Can't select text in PDF file for copy and paste into child note

richardparkerdc
Zotero doesn't allow me to select text in Zotero-captured PDF files for copying and pasting into a child note. I can highlight a bit of text, then the highlighting jumps to the paragraph above. If I download the pdf file to my laptop library and then select, copy and paste from different window, no problem. But that is a hassle. The problem arises when trying to copy text from pdf in the Firefox pane above zotero. Any fixes?

I'm running Firefox 41.0.2 on MacBook Yosemite OSX 10.10.5.
  • adamsmith
    unless I'm misunderstanding, that's a complaint about Firefox's built in PDF viewer (which indeed isn't always great with selecting text) and has nothing to do with Zotero beyond the fact that Zotero opens PDFs in FF's default viewer. You can change Firefox's default behavior.
  • richardparkerdc
    Re-assigning blame is not terribly helpful. But i did jsut find a workaround that other readers may benefit from: Select "open in external viewer" and then copy and paste from the external pane. That seems to work fine and solves the problem.
  • adamsmith
    it's not about re-assigning blame, it's about understanding which software does what on your computer, which is often key in getting your computer to do what you want. (you wouldn't, say, complain about your browser when your internet connection is broken either, although that does render your browser pretty useless). Zotero simply does not have a PDF reader, so it obviously can't solve any problems you have with a PDF reader.
    Still, I did offer you a solution:
    "You can change Firefox's default behavior. "
    Using the "external viewer" option is a way to do this on a one-off basis. You can change Firefox's application settings (under preferences) to do this in all cases.
  • richardparkerdc
    Thanks so much for the patient explanation. I get it now, and your way is better because permanent.
  • drgrahamwilson
    PDF handling in Zotero IS a hassle, even if it isn't entirely a problem with Zotero itself. Online publications increasingly seem to appear as PDFs the details of which can't be copied into Zotero.

    I realise that many PDF creators don't store metadata, but it would be good if their metadata, at least, could be copied automatically.
  • dstillman
    drgrahamwilson: That's not really related to the above. Start a new thread and give examples of sites that you can't save from but would expect to.

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