Highlight in PDFs without annotation

rxw_

Hi,

I (unsuccessfully) tried to find a way to highlight text in the PDF Viewer of Zotero 7 without creating an annotation. Put differently, I only want the highlight visible in the PDF but not in the annotations bar (similar to what you would get if you annotate a PDF in a different software and then import it to Zotero - just without having to use a different software).

If you wonder, why that would be useful: I often want to highlight an important word or sentence and have that show up in the annotations bar, but I would also like to highlight some additional info in the text, maybe a few sentences later. I could, of course, highlight the entire section and then edit the annotation, but that (a) is more work, (b) does not correspond to how I remember texts (i.e., visually - I recognise the position of the keyword and that helps me remember the following section), and (c) that often works poorly for sections spanning two pages, especially if there are footnotes that then get highlighted as well.

Is there a way to get highlights in the PDF viewer without making annotations?
If not this would be a feature request. Maybe it would be an option to delete the annotation and the highlight seperately (so instead of having just one "Delete" option for annotations, replace it with the options "Delete annotation" and "Delete annotation & highlight").

Thanks!

dstillman

There's some confusion here. A highlight is just a kind of annotation — there's no such thing in any PDF reader as a highlight that isn't an annotation.

similar to what you would get if you annotate a PDF in a different software and then import it to Zotero

Those are annotations and show in the annotations tab in the sidebar the same as any other annotation you create in Zotero. The only difference is that they're not editable within Zotero unless you use File → "Import Annotations…".

rxw_

Thank you for the clarifications, I wasn't aware that Zotero also shows annotations and that highlights and annotations are directly related in PDFs in general.

I guess, what I mean then, is that I would like to hide annotations in the annotations bar (effectively deleting them for the user) but keep the highlight in the PDF. Citavi 6, for example, has such a feature where you can choose between highlights that only show up in the PDF and highlights that come with a "knowledge element" (similar to Zotero annotations).