Upgrade StorageAvailable for beta testing: Annotations in the items list
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.
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.
Thanks!
Perhaps this is already possible and it's just my inexperience that limits me, but thanks for the new features.
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.
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!
However, and seeing how we're here to give out feedback, the UX could improve a little bit. It's great that we can expand the linked PDF item on the main list view to see all the annotations and jump right to them on the PDF viewer itself by clicking them, but it would be even nicer to be able to do so from the sidebar (I first attempted to click on them there instead, expecting them to work as links, much like I would on Acrobat Pro/Reader itself, and when they didn't, the whole thing did feel “broken”/unfinished and I was forced to search for alternatives).
I mean, for power users willing to look for it, it's great that the link functionality is there, but even for those, not having to click on those tiny disclosure triangles just to dig through their attachments and get to the links would be nice.
As a matter of fact, annotations could even be consolidated into the main, top item's sidebar (i.e. for database items with more than one attachment, annotations could be displayed right away but separated/grouped by attachment, next to or where the old – and now, for many I assume, obsolete – extracted annotations are, which would be very useful for multi-volume documents such as some theses and books).
Also, annotations are easier to read on the sidebar anyway, as they're displayed on a neat column and not truncated in any way (as aren't our comments when it comes to annotations on highlighted text).
Being the – AFAIK – first beta with this feature exposed, I assume this is probably something that hasn't been implemented yet, but I'd say it should be a top priority for it to feel fully fleshed out, and hopefully not too hard to solve, seeing how that functionality is already in place elsewhere.
Obviously, adding extra functionality to the sidebar, such as being able to edit annotations, and/or copying text from them right away would be even cooler; maybe only the “Page XX” header could serve as a link to the PDF viewer, the highlighted text could be selectable for copying (it could even be automatic, or at least show a contextual “Copy” popup button or something), and the annotation itself be an editable text field? Food for thought…
The main purpose of the new functionality here — showing annotations in the items list — is to enable filtering of annotations across a library or collection, which has been a top feature request since we added annotation functionality. When you search for a tag that matches some annotations, the items tree will automatically be expanded to show the matches, so you don't need to click multiple disclosure triangles to see them. They could, but it's a lot of data to show in the top-level item pane, above other content. There's already a button that shows if an attachment has annotations, and you can click it to jump to the attachment item, where the annotations are shown. We might change the behavior there slightly, but one way or another, it'll be no more than one click to view the annotations.