Annotation Note and Annotation Tag Questions

I see others have asked about this and the response is a variant of "it's coming". For this post, I am referring to the tags that are made in the PDF annotation side bar and not the ones that are created upon a paper import found in the right pane of the Parent Item. To add use cases I have, and probably others as well, would be the following:

1. Export the annotation tags to, in my case, Obsidian.
2. In lieu of number 1, have the option to merge the annotation tags into the parent tags so that upon export all the tags are there.

I have read in other posts that it is the developer's belief that the annotation tags are not as important as the parent tags. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I add annotation tags because the annotation my spawn a seperate idea, link to another paper, or simply be one the original PDF authors didn't choose to use.

So, my question is, are either of these options available now?

If so, how to access them?

If not, what is the status of adding annotation tag usage in the overall Zotero process other than simply typing them and filtering by colors as currently found in the PDF reader left annotation pane at the bottom?


  • I have read in other posts that it is the developer's belief that the annotation tags are not as important as the parent tags.
    No idea what you're referring to. That's not something anyone from Zotero has said. The ability to tag individual annotations is a major design feature of Zotero's PDF reader.
    If not, what is the status of adding annotation tag usage in the overall Zotero process other than simply typing them and filtering by colors as currently found in the PDF reader left annotation pane at the bottom?
    We made annotation tags show up in the main tag selector in the library view a while ago, and they're also searchable from the search bar. Those will currently match the parent attachment. A future version of Zotero will show annotations directly within the library view.

    As for Obsidian, you can use a custom note template to include tags in notes, but as I've said in various threads, proper Obsidian integration would be provided by a dedicated plugin, of which I believe there are several, and they have every ability to directly import annotations, including their tags, without going through intermediate Zotero notes.
  • @dstillman I appreciate the reply. I am currently using Zotero 6.0.26 on Windows 10, and I do not utilize any sync method, instead choosing to keep everything on my local drive.

    What are the steps to pull the annotation tags into the parent file's tags? (Here is where my knowing how to add images would be helpful) In your reply you state the following:

    "We made annotation tags show up in the main tag selector in the library view a while ago, and they're also searchable from the search bar."


    When I am in the PDF reader for a document and have made highlight annotations that include notes and tags, I am able to export/import the highlight annotation and the note successfully to Obsidian. Additionally, the tags that are added to the annotations located in the left pane of the PDF reader appear at the bottom of the left pane along with small colored boxes which I can select and show all annotations for just that color.

    I have searched the help guide (click help in the Zotero task bar and get sent to the website) and put in "tags". There, I found mention of the "tag selector" which is located in the bottom left pane of the My Library window-the same place that the annotation tags are located in the PDF reader. When I look there I see the annotation tags that were added in the PDF reader. This is close to what I am asking for.

    What I am asking about is for the annotation tags to be automatically added from the bottom left of the PDF reader to the the Tags section in the Parent file Information Pane located on the right side of the My Library window. The papers I typically import are from IEEE and Zotero successfully auto-imports the tags (what IEEE calls keywords) into the Tags field during paper import. But, I do realize I can manually add tags to these items if they are missing or I feel like something else needs to be added.

    Is the solution to my use case to go back into the My Library view and then manually copy and paste the annotation tags into the Tags section of the Parent item Information pane?





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