Zotero PDF reader drag-and-drop is inconsistent with highlights and notes

edited January 16, 2023
Dragging a highlight from Zotero's built-in pdf reader to Obsidian results in a link opening the pdf directly to the "annotation" (i.e. highlight) with a link like:
[pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/U9JWA8F9?page=2&annotation=AYBMNC87)

Dragging a note/comment results in a link that simply selects the item for display in the Zotero library list and does not even open it (that is, it positions the display to that pdf in the Zotero library list) with a link like:
[Yan, 2020, p. 2](zotero://select/library/items/RSJ52BSN)
instead of a direct link like:
[Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/U9JWA8F9?page=2&annotation=HT9HHPHI)
which takes you directly to the location of the note/comment.

It seems the note/comment link should link to the note's item, page, and annotation ID as the highlights do.

Is this by design or a bug that should be corrected so both are exported in the same format?
  • Yes, this is by design. It behaves the same way as dragging a note annotation into Zotero note — you can't go back to the note annotation.
  • edited January 16, 2023
    If I drag a note annotation into a Zotero note, I get:
    [Yan, 2020, p. 1] Test comment
    If I click on the brackets part, I get 3 options:
    - Go to Page
    - Show Item
    - Edit Citation
    So it is possible to use the "Go to Page" to go back to the note annotation from a Zotero note.

    Is there any design reason to remove this ability in the Quick Copy, or is it something that will be added later with future developments of the Note Templates?
    https://www.zotero.org/support/note_templates
  • I need to add to my original statement.
    - Copying a highlight annotation from Zotero to Obsidian produces two links - one in "Show item" format which positions the Library display to the pdf's Item and one in "Show on page" format which goes to and briefly highlights the annotation.
    - Copying a note annotation produces a single link in "Show item" format.


    I tested copying a Zotero annotation to a Zotero note. The result of this is also inconsistent between a note and a highlight.

    1. As mjthoraval mentioned above, clicking on the citation text of a copied note annotation gives the three options:
    - Go to Page - it goes to the page but not to the location of the note annotation
    - Show Item - positions the Library display to the pdf's Item
    - Edit Citation - allows the copied citation to be edited

    2. Clicking on the text body of a copied note annotation gives no options

    3. In contrast, clicking on the citation of a copied highlight annotation results in the following options:
    - Show Item - positions the Library display to the pdf's Item
    - Edit Citation - allows the copied citation to be edited
    - Hide citation - removes the citation text

    4. Clicking on the text body of a copied highlight annotation gives the followig options:
    - Show on page - goes to and briefly highlights the annotation
    - Unlink - removes the link from the text body (with no subsequent option to relink it except to do a Ctrl-Z undo function). The citation link is left in place.


    Exporting this Zotero note to a markdown file (using the Mdnotes plugin) and copying the markdown text into Obsidian results in plain text with no linking capability. Dragging a Zotero note entry directly to Obsidian likewise results in plain text with no linking.


    So it seems that consistency between note annotations and highlight annotations is desirable, that is, all options for both types of annotation (especially the "Show on page" format).


    Is there a reason note annotations and highlight annotations are handled differently?
  • edited January 16, 2023
    The technical answer is that Quick Copy for an annotation uses the same conversion process (with note templates, etc.) as when adding an annotation to a note, and note export maps the citation to a zotero://select link and highlighted text to a zotero://open-pdf link. Since a note annotation doesn't have highlighted text, it doesn't get a zotero://open-pdf link.

    But that's more of an implementation detail, and we're going to change this so that note annotations produce the same two links via Quick Copy by default. An upcoming version also be adding more granular Quick Copy options, so you'll be able to specify which if any of the two links you want (as opposed to the single "Include Zotero Links" option we have now).
  • Thanks, dstillman, this is good to hear. Looking forward to both of the proposed changes.
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