Any way to have annotations automatically saved in PDF file?

swaldman
Before version 6 I used to annotate in my favoured PDF reader, then have Zotfile pull the annotations into a Zotero note.

I understand that I can still do this in Zotero 6 if I ignore the built-in PDF reader. But I do want to embrace this advance, and I like the ability to work on a Note alongside the PDF I'm reading.

But having annotations only saved in the database, and not in the PDF, makes me nervous. One of the reasons I liked Zotero over competitors was knowing that all the work I'd put in wasn't tied up in a proprietary format (although yes, it being open source does mitigate this somewhat).

I see there's an "Export PDF" option. Is there any way to have a PDF exported - i.e. the PDF file updated with new or changed annotations - automatically?

If not, please can this be considered as a RFE?

Thank you.
  • dstillman
    edited March 20, 2022
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/annotations_in_database

    There's absolutely no reason to be nervous here.
  • moore.709
    One thing that I think would help with clarifying this - and maybe already exists -
    can we do the Export of zotero annotations into the pdf files
    as a batch of multiple or all pdfs rather than one file at a time?
  • adamsmith
    It's available in batch
  • moore.709
    Thank you, @adamsmith
  • karahanyilmazer
    I had the same thoughts as @swaldman. I see that the batch export works quite well. However, after exporting a PDF with annotations and reopening it in Zotero, the annotations become read-only. But they can be deleted/edited in 3rd party software.

    I feel like this problem has to be solved as well. Thank you for the great work!
  • dstillman
    @karahanyilmazer: I'm not sure what problem you're referring to. You can export PDFs with annotations from Zotero. If you later want to add those PDFs back to Zotero and edit the annotations, you can re-add the files and import the annotations from the built-in PDF reader like any other PDF with embedded annotations. What you can't do is transfer annotations from the database to the file while keeping the same attachment, for the reasons we've explained.
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