dictionary, writing, and highlighting

karen wong
I am using Zetero as my reference management tool. I usually incorporate articles into Zetero and read it in Zetero. I learned that there is a software which you can put your sensor over a word and you can get a brief explanation of the word (like a dictionary). Is there a similar software which could work like this in Zetero?

Another question that I can "write" on PDF using Adobe, but it seems this writing function is not available on Zetero? (On Zetero, I can only put a note and add notes.) Any recommendation?

Lastly, my highlightings and notes seem disappeared if I export my article out from Zetero. Is there anyway I can keep my highlights and notes?

Thanks a lot!
  • adamsmith
    1. No, doesn't exist. It could be done -- there's a translator plugin -- but doesn't currently exist.
    2. Pen integration is available on iOS, not currently on the Desktop app. I think it's likely going to happen, but probably not super soon.
    3. How are you exporting the article? With the standard options -- save as from the PDF reader or Export from the library view -- all annotations get saved into standard PDF format and should be visible in any standard PDF readers (including Acrobat, Foxit, Preview, etc.; only exception is Skim on Mac).
  • hsiangyu_wong
    edited September 19, 2022
    Not sure which translator plugin @adamsmith is referring to. Just to clarify, the PDF Translate plugin(https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-pdf-translate) supports 4 services of 3 types of dictionaries(en2zh, en2ja, en2en) currently and I can add more online dictionary services if you want. The English dictionary is FreeDictionary(https://dictionaryapi.dev/) currently.

    Not hover-to-show-explanation, but selecting a word and automatically/manually clicking the button to show the explanation.
  • adamsmith
    Ah, didn't realize you had en2en built into the PDF Translate tool, that's great.
  • gnista
    I would be happy to see a dictionary added to the list, for example the one you suggested. The translation works great, but to be able to get a short explanation of the word would be very useful.

    thank you!
  • adamsmith
    As noted above, those are an option in the translate add-on
  • arakan
    hello, will there be a support for offline translation/dictionary for the said plugin in the future?
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