[Zotero beta] Export annotated PDF: highlight w/ note not exported

daniel.e.weeks
I like the feature that after highlighting some text in a PDF, you can click on the highlight and add a note by typing some text in the pop-up box - that is very nice.

However, I would like to be able to share my annotated PDF with others who are not using Zotero, and so tested the 'Export PDF' option. Looks like the colored highlights exported OK, but the notes I added to the highlights were not exported.

Would be nice, if possible, to adjust this so that a highlight with a note is properly exported.

Thank you,
Dan

P.S. A standalone Note was exported properly.
  • dstillman
    Where are you viewing the file?

    Comments are included in the export. Different viewers just show them in different ways (and they're often more hidden than in Zotero's viewer).
  • daniel.e.weeks
    Oh, I see the highlight-associated comments when the file is opened in Acrobat Reader on my MacBook Air, but do not see them in the default view when I open the file in the Preview app. However, if I open the 'Highlights and Notes' pane in Preview, I do see the highlight-associated comments. Wish Preview in its default view would make it more obvious which highlights have notes.

    So this is a deficiency in the Preview app, not in what Zotero is doing.

    Thanks again for making Zotero so wonderful!

    Thank you,
    Dan
  • dstillman
    Yes, Preview only shows them in the sidebar.
  • daniel.e.weeks
    Actually if I highlight some text in Preview and then add a note to that, the note shows up a little square of the same color as the highlight, up and to the right (If I delete the highlight, the associated note vanishes).

    If I then open that in Acrobat Reader, the new highlight + note shows up exactly the same as the Zotero-created highlight + notes, with a small clickable comment/note icon on the upper right end of the highlight. From Acrobat Reader's point of view, it seems that the Preview-created highlight + note and the Zotero-created highlight + note are exactly the same, but Preview strangely displays these differently.

    Dan
  • dstillman
    @martynas_b might know what's going on there.

    If I create a highlight with a comment in Acrobat Reader, that shows the small note icon in Preview as well, so there may be something we're not adding to the exported file.
  • martynas_b
    Yes, we will try to fix that.
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