In which field are the annotation comment text saved?

hayhayhay
I can search comments of annotations of attachments by selecting 'everything' in the search box, but I haven't found any field that can match text of comments of annotations in the advanced search dialog box. Even 'any field' and 'attachment content' cannot match comment text.

If the comment text are saved in an unknow field, is there a way to search comment text in the advanced search?
  • dstillman
    Not currently. We'll soon be showing annotations directly in the items list (including search results in the Advanced Search window), and we'll add conditions for annotation text and comments at that time.
  • hayhayhay
    edited August 23, 2024
    Showing annotations in the items list would be great!

    A dilemma I'm facing is how to handle the annotation text (especially comment). If I don't create item notes from annotation, the annotation and comment would be deeply buried in the attachment and wouldn't be seen and reviewed easily later. If I do, the annotation text would be visible as notes in the items list, but there would be duplicated info (notes and original annotations) , and I would have to update the generated item notes every time I update annotations.

    Thanks for the great work! @dstillman
  • John_muccigrosso
    Relatedly, it seems that annotations get added to an attachment when I use the "Add Note from Annotations" contextual menu item, so I get both a note with annotations and a separate section in the attachment info section. (I'm not sure if this is new behavior with 7 or not.)

    Is that behavior able to be changed? In particular, can one generate the annotations section apart from a note? Also can the annotations be removed, either individually or in bulk?
  • dstillman
    @John_muccigrosso: No, "Add Note from Annotations" does exactly what it says — it creates a note with annotations. The Annotations section in the item pane is always shown for attachments when there are annotations.
  • John_muccigrosso
    Thanks for the reply. I don't find this to be true. I have attachments with highlighting, for example, and there's no Annotations section until I run that command. Then it appears.
  • dstillman
    If you made the annotations in an external PDF reader rather than the built-in PDF reader, you currently need to open the PDF in the built-in reader for Zotero to process the file and read the annotations. "Add Note from Annotations" would also cause Zotero to process the file, but that's just a side effect. A future version will likely be better at detecting and processing annotations made externally, but that's not a high priority.
  • John_muccigrosso
    Thanks. Opening in Zotero does it.
  • John_muccigrosso
    PS Any chance Zotero will use the standard PDF annotation methods? I like the app, but don't want to be locked in on the annotations.
  • dstillman
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/annotations_in_database
  • John_muccigrosso
    I think I understand the benefits, but in the end I like zotero for managing my documents, and I prefer not to use an app-specific annotation method. I also like to read PDFs on my iPad with specific reader software.

    It feels a bit like feature creep to me, though I may be in a minority on that.
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