can rename and delete tags on all items by right-clicking on tags in the tag selector. Have a UI suggestion for a batch tag clear? I guess holding down a modifier key while dragging items to a tag could work, but I don't know if that's the best approach.
  • erazlogo
    edited April 30, 2007
    This would be great:
    I guess holding down a modifier key while dragging items to a tag could work, but I don't know if that's the best approach.
    Also, right now we can add a tag to a continuous set of records with shift-click, but we can't select multiple records that do not follow each other in the list. It would be also nice to be able to add non-continuous items to a set to be modified (perhaps with command-click like in Apple Mail).
  • scot
    but we can't select multiple records that do not follow each other in the list
    CTRL-click on PC and Linux already selects non-contiguous ranges in Zotero's center pane. Surely this is implemented on Mac as well.
  • erazlogo
    thanks--i see now. it's command-click on mac.
  • ahondroulis
    I liked the idea about a modifier key and dragging entries onto tags.
    It's symmetrical to the adding of tags.

    As additional suggestion, I'd recommend also keeping available
    a right click option on multiple entries. On the menu that would pop up,
    there should be one entry for "change tags".
    Selecting it could bring up a window with all the currently
    available tags, where the user can select/de-select particular tags
    to be added or cleared. The latter can be achieved for example
    by presenting 3 options per tag (clear, set, keep = leave unchanged for each entry)
    The right click interface to reach property settings is a very common
    interface on Windows platforms and in some ways people are familiar with it.
  • uni.martin
    What about NOT greying out the edit area on the left when multiple entries are highlighted? That way you could use the *familiar interface for modifying multiple entries* in whatever way you want - tagging them, relating them to another entry, etc. pp. I recognize it's not trivial to select which fields to display for entry types that are not the same (say, a book, a website and a newspaper article), but that could be solved by just displaying the set of fields that is the intersection of available fields.

    I think iTunes does it this way. You right-click on multiple entries, and you get the same dialogue they offer for modifying one entry.
  • adamsmith
    uni.martin - some version of batch editing is planned, but it's not trivial. The problems are not just the GUI (although, as you note, it's harder than for itunes), but also the underlying database changes.
  • ajlyon
    There's a piece of code out there that enables batch fixes for author names, and which could be tweaked to handle other fields. I'm still waiting for its author to decide to make the patch public, and make it work with Zotero 2.1.

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