re-order collection and subcollection folders by drag/drop

Chianti

I find it bothersome that all the collections and subcollections are just sorted alphabetically.I'd also like to be able to choose to have them unsorted, and then drag them into order.An example of this type of behaviour is Firefox's bookmarks.

188BET靠谱吗I'm not sure what language Zotero is programmed in, but I've seen this kind of re-ordering in many different GUIs, so I don't think it is an unusual feature to expect?

It would really aid my workflow, and I hope it would help a lot of users if it was ever implemented.

Cheers.

mronkko

188BET靠谱吗Zotero is coded in Javascript.The GUI part would not be the biggest problem here in terms of coding effort.188BET靠谱吗To get the ordering to synchronize with Zotero server would be the hardest part.

I personally consider this nice to have feature, but not very important.

Chianti

> but not very important

188BET靠谱吗That view depends on how many sub-collections you use and your workflow, which depends again on what you're using Zotero for at the time.

Without drag and drop ordering, the only solution is to number sub-collections, which is quite Neanderthal!It's also a complete pain if your workflow includes continually regrouping sub-collections as the project advances.

qi_de

Hi mornkko, I think able to drag reorder subcollections is very helpful if I want to use collection as a kind of outline of my writing.

If it is hard.Then to enable 'batch rename' collection and sub collection will also helps a lot.I mean some thing like that: with a click of a button your collection struct will shows up in a doc like outliner.Then you can rename them,shift them to lower or uper level and so on.Then wenn you save that outline, they will all turn to a sturcture of collection and sub-collection with the same effect of you do the rename by hand.

joycerobbins

Another vote for an option to choose my own sort order for collections.

DWL-SDCA

You can set your collection order by making the first character(s) numerals.Not ideal, perhaps, but it works for me to keep certain collections at the top of the column.

joycerobbins

Thanks, I'll have to do that.

Kommitz

I vote for "unsorted" collections, too.
Numbering all entries is not only hard work.It looks ugly and it is a pita to add new entries "in the middle".Reminds me in the "Goto Renumber" problem from my "Basic" times (TRS-80).

188BET靠谱吗When the sorting helps with syncing, _Zotero_ could add the numbers internally.

joycerobbins

My thoughts exactly!!(Though I miss my TRS-80.)

Kommitz

188BET靠谱吗Well, i'm new to Zotero.188BET靠谱吗I turned some of my Firefox bookmark folders into Zotero collections - and everything turned into chaos, because of the sorting.
I could cry.
Wish i had time to contribute instead of moaning.It is a miracle to me how people can work this way.Maybe _everybody_ is "numbering"?

Kommitz

BTW."Renumber" on TRS-80 was one of the first tools i ever wrote.I could not live with 100, 200, 250, 270, 290, 295, 297...;-)

Kommitz

And it does not work, anyway.
Imagine i take the work and number all the dozens of entries in a collection.I even take the pain and do several passes, so everything is equidistant.Everything looks ordered (not sorted).

Now i want to link some of the entries into other collections - bummer.

mronkko

Wish i had time to contribute instead of moaning.It is a miracle to me how people can work this way.Maybe _everybody_ is "numbering"?

Most are not using numbering, but are happy that the collections are sorted automatically thus reducing manual work needed for organizing your library.

The developers are aware of this feature request and may implement it one day.

DWL-SDCA

As suggested above, I have 3 collections that I use frequently so I added numbers to each name.I have a difficult effort imagining the case for all collections' locations to be under user control and I'm curious about your need for this.(My job is related to organizing information, so I'm truly interested in why you have this need.)

Have you tried using sub-collections?This is the way I keep related collections together.

Kommitz

"As suggested above, I have 3 collections that I use frequently so I added numbers to each name..."

So, what is your question?;-)

Actually i have much more than 3 collections - most with many entries.Its all about structuring knowledge, not sorting.Sorting destroys every structure.

But then - 'nough said.The developers are aware of this feature request and may implement it one day.

r.j.skolasinski

And...any news on that feature?;)

dvorapa

Upvote for this feature

zepsaslan

I want to organize my collections myself, alphabetical ordering is not ideal.
numbering takes a lot of time and exactly because I need to reorganize things constantly it is useless.

pauleckstein

Need this feature as well!Where can I vote for this?

adamsmith

nowhere.188BET靠谱吗Zotero takes user input very seriously, but development is not a democracy -- there's no such thing as voting for a feature.

mlewandowski4

I would really love this ability as well!I have so many folders and am working on different things at different times, and it would be very useful to be able to group some folders at the top that I am using at a given time, and then change the ordering a month or so later when I'm on a new project, etc.

mjbaldwin

I just want to +1 to this feature request.

I already use numbers, underscores, etc.to prefix my collections with, but it gets pretty tedious.Also I use a lot of emoji (colored circles, stack of books, star, etc.) to visually differentiate my collections and subcollections, and they sort in a meaningless order, so it's kind of a mess.

It would seriously big a big help for my organization if I could simply drag collections and subcollections in my desired order.

I'm a programmer and do appreciate that syncing ordering changes is not trivial.But also, because there's no data loss ever involved, I would hope that a fairly simple data model would be fine -- it's not the end of the world if a "merge conflict" results in an ordering that was different from both originals.

kdb_research

This is a problem that people have been discussing for over a decade.188BET靠谱吗Without a way to contain and then link groups of references all large Zotero collections become bewilderingly complex to use.In my view this is the most important obstacle to wider use in teaching.

I realise that there must be a serious obstacle with developing this functionality, but it is an urgent problem.

188BET靠谱吗https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/47791/symbolic-links-between-subcollections#latest

188BET靠谱吗https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/78890/advanced-collection-structure-management-duplicate-structure#latest

188BET靠谱吗https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/107.

ShotaiFumei

I'd love to see this feature.

Currently I have to use some weird numbering scheme to order them and it's not pleasing to see and takes space.With this feature we'll be able to, for example, put the important collections at the top, or sort the collections in a logical order.

This feature may not look fancy but I think it's kind of a fundamental feature and immensely useful.

charles 1301

Moi aussi je numérote et ce n'est pas pratique du tout.
J'attends avec impatience cette fonctionnalité.

kgahm

+1 to this request.I like using my folders as an outline, and it's really frustrating to not be able to drag and drop.I've considered numbering, as others have mentioned, but frankly I'm discouraged by even the prospect of constantly having to renumber, since I'm shifting things around pretty frequently.While it's true that this feature is a "nice to have" in that it's not as important as the core citation functionality, it would be super useful and actually pretty fundamental to many people's workflow if introduced.

twaring

+1 +1 +1 +1.This is nuts that we can't do this.While a bibliography will often need to be alphabetical, the way we CREATE and STORE our references in the library is UNRELATED to that, and is an expression of the way the user's mind works.It should be flexible.

adamsmith

188BET靠谱吗//www.brodersterzo.com/support/forum_guidelines#etiquette

andressoop

+1

ulahcherubim

I know this is a request thread but for those who are struggling to organize their collections, I would like to share my organizing workflow below.

I am using native sorting via numbers, dots and dashes to work around this issue.It might look cumbersome at first but I find organizing within a framework rather than arbitrary sequencing is highly functional in retrieving the desired subcollection or paper.

I keep an inbox collection and sub-collections for tagging, planning, keeping track of my readings and processing of literature generally.I find it highly useful to select and find articles I want to read.

I keep an archive collection with dedicated sub-collections for every subject that I am interested in.Every item is placed in the archive before they get out of the inbox.

I create a collection for each project and sub-collections for each stage of the project.These items also get archived in their respective sub-collections before they leave the inbox of the project.

I also highly recommend using tags extensively.
Numbered tags can be utilized for categorizing in terms of process: toread, reading, read, processing, processed, tobereviewed, tobearchived, archived, projectname, projectnameused (last two are interchangeable for the stage of the current project)
Although nested tags are not available natively, Ethereal Style plugin offers an option.I prefer level 1 tags, since organizing tag hierarchies via tags pane is cumbersome in my experience.