Upgrade StorageZotfile "Extract Annotations" failures from certain kinds of PDF readers?
Hello!
First of all I want to preface by saying how incredibly in love with the Zotero/Zotfile system. I am a year into my graduate program and taking the time to finally learn and set up Zotero is completely transforming my workflow. Second preface is I am not at all a tech guru and I may completely misunderstand how some of this works, so please bear with me/be willing to explain where you can!
I am finding the "Extract annotations" feature incredibly useful, and possibly one of the best aspects of this system. However, I really can't stand highlighting in Adobe Reader/on my computer in general. There's a few reasons for this, one being that I've incorporated an ipad pro/apple pencil and just find handwritten annotation much more natural/appealing. However, even if I try to switch into it for the sake of the ease of use with Zotero, the highlighting tool on the Adobe interface is just clunky and obtuse. It highlight too much, the lines are often way longer than I want, the UI is just not intuitive, IMO.
So, I prefer to annotate on my iPad pro and then sync it with Papership, the app that syncs everything back to Zotero. I've tried using many different PDF annotation tools on the iPad (Papership's own in-app annotation, PDF Office Expert, PDF Viewer, PDF Expert) but none of them are working quite as seamlessly as my absolute favorite and go-to: GOODNOTES. Granted I use GoodNotes for a range of other tasks, but it is by far and away the most natural PDF mark-up tool I use in my workflow.
I've worked out a way to let Papership "Export" the PDF in question to GoodNotes, make my annotations, then export back into Papership where the PDF sits attached to the parent just fine. If I go into Zotero on my desktop I can open that file and see all of those annotations just fine, BUT, Zotfile appears unable to process those annotations in any way. When I try, it has the little loading icon in the bottom right screen, before a big red X appears instead of the usual green check mark. My best guess, given my lack of technical expertise in how any of these annotations/PDF systems work, is that GoodNotes is not truly highlighting and altering the TEXT per se, but instead using a "highlighter tool" from their system to mark over the image of the PDF like a marker or pen would.
Is there any kind of workaround anyone can think of to make this work? I'm open to not using Goodnotes if I can find a more intuitive PDF annotation tool that Zotfile would be able to extract, but so far all 4 I've tried have not been selecting the text in the way I like. The line's go way beyond the actual text, and they often process as totally separate annotations per each line rather than one block quote of next in the Zotero note. I'm open to any suggestions here!
Many thanks,
Elise
First of all I want to preface by saying how incredibly in love with the Zotero/Zotfile system. I am a year into my graduate program and taking the time to finally learn and set up Zotero is completely transforming my workflow. Second preface is I am not at all a tech guru and I may completely misunderstand how some of this works, so please bear with me/be willing to explain where you can!
I am finding the "Extract annotations" feature incredibly useful, and possibly one of the best aspects of this system. However, I really can't stand highlighting in Adobe Reader/on my computer in general. There's a few reasons for this, one being that I've incorporated an ipad pro/apple pencil and just find handwritten annotation much more natural/appealing. However, even if I try to switch into it for the sake of the ease of use with Zotero, the highlighting tool on the Adobe interface is just clunky and obtuse. It highlight too much, the lines are often way longer than I want, the UI is just not intuitive, IMO.
So, I prefer to annotate on my iPad pro and then sync it with Papership, the app that syncs everything back to Zotero. I've tried using many different PDF annotation tools on the iPad (Papership's own in-app annotation, PDF Office Expert, PDF Viewer, PDF Expert) but none of them are working quite as seamlessly as my absolute favorite and go-to: GOODNOTES. Granted I use GoodNotes for a range of other tasks, but it is by far and away the most natural PDF mark-up tool I use in my workflow.
I've worked out a way to let Papership "Export" the PDF in question to GoodNotes, make my annotations, then export back into Papership where the PDF sits attached to the parent just fine. If I go into Zotero on my desktop I can open that file and see all of those annotations just fine, BUT, Zotfile appears unable to process those annotations in any way. When I try, it has the little loading icon in the bottom right screen, before a big red X appears instead of the usual green check mark. My best guess, given my lack of technical expertise in how any of these annotations/PDF systems work, is that GoodNotes is not truly highlighting and altering the TEXT per se, but instead using a "highlighter tool" from their system to mark over the image of the PDF like a marker or pen would.
Is there any kind of workaround anyone can think of to make this work? I'm open to not using Goodnotes if I can find a more intuitive PDF annotation tool that Zotfile would be able to extract, but so far all 4 I've tried have not been selecting the text in the way I like. The line's go way beyond the actual text, and they often process as totally separate annotations per each line rather than one block quote of next in the Zotero note. I'm open to any suggestions here!
Many thanks,
Elise
As an example, in Preview on the desktop, you can highlight text and then show Highlights and Notes in the sidebar and see the text that you've highlighted. In that case, it's clearly highlighting text, and that's why ZotFile can extract it. If it's just a drawing, it wouldn't be able to.
The GoodNotes app has a highlighter that allows you to use the Apple Pencil free-hand (aka more like the uneven line example you gave) but they also have a "Shape tool" you can select alongside the highlighter function to make them straight and rectangular. Nonetheless it sounds like it isn't keeping the text in the sidebar the way you mentioned and for all intents and purposes it's essentially functioning like a drawing and not "highlighted text" the way you mention in the Preview function.
Do you have any idea why the highlighter function wouldn't be working well in Preview (or other apps)? I would be fine switching over if it meant ZotFile could do the extractions, but my main complaint is that whether through Adobe or third party apps, the text I try to highlight often goes at least an inch (if not many more) beyond the actual end of that line of text. Other times what happens is if I highlight text that goes on for several lines, ZotFile will extract them each as separate annotations rather than part of one consecutive one. For example:
"...ZotFile is the best! What an amazing way to increase the functionality of the Zotero system. I especially like the "Extract annotations" feature."
Many systems I've found will see each of those lines as separate highlighted text, giving me an annotated note in the extracted file that looks like:
"Zotfile is the best! What an amazing way to increase the functionality of the Zotero" (3)
"system. I especially like the "Extract annotations" feature." (3)
This isn't a deal breaker as I can easily alter the text of the note after the fact, but it is an annoying hassle. Let me know if there's any good tips for highlighting in Preview or Acrobat DC.