Annotations 'locked' in LH Pane

rrbba
The annotations created by highlighting text in the new PDF reader become 'Locked' for some reason. (Padlock symbol appears above the individual annotation boxes). I can't delete the annotation nor modify it in any way. The 'delete' option in right click menu is greyed out. I must be making some basic mistake :-( . Ideas appreciated!
  • dstillman
    Those are just annotations stored in the PDF file, either because you created them in an external PDF reader or you transferred them into the file with File → Store Annotations in File.

    If you want to convert them to editable Zotero annotations, use File → Import Annotations.
  • rrbba
    Thank you @dstillman! Knew it was some dumb mistake on my part! It was my first time using your PDF reader (which is excellent BTW!) and I was adding further annotation to the document. I could edit those new ones but didn't connect the need to import the old ones to Zotero. Guess I was fooled because the fact they 'showed up' in the left pane and in the PDF so made me think they were present for editing. Did File → Import Annotations as you suggested - all good now!
  • rrbba
    @dstillman Doesn't require a solution, but an observation of those 'imported' annotations created outside of the Zotero PDF reader - the annotation itself is reproduced in the 'comments' field for that annotation. But usually in a less accurate rendition, e.g. spelling mistakes from added or dropped letters, words split in two. Easy to clean up when I go back to the annotation, just seems odd that it would populate that field.
  • dstillman
    edited February 20, 2022
    That's your external PDF reader doing that, not Zotero, and you can probably turn it off. But we may be able to skip importing those. See this comment for details.
  • rrbba
    Thanks for the link to the comment @dstillman . I found the option that was causing this duplication in my external PDF editor (Power PDF) and have successfully imported new annotations. ✔
  • jcmeunier
    @dstillman Thank you. I had the same issue. Solved in 3 seconds.

    Zotero was already an amazing tool, but these recent additions rock it all, particularly the excellent .pdf reader!
    Congratulations to the whole team! What an amazing job, really!

    I have noticed that I cannot right-click on a pdf and "extract annotations" anymore using Zotfile. I presume you have gotten rid of that function because it is made obsolete by the options of the new .pdf reader, right? Or is it that Zotfil needs to be updated?
  • dstillman
    @jcmeunier: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/zotfile_extract_annotations
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