Zotero android, allow opening PDF with external app

dbonatto
edited October 10, 2024
Please, allow to open the pdf with an external app. Even if I can't save annotations etc.. The current viewer offer a very bad experience.

In particular, the phone locks when a pdf in on the screen, this is extremely annoying when reading.

The zoom levels are pretty bad.
  • dstillman
    Obviously our work is going to go into improving the built-in reader, since the entire goal is to provide a seamless reading and annotation experience.
    In particular, the phone locks when a pdf in on the screen, this is extremely annoying when reading.
    What exactly do you mean by this? What hardware and Android version?
    The zoom levels are pretty bad.
    Say more?
  • dbonatto
    edited October 10, 2024
    Ui: One UI 6.0 (Samsung)
    Android 14
    Samsung galaxy A53

    I open a pdf, if I do not touch the screen, it turns black then lock, as if the application was not running and the automatic lock started at its due time.

    I guess the pdf reader is not set as 'keep the screen on while open'


    For the zoom levels: I have some pdf with huge empty margin, often when I double click it zooms into the text and skip the margins. If it's in 2 column format, it correctly zoom on one column. This work when it's text, but when I have formulas in the page, it exagerztingly zoom into the formula, even if the formula is not visible in its entirety.

    Finally, I can't easily search the text and there is no way to jump to a page number.
  • MichaelSpranger
    I second that. While I see the motivation for you to improve the built-in reader, I doubt that this is what the majority of users want (have you actually asked them? I assume everyone has their own favorite PDF reader/annotator app), at least it is not what I need. I am using the Boox Tab X C (Android 13), and here I use the standard Neo Reader app. The current Zotero built-in reader is practically unusable for annotations on this device, since the toolbar vanishes at some point, from which it is no longer possible to annotate at all.
  • dstillman
    since the toolbar vanishes at some point, from which it is no longer possible to annotate at all
    @MichaelSpranger: Not sure what you mean by that. The toolbar disappears if you tap the screen and comes back if you tap again. If that's not what you're seeing, start a new thread with more details.
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