Extract Annotations for each color: Zotero 6

ajcj

In Zotero 5, it was possible to have Zotfile make a new note for each of the color annotations (e.g., green annotations would contain annotations that were in green color). In Zotero 6, I only see one file. I see that I have an option to toggle color on/off but I wanted to ask if there is a way to create separate notes for each of the annotations. Right now, when I extract to markdown, there isn't any color information embedded.

TLDR: Is there a way to make a new note for each of the color annotations as Zotfile allowed you to do in Zotero 5?

warguelles

Yes, there is a way to create notes associated with each color. This is my workflow:

- In the left pane, successively select the different colors.

- In the right pane, create a new note (with the option “Add item note”). First, I create a heading, which will be the title of the note that will group the annotations of a given color.

- Move the annotations of the selected color (in the left pane), to the newly created note in the right pane. I have a template created for those notes so that they will be formatted the way I want when I export them to the markdown editor (Obsidian in my case).

- Repeat these steps for each color.

In the end, I have a group of notes associated with each article, with its own title.

dstillman

Right now, when I extract to markdown, there isn't any color information embedded.

If that's the sole concern, you can add a label for each color using a note template. It will likely be possible to assign labels to colors in a future version, and those would be included when exporting to Markdown.

If there's sufficient demand, we can consider the ability to automatically create separate notes for each color in a future version.

warguelles

If there's sufficient demand, we can consider the ability to automatically create separate notes for each color in a future version.

It could be great to have this functionality. Thank you!

sol_pm

Thank you @warguelles for the workaround. I have been using it!

It would be great to have an automatic version as the Zotfile functionality, especially when you have hundreds of annotations.

Thanks!

rrbba

I agree, this would be a great functionality to have. Sorting/filtering of the notes this way is a powerful tool during synthesis and further composition.

ingewertwijn

I don't understand how to change the note template(s) so that my colours get exported
Unfortunately, this renders the entire update to Zotero 6 useless to me.

I also cannot find an option not to use the new editor and go back to my trusted Acrobat editor. Other than viewing the item in a folder and then starting up acrobat. Which is a lot of extra work, as I work with many documents.

So, my old way of working does not work well any more, and the new way is not useful to me. Such a pity. I don't understand why Zotero had made its own editor. There are plenty of those around.

arggem

To change back to your trusted Acrobat editor:

Go to Edit/Preferences/General/Open PDFs Using ____ (about half way down)

ajcj

@ingewertwijn So I found a workaround to extract color annotations. A zotfile version is currently compatible with Zotero 6. If you visit Obsidian Discord and navigate to Academia, you should be able to see the pinned message with a Zotfile that's compatible. Then you can simply toggle the updates off and preserve your existing workflow.

You can simply change the option to open pdfs in the Edit → Preferences → General and select System Default. You'll be able to simply double click the items to open them (as you used to).

Hope this helps.

astroHao

@ajcj The exactly same issue led me to downgrade to the last Zotero 5 version, just FYI.

dstillman

I don't understand how to change the note template(s) so that my colours get exported

@ingewertwijn: You'd have to say what you actually mean by this. Annotations added to notes include color information already — you can toggle it on and off from the three-dots menu in the note editor.

If you're looking to do something else, you'd have to be more specific. As I say above, it's already possible to create a note template that includes a label for a given color.

moore.709

-- adding my vote to have Create-Note-By-Separate-Color as a high priority

Sometimes I might want all color highlights together, but I think I would more often want to see those of a single color together in a note;
we always have the option to open the pdf to read through all colors together, not clipped/shortened, in the body of the pdf.
(we can see colors filtered in the left pane of the Zotero Reader, but with everything clipped or shortened unless you click on each one twice)

dstillman

@moore.709: We'll likely do this, but if your primary concern is just being able to read annotations without truncation and don't need to edit them, you should start a new thread for that — we can certainly consider some way to expand all annotations in the annotations sidebar (where you can already easily filter annotations by color).

moore.709

Thanks so much for your reply, @dstillman .

That's an interesting idea.
I have to say I don't initially have a strong opinion on
Create-Note-By-Color vs. Expand-All-In-Reader.

I'm not yet doing the other things with notes that seem popular like extracting to a separate tool or editing them in the Note editor but they're in my mental list of ideas.
I would absolutely use a toggle button or such to Expand-All-Annotations, to read what amounts to my short version of an article, although maybe an edited Note would be better.

I'll think on it and maybe make that feature request tomorrow ~