Is there a way to quickly add a note in PDF reader

CAVALDigitalPlatforms · July 8, 2022

At the moment, when I want to add a quote to a note, I have to toggle from the info tab to the notes tab> click on the plus icon > click on add an item note and then highlight the text I want to copy across, and click "Add to note" on the pop-up. Is there a way to do this that doesn't involve quite so many steps? CTRL+SHIFT+O can be used to create a note for a selected item in the center pane, but doesn't seem to work in PDF reader. This would be ideal, as I could then at least create the new note quickly.

dstillman · July 8, 2022

It's not expected that you would be creating individual notes for each quote as you read — that's the whole point of annotations. You highlight as you read, you add comments to the annotations, and then, later, you create a note from all the annotations and comments in a single step. And you can, if you prefer, first filter the annotations by color or tag in the annotations tab of the sidebar to create a note from a specific set of annotations.

In an upcoming version, you'll be able to see annotations from the main library view (which might address whatever use case is causing you to think you need to create individual notes).

CAVALDigitalPlatforms · July 8, 2022

Hmm, that doesn't really work for me, even if it's not "expected" or prescribed. I find I usually understand the relevance of key passages without needing to spell it out for future me, and tagging provides enough grouping to meet my needs. Adding them all to the same note just makes them hard to find later. You do you, obviously, and I'll keep clicking a bunch of times to add my notes - it's not the end of the world if we do things differently. It was worth asking the question to see if I was overlooking something obvious, however, even though I do seem to have caused you a degree of irritation.

dstillman · July 8, 2022

Huh? I'm a developer of Zotero — I'm explaining why Zotero works the way it does, not sharing my personal workflow. No idea where you got "degree of irritation" from. The point of these forums is to ask questions.

I find I usually understand the relevance of key passages without needing to spell it out for future me

I don't see how this follows. Whether you add comments to the annotations is irrelevant. The point is that, by highlighting, you create a distinct entity in the database for that quote, so tediously copying it into a note is redundant — particularly since, as I say, you'll be able to view annotations in the library view in an upcoming version. If there's a particular output for your workflow that requires individual notes, that's something that would better be addressed by later processing the annotations in some way (e.g., an integration plugin for a given text editor could pull annotations directly — they don't need to be in notes).

CAVALDigitalPlatforms · July 8, 2022

cool - thanks for clarifying. it is tedious copying it into the note, and being able to see the annotations in the library view will make things a lot easier. It seems like you've already understood the need I was trying to express. Basically I just want to be able to identify useful content as I'm reading and then have a way of reviewing those both collectively and in context, so when I'm writing stuff up I can scan through and make sure I haven't missed any really good points, incorporate them into my argument and subsequently defend my use of any quotes if required to do so. Notes as they currently work support this pretty well, actually, but it sounds like the expanded functionality you're currently building will do something similar, but in a much more painless fashion. Thanks for taking the time to help me understand the system a bit better - I do appreciate your time.