Upgrade Storagefeature request: enhance pdf viewer
Hi
I was pleased to see the new simple integrated PDF viewer. However it doesn't quite have the functionality needed in my view. I think that most people when annotating academic papers would simply like to make notes in the 'margin' and that these notes would always be visible (or at least be default). Something like this https://s3.amazonaws.com/libapps/accounts/120769/images/Annotation_2__2_.jpg. If notes are hidden (as they are now) and you need to open each to view it then it is much less of a useful aid - i.e. they will most likely not be opened and then be forgotten. Similarly if notes sit over the top of text they are a really annoying impediment. Given margins are different sizes in different pdfs notes would ideally be automatically added outside of the pdf doc in the gray space surrounding - think comments in Word. People typically also want to link a note to some specific passage of text or figure and so arrows linking notes to text/figures are also of great use in my view. Strangely I didn't get find an external pdf editor that allows you to do this is a nice streamlined way or I would just use that. I guess there is some problem with putting elements outside of the page space of the pdf (i.e. to left and right) but it seems this could easily be overcome by adding some extra padding. Finally, I think it would be better if the notes get automatically put in the actual PDF so that you don't need to do anything special if you want to move to another ref manager.
Thanks
Adam
I was pleased to see the new simple integrated PDF viewer. However it doesn't quite have the functionality needed in my view. I think that most people when annotating academic papers would simply like to make notes in the 'margin' and that these notes would always be visible (or at least be default). Something like this https://s3.amazonaws.com/libapps/accounts/120769/images/Annotation_2__2_.jpg. If notes are hidden (as they are now) and you need to open each to view it then it is much less of a useful aid - i.e. they will most likely not be opened and then be forgotten. Similarly if notes sit over the top of text they are a really annoying impediment. Given margins are different sizes in different pdfs notes would ideally be automatically added outside of the pdf doc in the gray space surrounding - think comments in Word. People typically also want to link a note to some specific passage of text or figure and so arrows linking notes to text/figures are also of great use in my view. Strangely I didn't get find an external pdf editor that allows you to do this is a nice streamlined way or I would just use that. I guess there is some problem with putting elements outside of the page space of the pdf (i.e. to left and right) but it seems this could easily be overcome by adding some extra padding. Finally, I think it would be better if the notes get automatically put in the actual PDF so that you don't need to do anything special if you want to move to another ref manager.
Thanks
Adam
(I realize that may not be applicable if you don't own an iPad, but just putting this here in case others are wondering about such functionality.)
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For example, in-band (text) metadata could be included in a note causing the Zotero PDF viewer to display the note in one of the margins.
In a regular, standards-compliant PDF viewer (e.g. when exporting), these would instead appear as standard notes overlaid on top of the page, just as they do now. By doing this in-band, the Zotero database schema for storing notes _would not_ need to be updated.
Example note contents:
“{x-zotero-pdf margin-left-40} This is my note text. I like writing notes when I am reading.”
Zotero could display this in the margin, in this example starting 40% down from the top of the page in the left margin: “This is my note text. I like writing notes when I am reading.”
Other PDF readers would display the full note text, including the ‘command codes’, or perhaps these could be automatically stripped out upon PDF export.
@JimGrisham : this sounds optimal from my perspective
@dstillman : you mean highlighting and image annotating (with 'Add note') in the inbuilt pdf viewer? re annotations scrolling automatically with doc scrolling - it would be an improvement but probably not enough for me to switch from my current (very imperfect) workflow of using 'notes' in Foxit pdf reader. Shortcoming would be 1) being able to use both margins 2) having arrows which link text to notes 3) portability (i.e. being able to give the pdf to someone and for them to make sense of what notes refer to etc).
To contrast, shortcomings with my current Foxit method are that 1) linking arrows only appear when you select the note 2) you can't make the notes appear by default in the margins, they therefore need to be moved manually and are thus a bit messy 3) the note size doesn't accommodate to the length of the note 4) the note doesn't highlight a passage of text, it just points to a specific point in the text. Here's an image of a pdf annotated in foxit as I currently do it https://pasteboard.co/tLM8OSrqlXG0.png ... as you see nothing fancy, just essentially trying to emulate the 'traditional' way one would annotate a printed doc.
thanks
Adam
While Zotero tries to improve upon the usual experience of highlighting, you can at least view them in most readers, so you can just export the PDF from Zotero and share them. They're entirely portable.
(Zotero extends highlight annotations by supporting the concept of image annotations. Within Zotero that will show the selected image in the sidebar, in notes, and in word processor documents. Those are exported as basic rectangle annotations with comments, though not all PDF readers show comments for shape annotations.)
(Underlining is an obvious exception because it's functionally equivalent to highlighting, so it can derive the same benefits from the integration.)