Direct link from a Zotero note to an annotation in the Zotero pdf viewer

I have seen that it is possible to create an annotation in the Zotero pdf viewer, with a link to the note location in the pdf file. Then I can copy paste the annotation into a Zotero note.
The content pasted in the Zotero note has the citation information to open the item in the main library.
This is nice, but I would prefer to be able to go directly from the note to the annotation in the pdf file, with the annotation opened in the annotations pane and the correct location in the pdf file. Is that possible?
  • You mean you can return back to highlight/image annotation, but there isn't a way to do that for note annotation?
  • I was not able to see the "Show on Page" popup before. But after trying again, it is working fine now, as described here:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/pdf_reader
    I have been playing with the different settings in Zotero in between so I am not sure what happened. I cannot reproduced anymore, so it is good.

    Some other points observed while playing around (some of which may be features rather than bugs, some appearing random as I did not understand the pattern leading to one behaviour or another):
    1) Drag and drop of an annotation from the annotations panel or the pdf viewer into a note adds a Carriage Return character before the annotation. There is usually no CR when using Ctrl+C Ctrl+V.
    2) In some cases, I see the content from the annotation copied to the note producing two different lines, with the annotation text in the first line and the citation on the second line. I saw this with both copy paste shortcut and drag and drop from the annotation to the note.
    3) From right-click on an annotation, either in the annotations panel or in the pdf viewer, I would have expected to see the option to copy the annotation, considering that it is possible to do so.
    4) I can do right click to copy a citation obtained from the annotation, showing at the same time the "Show Item" popup. But the right click on the annotation content part does not show the option to copy, while showing the "Show on Page" popup.
    5) Markdown format inserted manually in the note is not interpreted, like [Test](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/DC4CVXND). Is there a way to add such markdown formatting manually in the note? Or edit manually the markdown format of an annotation after being imported into the note?
    6) Nested annotations in the comment of another annotation do not seem to be possible. It would be nice to include more complex navigation tools within the pdf viewer, like "See definition [here](link)". I guess the same formatting as a normal note could be used in the comment part of an annotation?
    7) Another way to produce more complex navigation within the pdf viewer would be to drag and drop an annotation into another part of the pdf, generating this way a link back to the annotation; in a similar way as when copying to a note. A sort of integrated "see [here](link)" functionality.
    8) The "Show on Page" popup link goes to the annotation in the pdf viewer, but it does not go to (select) the annotation in the annotation panel. This could be useful to have for a pdf with a large number of annotations.
    9) A newly created child note does not appear immediately in the notes panel when opening the pdf file. I don't know what triggers the refreshing of the "Item Notes" list, but even closing and reopening the pdf file may not be sufficient.
    10) When opening an item child note in a separate window, I cannot see anywhere the information of the parent item. This information critical to understand the context of the note, so I guess it should appear somewhere.

    I have no idea about the work behind. But the new capabilities of Zotero 6 are really amazing and give many more ideas to build on it. Thank you very much for your work.

    Tests done with Zotero version 6.0.10-beta.11+b5be7cbd5 on Windows 10.
  • Some good points here!

    I can reproduce 1) and 9).

    Could you send a screenshot for 2)?
  • edited July 21, 2022
    After trying many times, here is a repeatable procedure to obtain 2): Zotero_NoteLink_01.png

    a) Write some text in a note ("Test"). The position of the text in the note or the content do not seem important. Even an empty first line seems to work.
    b) Press enter to go to the next line.
    c) Drag and drop an annotation from the Zotero PDF viewer in that new line.
    d) Drag and drop again the same note after the text in the text line of a) (red arrow in the screenshot).
    e) This results in the annotation content broken into 2 different lines, with the Carriage Return character automatically inserted before the citation part (red circle in the screenshot).
    f) If you repeat d), it will add another Carriage Return character again exactly in the same place.

    In some cases, repeating the process would duplicate the citation part in the broken annotation.
    This process suggests that 2) is related to 1).
    Hopefully this is repeatable for you also.
  • @mjthoraval That was helpful — thanks. We identified the issue, and it'll be fixed in one of the upcoming releases.
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