Two minor search box feature requests
1) Please don't clear the contents of the search box when a different collection is selected in the left pane. The current behaviour is a particularly annoying feature!
2) Make the search box understand formatted double quotes if they are pasted in (of the 66, 99 sort) as well as the plain (11 type: ") ones that you get when you type double quotes in there directly.
Thanks!
2) Make the search box understand formatted double quotes if they are pasted in (of the 66, 99 sort) as well as the plain (11 type: ") ones that you get when you type double quotes in there directly.
Thanks!
There is an inconsistency with the tag selector, though, which does preserve the tag selection. That's actually even more problematic, since that can result in nothing showing in either the items list or the tag selector itself (since the tag selector shows tags that match the current view). So I think that's what will change, not the behavior of the search bar.
#2 is reasonable.
I'm not saying that the search actually has to continue to operate as a filter when switching between collections. I just don't want to have to retype my search to run it again. A suggestion: Have the search term remain in the search box greyed out, and put an X button next to it. Then the user could simply ignore it to view the collection unfiltered, or click on the search term to rerun it, or click on the X button to type in a new search.
I don't use tags any more, but I think I agree with you on about what you said about the tag selector's behaviour.
We'll do #2, though.
(OK it doesn't have the greyed out search term I suggested in response to your comment about iTunes. But it does (i) retain the search across category selections, and (ii) have an X button to delete the current search.)
Also the label that you searched inside appears automatically in the search box, complete with a mini x on it which, when clicked, will delete the label from the search, and then rerun your search for you.
That's two alternative easy ways to rerun the search in their equivalent of Zotero's My Library with a single click.
edit @mark: my point is that it's much easier to forget about an active search in Zotero than it is when using google.com.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of low-cost solutions that are useful to many users and easy to implement, and it sounds like search history for that box, as Dan Stillman suggests, would be the most expedient starting point.
I should have noted earlier that unlike google.com, Google Documents does clear the search box when you switch folders, like Zotero. But its alternative ways of making a single-click repeat search of your whole library available are very useful - and I hope that at least one of these could be adopted by Zotero in addition to search history.
And I'm not sure why you keep mentioning the X to clear the box. The Zotero search box already has that.
I think you misunderstood one of my remarks about Google Docs. The mini x on the name of the label you just searched within is different from the big X at the end of the search box (that's why I mentioned it). So that would be my suggestion of another place in the UI to add a way to rerun the search in My Library.
Anyway, this seems like a pretty minor feature request, and I believe you're the first to make it. Barring other suggestions, search history, which would have general usefulness beyond your specific request, has the best chance of happening.
A linked message such as "Search Again in My Library" could conditionally trigger only when there are no results, so that it wouldn't interfere with normal search results if that's the worry. Windows 7 explorer works this way.
Alternatively, Google Docs and Mendeley provide a link of this kind at the top of every result page. Mac Finder provides buttons that are essentially the same thing.
Papers simply retains the original search filter across folder/category changes, like www.google.com does.
Personally, I find the search clearing after each change, and having to retype the query in every collection, to be one of the most annoying "features" of Zotero, and I'd much appreciate at least a user option for persistence.
Thanks for your work!
I frequently find myself working deep in my collections structure and then wanting to "zoom out" and do a global search of my library. This takes a bit of mouse work: scrolling up, carefully selecting the "My Library" icon, then using Ctrl+F for quick search. That's not a "quick" process in this case!
Thanks to all the devs for making Zotero and all these feature tweaks happen.
1) cmd+shift+L (focuses Libraries Pane)
2) Home key (highlights My Library
3) cmd+F (focuses Quick Search Bar)
It's a real cludge on the back end, but the best I can do until this feature is supported natively.
I have created an Applescript so that hitting cmd+shift+F in Zotero instantly allows me to start typing a search of my entire library. Works well.
Also created another script so that I can use a keystroke in any application that will trigger an all-library search in Zotero for whatever text I currently have highlighted.
I find myself expecting the search to be persistent all the time. There seem to plenty of user who desire some feature to make redoing a search in another collection easier.
Dan mentioned iTunes, but I think that is different because such searches are probably much more context specific (like a certain song on an album) than for example a thematic literature search.
A more pertinent comparison might be Mendeley, which does persist searches across collections until the search is cleared. This message appears when there are no results:
"No search results for "keyword" in this collection, try another collection or different keywords."
Given such a message, I would argue that the absence of displayed articles is not alarming.
Perhaps one of the options discussed here is or will be implemented in Zotero 7?