Exporting and finding highlights and annotations

Is there any way to search for either highlighted text or annotations in Zotero? They are both pretty features, but they are much less use if they can't be accessed except by scrolling and clicking.

Use Case: I make a snapshot of a web page. I read it quickly, highlighting the relevant quotes. How can I export the highlighted text to my word processor?

At times, I want to put a virtual post-it on the highlight too, something like "The bodies are buried here". Again, I can do this in Zotero, but how can I export it? How can I search for these annotations?

If these things are impossible, can anyone suggest a way to use notes, which can be searched and exported, to do the same thing? I have solved similar problems in openoffice with a bit of macro programming, which makes highlighted text into bookmarks, so that it is visible both onscreen and through the API. But it would be good if Zotero could do the same.
  • edited May 2, 2008
    There is currently no way to search through only your highlighting and sticky notes. That said, Zotero's basic search will search through the full text of your pages and the full text of the sticky notes stuck to those pages. If enough people are interested it could be useful to add both highlighting and sticky notes as options for setting up advanced searches.

    There is a ticket for including sticky notes in reports, and when Zotero includes options for making reports more customizable that should offer flexible solution for exporting sticky notes.
  • OK. Well, can I open a ticket for including highlighted text in reports too? I appreciate that search will find the terms I am looking for. The trouble is that I can't remember what they are until I see the highlight :-) Highlighting can be a way of picking out the significant quotes to make an outline of the argument of the whole paper.
Sign In or Register to comment.