Upgrade StorageInterconnected split views and PDF Viewer windows
Thank you very much for adding the nice split view feature. I have a few comments on additional enhancements that I would find very useful:
1) I agree with the comment of @danielborek in that thread. The ability to open internal links into the second PDF view would make this feature much more powerful. I would like to see references and figures from a single click in the first PDF view, without changing the current position in that view. Most PDF files with internal links include links to both references and figures, so having this ability to update the second view dynamically from the first view would be very nice. The content I want to see is usually controlled by the first PDF view, from where I would like to be able to control what I want to see in the second PDF view.
It may still be useful also to keep the internal links working in the first view, so adding a shortcut to choose where to open the internal link would solve that (maybe press Ctrl while clicking, similar to the shortcut to open a link in a new tab in a browser?). The default opening PDF view behaviour could be decided in the settings, exchanging the normal click and Ctrl+click behaviours.
2) I also would like to be able to open the annotations into the second PDF view in a similar way as internal links. I usually highlight the definitions in green during reading. So I get a quick access to them when they come up again in the text. I could use the back button for this, but the split view is much more powerful: I can simultaneously look at the definitions in their context in the split view, while still going though the text in the current reading position. No need to jump back and forth every time I realize that I did not understand clearly some details of the definitions.
3) It would be nice also to be able to activate this split view directly from an internal link, for example pressing Ctrl+click, even when the split view is closed or hidden.
4) In some cases, the split view is useful only for a short time, like checking a reference. After that, I would still prefer to return quickly to a full page view to continue reading the paper. It would be nice to have a faster way to toggle this split view, either from a shortcut or a toggle button at the top right for example.
5) If this navigation between views could be added, it would be nice also to extend this dynamics navigation feature to two different connected windows, so that it could be used on two monitors. Ctrl+clicking on a link in the first window would open it in the second view in the connected window.
6) It would be nice also to retain the full annotations capabilities in the second view. Editing in two PDF Viewer windows opened at the same time is already working nicely when a PDF file is opened both in the main Zotero window and in a separate window. The editing tools just need to be available on the active view. So the active view would need to be identified in some way.
Some use cases:
- Make annotation on figures and figures captions while reading.
- Make highlights on the important definitions of the paper, usually in the introduction, while still reading through the rest of the paper.
- Reading through and annotating the appendix while retaining the current reading position in the first view.
7) Switch between primary and secondary view: I would like to be able to jump to the appendix for a while, making it the primary view, but still keep the current reading position to restart reading from there after looking at the appendix.
1) I agree with the comment of @danielborek in that thread. The ability to open internal links into the second PDF view would make this feature much more powerful. I would like to see references and figures from a single click in the first PDF view, without changing the current position in that view. Most PDF files with internal links include links to both references and figures, so having this ability to update the second view dynamically from the first view would be very nice. The content I want to see is usually controlled by the first PDF view, from where I would like to be able to control what I want to see in the second PDF view.
It may still be useful also to keep the internal links working in the first view, so adding a shortcut to choose where to open the internal link would solve that (maybe press Ctrl while clicking, similar to the shortcut to open a link in a new tab in a browser?). The default opening PDF view behaviour could be decided in the settings, exchanging the normal click and Ctrl+click behaviours.
2) I also would like to be able to open the annotations into the second PDF view in a similar way as internal links. I usually highlight the definitions in green during reading. So I get a quick access to them when they come up again in the text. I could use the back button for this, but the split view is much more powerful: I can simultaneously look at the definitions in their context in the split view, while still going though the text in the current reading position. No need to jump back and forth every time I realize that I did not understand clearly some details of the definitions.
3) It would be nice also to be able to activate this split view directly from an internal link, for example pressing Ctrl+click, even when the split view is closed or hidden.
4) In some cases, the split view is useful only for a short time, like checking a reference. After that, I would still prefer to return quickly to a full page view to continue reading the paper. It would be nice to have a faster way to toggle this split view, either from a shortcut or a toggle button at the top right for example.
5) If this navigation between views could be added, it would be nice also to extend this dynamics navigation feature to two different connected windows, so that it could be used on two monitors. Ctrl+clicking on a link in the first window would open it in the second view in the connected window.
6) It would be nice also to retain the full annotations capabilities in the second view. Editing in two PDF Viewer windows opened at the same time is already working nicely when a PDF file is opened both in the main Zotero window and in a separate window. The editing tools just need to be available on the active view. So the active view would need to be identified in some way.
Some use cases:
- Make annotation on figures and figures captions while reading.
- Make highlights on the important definitions of the paper, usually in the introduction, while still reading through the rest of the paper.
- Reading through and annotating the appendix while retaining the current reading position in the first view.
7) Switch between primary and secondary view: I would like to be able to jump to the appendix for a while, making it the primary view, but still keep the current reading position to restart reading from there after looking at the appendix.
This point is similar to the first one, to get the ability to jump to a certain location in the second view. But, in some cases, the content I would like to display in the second view may not be accessible through internal links. But I can use the annotations to identify that content and make it easily accessible from the annotations pane. I give the example of definitions highlighted, but this could apply to any other content identified with annotations.
In that kind of usage, keeping the annotations viewable in the second view (even if not editable) would still be beneficial, as the annotation content is an integral part of the content I would like to display in the second view.
Actually, this ability to open a link in the second pane could be extended also to any link in the left pane, including page access from the "Show Thumbnails" or the TOC links in the "Show Document Outline". In this way, you could quickly go through the content of the paper in the second view while still keeping the current reading position in the first view. I would find this quite intuitive. Simply clicking on the view to make it the active view, and having the sidebar jump to that location would make sense to me.
If I want to navigate the content of the second view, but still keep the sidebar related to the first view, I can use the mouse scrolling when hovering on the second view, as it is already possible.
Actually, having the ability to switch the active view by a simple click in that view would solve the previous point above. No need for a special command or shortcut to open the links from the sidebar into the second view. I could just switch focus to the second view first, and then simply click on the links to take me to that place.
I could be missing some other bizarre situations where it could be confusing, but it may still be worth making this option available through some advanced settings first, to get some feedback from beta testers. If the separate window can be interconnected with the first one to open internal links from window 1 into window 2 (point 5 in my original post), that would allow to have the interconnected split view functionalities with two independent sidebars. But that would work nicely only on a larger monitor or multiple monitors.
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/418802/#Comment_418802