Feature Suggestion: Merge annotations
I've been testing Zotero beta, and the PDF annotation features in particular. They're great, I love not having to open a seperate app. However, sometimes I want to highlight a sentence that extends across two pages, and that doesn't work cleanly if there are foot notes.
So if I could highlight each half of the sentence separately, then merge the two highlights, that would be great.
So if I could highlight each half of the sentence separately, then merge the two highlights, that would be great.
At the very least, if you exported to an external program, you'd necessarily end up with multiple annotations.
I would understand the possibility of someone wanting/needing composite highlighting. Perhaps there could be a setting where one chooses how this behavior should work?
As an example, the app Documents by Readdle has a working highlighter merging (but lots of other problems, naturally ;) ).
(Just to note, you can already merge ink annotations, though not highlight annotations, from the sidebar in the iOS app.)
Regarding merging/grouping highlights with text in-between, Zotero could automatically insert an ellipsis in (square) brackets.
Skim has a feature of merging highlights on the same page, and I found it very helpful; sometimes I don't need to highlight a whole sentence but only parts of it, and it can still stay together.
I love the pdf tools though, super helpful.
In the meantime, I'm using a somewhat tedious workaround to simulate merging annotations across consecutive pages. This is particularly helpful when I'm using the "Add note from annotations" feature to enhance the readability of the generated notes. I edit the annotation text so that the full quotation appears in a single annotation, and I edit the page number to reflect the full page range of the quote. Explained in more detail below:
Scenario: there's a sentence that hits the end of one page and continues on to the next page.
1 - Highlight the text on one page, then the other.
2 - Cut or copy the portion of the OCR'd quote that appears on one of the two pages. (It doesn't really matter if you choose the first or second page, as long as you choose the other page in the next step.)
3 - In the annotations sidebar on the left, select the annotation for the second page, then edit the annotation text. (On iOS, simply click on the text. On desktop, right-click the annotation and select Edit Highlighted Text.) Paste the clipboard so that the entire quote is present in a single annotation.
4 - Edit the page number for the quote to include both pages. ie. if the quote begins on page 22, edit the page number so that it says "22-23".
This makes the quote much nicer to work with annotations in drag-and-drop workflows or when creating notes from annotations.
Merging or grouping highlights, at least for highlights on the same pages and on multiple pages if possible.
Citavi has a relevant feature as it is possible to press ctrl or shift to add or delete words from highlighted text. This can span over many pages and can also include some sentences within a paragraph while neglecting some words in between.
Having these features in Zotero will be very beneficial for more flexible and accurate annotations.
I solve it manually by editting notes and copy paste them.
The guys from Readwise add a code to the note in order to indicate that it should be concatenated by adding a note to the highlight, so tehy write '.c1' and '.c2' on the next one and then highlights are merged into one.
Zotero is brilliant, but adding the ability to merge highlights (annotations) would be a game-changer for many...
It happens all the time: You highlight a few words and just realize that you want to select more, such as the entire sentence. Having to delete the existing one to create a larger one is cumbersome. PDFexpert connects automatically, by default. Skimm allows you to join annotations, even in different places on a page, by selecting them while pressing shift.