PDF Annotations: Import FDF/XFDF to Zotero?

mbruffey
I use PDFXChange, which allows export of annotations to FDF/XFDF. Is there a way to import an FDF/XFDF file as a standalone note or as a series of standalaone notes? It would be so simple if there were a way to slurp this right into Zotero, or if some conversion tool existed for converting this format to RDF or something.

mbruffey

N.B. Please forgive me, but I need something simpler than Zotfile. I couldn't even figure out how to use it, and it apparently uses that pdf.js thingy in Firefox, which I deliberately disabled because it is so interminably slow. I can't move away from Firefox at this time.
  • adamsmith
    no, nothing like that exists.
    Since everyone else I know loves zotfile (which uses its own version of pdf.js, so having it disabled in FF doesn't matter), my guess is that there isn't much of an incentive to invest in coding this either.
  • mbruffey
    Thaks adamsmith. Do you know if anyone has written up a simple Zotfile instruction purely for scarfing up annotations? That's the only feature in which I am interested presently. I realize that good reasons exist for its other well-recvd functions--I just don't need them right now. I need (1) something that says "Click here to open/locate the PDF that contains your annotations," and (2) Something to tell me how to assign the results to a location in Zotero. The Zotfile thread is four miles long; I know that I need Zotfile but I am lost.
  • adamsmith
    With Zotfile all you need to do is install it, then open the PDF (that's already attached/linked to a Zotero item) from Zotero in pdfXchange, annotate it, save it (just regularly, i.e. using ctrl+s), right click on the pdf in Zotero, Manage Attachments --> Extract annotations
  • mbruffey
    Simple enough. Followed, but after information box flashes indicating extraction in process, where did it/they go? Nothing new shows up beneath the item in Zotero under which the the PDF is linked.
  • adamsmith
    they should show up in a note to the same item the PDF is attached to. If they don't it'd seem like Zotfile didn't find any annotations.
    I use pdfXchange myself, though, so I'm positive Zotfile does recognize regular pdfXchange annotations, both highlights and notes.
    When you open the PDF from Zotero, do you see the highlights/notes in the PDF?
  • mbruffey
    I'm opening the PDF by right-clicking on the pdf and "Open in External Viewer." I'm not using "view file" because that just dumps a copy of the pdf in the downloads folder, since I disabled pdf.js. The pdf contains tons of notes, and did before installing Zotfile. They show up in the pdf. My method of making notes in the pdf is to highlight a phrase, right click, and make a note in the red box that appears.
  • mbruffey
    I tried it on another file and it has hung halfway through the conversion notification window. I am using MLZ.
  • adamsmith
    could be that it's an MLZ problem, ZotFile hasn't been tested much on that, but I'd be surprised.
    What you describe doing should definitely work.
  • mbruffey
    I got it to work on a doc with only one "sticky-note," But if I add a "pop-up note" (as are almost all mine), it extracts only the sticky note.
  • adamsmith
    oh ok, that could well be, I only use stickies.
    Might work in the future, but for now I don't have a solution for you, sorry.
  • mbruffey
    Duh. I discovered that within PDFXChange I can extract both sticky notes and pop-ups with Comments, Summarize. It says it is a pro feature only, but it works in the free version without penalty--as far as I can tell--for exporting to RTF. The item produced is workable, for cut-and-paste work, but not a very friendly format. Try it and you will see what I mean. I may insert a request over in the Zotfile forum/thread to see if the developer can make it snarf PDFXChange pop-ups as well as comments.
  • adamsmith
    no need for a request there. The comment extraction feature just relies on the installed version of pdf.js - whatever that recognizes, ZotFile recognizes. Joscha has said that he won't update that very often, because it's time intensive.
  • mbruffey
    Oops. I posted over there before becoming aware of your response. Hopefully Joscha will not be too put out.
  • adamsmith
    no worries. You'll just likely get the same answer again ;)
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