Highlighting text in PDF in Zotero

sonitalele
Hello,

I am trying to highlight text in one of the PDF files in Zotero. However when I hit "Save" I get a message asking me to specify the location. On directing it to save in the "storage" folder of Zotero on my computer, and opening the pdf file again the highlights do not appear.
Does Zotero offer this functionality? How should I address this issue?

Best
Sonali
  • Gracile
    How did you open the PDF?

    If you want to make some changes to a file (such as highlighting) and save it, you must save it at the very same location, i.e. you must replace the original file, which is in a *subfolder* of the Zotero storage folder:
    …/zotero/storage/QGGM6ZFX/yourfile.pdf
    (QGGM6ZFX or another random name)

    You can check the location of the file by selecting "Show File" in Zotero, by right-clicking on the relevant item or through the Locate Menu)

    https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#library_contents
  • sonitalele
    Hi Gracile,

    I open the PDF attached to the citation in Zotero standalone.
    Interestingly the highlighting function works well in a Mac and I also do not get a message asking me a location to save the file.
    I recently reinstalled Zotero on my work computer and am wondering if that might be a reason. Any specific settings I need to look at?

    Thanks.
  • mgreis
    Sonitalele,

    I don't know what version of the Acrobat reader you are using, but you may be running into this problem if you are using latest Acrobat Reader DC. (I found this information somewhere in the forums and saved it.)


    You must de-select Show online storage when saving files in Acrobat Reader's preferences (Edit -> Preferences -> General).

    Otherwise, you will not get the Windows Save dialog and will have to manually navigate to the location of the document.

    • Go to Edit > Preferences.

    • Select General from Categories.

    • Uncheck "Show online storage when saving files" option.

    • Click OK

  • sonitalele
    Thank you Mgreis ! That helped. I can now save the highlighted pdf.
    Thank you all for your help.
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