PDF reader feature requests

dstillman

This discussion was created from comments split from: Available for beta testing: Markdown export of notes.

zycyc

Hi, I started to use the preview reader yesterday and so far I'm 95% happy with it. If you could make a couple of (maybe) simple modifications, which I believe will eventually be achieved regardless of my comments, I'd be more than willing to use it all the time:

I'm on Mac 11.4 Big Sur and using this beta version: 5.0.97-beta.57+07df7d0de

1. I used Highlights to mark & take notes before, and they show up perfectly in the new reader, even with italic notes listed in separate paragraphs below the highlighted sentences. However, when I used the reader to highlight & take notes, the notes were right after the highlighted sentences, which makes it hard to separate. So if you could make those separate it'd be awesome!

2. Before, the annotations were embedded in the pdf files, is there a way to extract that into Zotero libraries and make every file in consistency? It's fine to stay as it is now, it'd just be better to have that consistency. Also a related point is that I couldn't edit previous notes in the new reader.

3. Zoom in/out in mac using trackpad is not smooth.

I'm heavily dependent on pdf note taking & integration for generating frameworks / thoughts. So I couldn't express how excited I was to find that Zotero built an in-app reader. Huge thanks to the wonderful team!

-Alan

dstillman

(Please start new threads for new issues — the thread you posted to isn't related. I've moved this to a new thread.)

2. Before, the annotations were embedded in the pdf files, is there a way to extract that into Zotero libraries and make every file in consistency? […] Also a related point is that I couldn't edit previous notes in the new reader.

Yes, you can use File → Import Annotations… to convert embedded annotations to Zotero annotations. Once imported, the annotations will be editable.

zycyc

Thank you for doing that and explaining the second question!