PDF highlighting and sticky notes

thanksmalc
I am still not clear, after reading several related threads, whether I can link to a pdf and open it in the snapshot view so that I can highlight and sticky-note the sucker.

I am using an Intel Mac, Firefox, Zotero, 'preview' as my pdf reader....

Also, I have been unable to get Firefox/Zotero to open a pdf in the Firefox browser. I downloaded adobe reader, but couldn't add the Reader plug-in to Firefox. Firefox would just open the doc outside Firefox in the Reader.

Suggestions are very welcome.

BTW The pdf I would like to use most is 71 pages long, so I would settle for a way to cut and paste, then highlight and notate those clippings in zotero.
  • noksagt
    whether I can link to a pdf and open it in the snapshot view so that I can highlight and sticky-note the sucker.
    No. Zotero is not able to edit PDFs.
    Also, I have been unable to get Firefox/Zotero to open a pdf in the Firefox browser. I downloaded adobe reader, but couldn't add the Reader plug-in to Firefox.
    The use of PDF plugins for firefox are a bit off topic here. I don't believe the Adobe Reader plugin works with Firefox and other Gecko-based browsers on OS X. You might need to use something like PDF Browser Plugin (freeware for noncommercial use). But, since zotero can't edit PDFs, you may not need to do this anymore.
  • thanksmalc
    edited September 9, 2007
    Thanks.
  • noksagt
    I don't believe I misunderstood.
    1) I am not trying to edit a PDF. I am trying to do what I have been able to do with webpages in Zotero, while conducting reserach, namely highlighting and sticky notes.
    Highlighting and notes within a PDF are not supported in Zotero.

    Again, there is third party software that you might be able to use to perform these operations (which do constitute "editing").
    If they are not opened in the browser, my goal stated above would be impossible...
    Your stated goal is impossible in Zotero. Viewing PDFs within your browser (using a plugin) is not impossible. But neither is it really related to Zotero.
  • thanksmalc
    My magical fantasy world:

    Highlighting and sticky note postings were acts of note-taking, not editing (sequencing, splicing, cutting, pasting, altering, etc...);

    PDF viewing in Firefox, so that Zotero would let me highlight and sticky note, seemed very closely related;

    and these features were available in Zotero.

    Apologies for straying so far off topic.
  • noksagt
    No worries. Firefox doesn't know much about PDFs & the plugins don't have APIs, so firefox extensions don't know much about PDFs either. (Zotero knows a tiny bit about them by using the binary pdf tools form poppler/xpdf.)

    For note taking on PDFs, you might try jarnal or multivalent or other tools listed here.
  • dstillman
    edited September 10, 2007
    Again, not really related since, as noksagt notes, Zotero can't access documents within plugin-enabled documents (like PDFs) anyway, but as far as I know there's still no native PDF reader plugin for Intel Macs for any browser. Neither the Schubert plugin nor (amazingly enough) the Acrobat one is Intel-native yet.
  • dmarkwa
    Firefox PDF Plug-in for Mac OS X 1.0.3 works great for me.

    What I wish was that when I hilight text, I can right click and save as a Zotero note from the PDF. That doesn't seem possible.

    Also, the other feature tabs, notes, tags, etc, are not available when I hilight a PDF that I have listed in Zotero
  • dstillman
    Firefox PDF Plug-in for Mac OS X 1.0.3 works great for me.
    Yes, both the Firefox PDF Plugin and the Schubert|it plugin have since become available for Intel Macs.
    What I wish was that when I hilight text, I can right click and save as a Zotero note from the PDF. That doesn't seem possible.
    It's not. Adobe doesn't provide an open API that allows us to do this.
    Also, the other feature tabs, notes, tags, etc, are not available when I hilight a PDF that I have listed in Zotero
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/missing_item_tabs
  • alonzo_riley
    Why not convert the pdf to html? Then you could just view the html as a snapshot and do all the editing you like. It's a few extra steps, but perhaps worth it?
  • adamsmith
    this has been discussed before - html conversion of pdfs is very buggy and will not satisfy most users.
  • JohnDuffy
    edited October 15, 2011
    I've found two ways to add highlighting and notes to pdfs in Zotero.

    The first was a workaround, which was to drag the pdf to an external folder, open it, make changes, save it, and drag it back into the entry in Zotero, and delete the original.

    But by chance I found another, much better, way. To the left of the sync button is the 'Locate' drop down list. Select 'Open in external viewer', make changes, save, and close (no need to Save-As...). Changes are then saved in Zotero, and visible when just double-clicking on the pdf, or when opening in an external viewer again. I use Foxit Reader, but I expect that the same would apply to Adobe Reader too.

    (Edit: Added more details about indexing markups here: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/987/2/can-i-annotate-my-pdf-snapshots/#Comment_105466)
  • simondedman
    thumbs up for this, thanks John.
  • sonofx51
    Yep, thumbs up for Johns approach.

    And even though its unrelated, but if you want to avoid always clicking "open in external viewer" you can just set your firefox options on pdfs (firefox - options - applications tab), under "Portable file format" on "use Adobe Acrobat as default" or any other external viewer.

    This way your pdfs will open always outside the browser with the program you want.
  • fabmeie
    JohnDuffy you're my hero! thank you so much for this input!!!!
Sign In or Register to comment.