Reading and annotating articles on the IPad

Hello,

I'm a PhD student and new to Zotero. I started using IPad with Apple pencil (pdf expert app), and it has been a very good annotation experience. I also use Zotero extension on my browser on Macbook to collect articles, set names from metadata, manage attachments etc. I think it will help me manage bibliography and citations later on :).

Eventhough I read some forum discussions and tutorials, I'm still not sure if and how it is possible to :

- collect articles from browser on IPad
- have all attachments I have collected previously (pdfs of the articles and papers) available to read on the IPad (sync with Mac, using google drive or another cloud provider)
- pick an article, annotate it on IPad, and overwrite the original file with annotated file (I know zotero supports only papership for IPad, which does not support apple pencil annotations, correct me if I am wrong).

Many colleagues are also interested in the same feature, as annotation with the pencil can be much more engaging during the reading and gives an experience that's close to pen and paper writing without the egological impact, and with the advantage of having everything synchronized and easy to find.

Anyone knows how to do this ?
  • Hi

    you can use https://www.zotero.org/download/bookmarklet
    to collect articles from browser on IPad

    and try http://zotfile.com
    for the other points.

    it's not as frictionless as it should be but I think it can be made to work

    J
  • So three questions. The current answer is that you can't have all three at once.

    1. collect articles from browser on IPad

    See https://www.zotero.org/download/bookmarklet

    2. have all attachments I have collected previously (pdfs of the articles and papers) available to read on the IPad (sync with Mac, using google drive or another cloud provider)

    That's only possible either via the mobile page of papership (which I wouldn't recommend, since they're no longer maintaining/supporting the app)

    3. pick an article, annotate it on IPad, and overwrite the original file with annotated file (I know zotero supports only papership for IPad, which does not support apple pencil annotations, correct me if I am wrong).

    You can look at ZotFile and the "send to tablet" feature for that, in combination with Dropbox or a different sync service. Note that this means you have to previously decide what to read, though.

    And yes, Zotero is developing its own iOS app, but I don't have any ETA on this. Typically these things take a while.
  • edited April 12, 2019
    - have all attachments I have collected previously (pdfs of the articles and papers) available to read on the IPad (sync with Mac, using google drive or another cloud provider)
    - pick an article, annotate it on IPad, and overwrite the original file with annotated file (I know zotero supports only papership for IPad, which does not support apple pencil annotations, correct me if I am wrong).

    This is possible with Zotfile
    http://zotfile.com/

    Download and install Zotfile on your Mac
    In ZotFile preferences, under "Location of Files" choose "Custom Location"
    Select a folder that syncs to your Dropbox or iCloud
    In Zotero preferences, under Advanced - Files and Folders - Base Directory, choose the same folder
    Create a Saved Search for Attachment Type - is - PDF
    Go to that Saved Search and Select All

    Note: If you have too many pdfs you may not see a menu on control-click below--then instead of "Select All" choose a section of pdfs and continue, then repeat with the next set of pdfs

    Control-click on one of the selected PDFs
    Select Manage Attachments - Rename Attachments
    This should move all PDFs into your custom folder and sync them with your cloud

    Note: Zotfile changes the name of the PDF according to author/title/date of the source. You can customize this in preferences

    On your iPad, add your custom Zotero folder to your mobile PDF reader

    You can then work with PDFs on your iPad and your cloud service will sync the changes.

    ZotFile automatically renames and moves most of the PDFs downloaded via Zotero connectors. But some pdfs you add after the initial transfer you will have to rename/transfer using the Rename Attachment menu.
  • It's possible to have all PDF attachments synced to a cloud provider without using ZotFile.

    I just moved my storage folder in the Zotero data directory to iCloud drive and created a symlink back (see https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#alternative_syncing_solutions ). In this way all PDF attachments are synced via iCloud drive.

    The PDFs are organized in folders that are named in a way not very understandable but on the iPad you can use Spotlight or Files app to search for author or title to directly open the PDF, assuming you already have the PDFs renamed by Zotero automatically.

    To edit and save back just use the share sheet to open the file in an app that supports open-in-place (both Acrobat and PDF Expert will work).
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