Is it possible to have zotero desktop open attachments in browser (via database storage)

When I want to access the attached pdf of an item using zotero desktop, the file is synced and downloaded and opens using adobe acrobat. I was hoping to just access these attachments (which are saved on our team's zotero database storage) in browser. Is this possible or does the desktop client require attachments be synced and downloaded (even if only as needed)?
  • The file that is being opened is the locally-synced file. If you want to open the local PDF in your browser instead of Acrobat, you can change which program Zotero uses to open PDFs in the General pane of Zotero settings.

    If you want to view the item on the publisher's webpage, then you can either click the URL or DOI label in the item data in the right pane in Zotero or right-click the item and choose View Online. That will load up the publisher page, rather than opening the local attachment file.
  • can the desktop client be set to open the same database links that the new in-browser library opens attachments with? (the link is at files.zotero.net/ and accesses the storage our team pays for)
  • When you sync your Zotero library to the desktop client, it syncs the files in Zotero storage. If you edit the file in Acrobat, those edits will be synced to the Zotero storage. They are the same file.
  • I don’t know why you would to view the item on files.zotero.net; that will be a much more limited experience than viewing it locally.

    What exactly is your goal here? What problem are you trying to solve?
  • we had some rather large documents which I was hoping we could avoid having to download locally (which would be possible if the documents were accessible via browser), but its not a very big problem.
  • Your browser still has to download the file for you to view it, so you're not actually avoiding downloading anything by viewing it online.

    The one difference is that files downloaded within the Zotero app remain on your computer afterward, and for that we're planning to offer some ways to limit how long downloaded files are stored and the amount of space used for downloaded files. That'll be in a future version.
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