PDF reader: Page rotation and link back/forward

dstillman Zotero Team
edited March 19, 2021
This discussion was created from comments split from: Available in preview: Zotero PDF reader and new note editor.
  • internationaled
    I have been working with the PDF viewer and ran into two items of interest.

    First, is there any way to rotate a page? I didn't find any way to do this, but many PDFs include tables in landscape mode, and it is hard to read or highlight those pages without being able to rotate them.

    Second, if you accidentally click a linked citation that takes you to a bookmark in the references list, there's no discoverable way (at least that I found) to jump back to where you were when you clicked that link. This becomes particularly problematic if you're surfing through a long document - it can take you a while to figure out where you were when you clicked the link.
  • adamsmith
    @internationaled

    2. is not possible and under consideration. See https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/377553/#Comment_377553

    (agree with 1. rotating is very useful for PDFs)
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited March 19, 2021
    @internationaled, @adamsmith: Back/Forward work is in progress now.

    We'll look into page rotation.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Actually, @internationaled, @adamsmith, on page rotation, would you expect the PDF file itself to be changed so that the page was rotated, or would you want to keep the PDF file as is and have the rotation be applied at display time in the various Zotero apps?
  • adamsmith
    I don't have a strong preference. To me, the pdf.js standard rotate behavior which just rotates the display on the fly is perfectly fine and, I assume, easier for you.
  • internationaled
    I would prefer it to save it that way. Otherwise the page and the highlights will be rotated again next time and you'll just have to rotate is once more.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited March 19, 2021
    No, it would be saved in local state (or potentially synced state, but probably not). You wouldn't have to change it each time. The PDF itself just wouldn't be modified.
  • internationaled
    I would want it to be kept that way for sure, then.
  • qqbb
    I guess a global rotation as in Firefox would be ok. This should be the more commonly needed function, especially on mobile screens.

    Currently, single pages cannot be rotated in pdf.js, see here. One would need to use an external PDF editor for rotating individual pages.
  • internationaled
    I wonder if anything has changed on this since 2016.
  • wjkr
    I know this is an old thread but I just came across it whilst Googling how to rotate one page only, without rotating the whole document, on the Zotero PDF reader.

    This is now possible. Follow the following steps:
    1. Scroll to the page you wish to rotate
    2. Click Edit in the top menu bar
    3. Click rotate page left or right, as desired.

    In my case there is some strange behaviour (Zotero moves the view to a random page), but it does work as intended.
  • mspices
    @wjkr Thank you!

    Now that this feature is implemented, perhaps some rotate buttons could be added to the reader window? I know this is probably low-priority, but I had assumed that page rotation was not possible simply because there was no button.
  • Maurice-schleussinger
    edited March 12, 2023
    I want to add that it is possible from the thumbnail view (left pane) as well. There it would be even better if the page was synced to what I currently view.

    Also, the rotation feature could be added to the context menu of the current page (right click on the current page).
  • EcceMaterTua
    Epic! Thanks @wjkr.

    Also want to note for other users: the page in the underlying PDF (in the Zotero folder) is also rotated. It's not like how the annotations are saved in Zotero's software but not located on the PDF in the folder. For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of this method. Lastly, it took the software about 20 seconds to rotate the page, so just give it some time for it to work.

    For the devs: thanks for implementing! One thing I'd love to be able to do is right-click the page itself, and in the options menu, have "Rotate Page Left" and "Rotate Page Right" available. It works great as it is now, I just had a minute delay making sure the correct page was being viewed and selected before going to the Edit menu. It's not a big deal, it would only give me a bit of confidence that I was actually rotating the page I intend. Thanks again!
  • rsgonzalez
    I think it would be even more useful to be able to highlight multiple pages on the sidebar as to rotate an entire pdf at once. Doing them one at a time is somewhat timely, especially on slower computers.
  • martynas_b Zotero Team
    @rsgonzalez Hold Ctrl/Cmd or Shift when selecting pages in the thumbnails sidebar for that.
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