Disable the pop-up window when hovering over citation links

wenbocnold
I am one of the few people who do not want to use the function of clicking on citation links to jump to the reference.
How can I disable the function of clicking on citation links to jump to the reference?
How can I disable the pop-up window when the mouse hovers over the citation link?
I hope someone can give me a solution, thank you !
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited August 3, 2024
    (I deleted your comments in the other threads, since you're conflating multiple things here and it wasn't clear what you were referring to, and because posting the same thing to multiple threads is distracting and unhelpful.)

    These are two separate features:

    1) Clicking to jump to a reference is a standard feature of PDFs that exists in all PDF readers — the links are in the PDFs themselves. There's no way to disable that. (Also, I'm not clear why this is a problem? If you don't want to follow a link…don't click it.)

    2) The popup window that shows linked and cited references and figures is a Zotero feature. It can't currently be disabled.
  • wenbocnold
    These links and pop-up windows interfere with normal reading and text selection. In standard PDF readers, you can set it so that links only open when Ctrl+Click is used. It would be great if you could add an option to navigate links with Ctrl+Click and disable pop-ups.
  • wenbocnold
    I apologize for posting the comments multiple times. I thought it would increase visibility and the chances of getting helpful advice. I won’t do it again in the future. @dstillman
  • wenbocnold
    Related issue
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/111344
  • casepulevedam
    I have the same problem with the pop-ups when reading/highlighting. Has anyone found a work around?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @casepulevedam: What problem, exactly?
  • casepulevedam
    The problem that the OP describes with the unwanted pop-ups.
    The pop-ups get in the way when I highlight a paper (PDF) using the desktop version. Although the pop-ups are a cute feature, they can get distracting if you actually read and highlight the paper from a computer screen.
  • martynas_b Zotero Team
    @casepulevedam Could you clarify when exactly the popups are distracting? The popups are only shown when hovering over an internal PDF link or a citation, and you have to hold the cursor over it deliberately. How exactly is that interfering with your reading and highlighting?
  • casepulevedam
    I find that these pop-ups can be quite distracting when they appear above the portion of text I'm currently focused on. The unwanted pop-up ends up blocking the very words I'm trying to read at that moment, which impairs my ability to smoothly read through the passage.
    I know the intention may have been to provide the pop-up when the user holds over the link to select it. However, this distraction can also happen simply when moving the mouse pointer to a new spot to begin highlighting. During the natural flow of reading and highlighting, some readers often move their mouse over the text, selecting passages as they go. So even without clicking and holding, the pop-ups can disrupt the reading experience.
    While some users might have a different experience, there are journals out there that are minefields of links, making this issue particularly problematic.
  • hechanghua
    I think you're talking about "Smart Reference Popup", and I want to turn that off, too.
    This results in a lot of highlighting in the PDF, which is very bad in a review paper.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u10054624/bhf8uxd1e0uuu5o8k8d1.png
  • ConcernedThirdParty
    edited December 4, 2024
    I also would like to be able to turn off this feature.

    It does not work properly on

    1) equation heavy articles.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8123077/h3r8wpujqhu80wfyhurq.png

    2) review articles with already existing refs.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u8123077/uxvcdm09p46xdui5hi4h.png


    Edit: I would like to add/stress that this is an extremely useful feature of zotero, however, when it does not work on a pdf that the user spends a lot of time and not being able to use already working hyperrefs, it becomes frustrating.
  • ykzhang_1001
    This feature really distract people when doing deep reading.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u15351340/c749mq0exdxl0s64bzr2.png
    The screenshot above is an example of how lage the pop-up window can be when you just hovering your cursor around, which you may not want such a big window appear unexpectedly.
    At least there should be an option for the readers choose to disable.
  • ConcernedThirdParty
    the issue still persists.
  • wenbocnold
    It is still recommended that Zotero introduce options to:

    1. Add option to disable automatic pop-ups when hovering over reference links.
    2. Require Ctrl+click (instead of a regular click) to navigate to the reference list.

    I'd really appreciate it if the developers could reconsider implementing this feature. Thanks! @dstillman
  • jculi
    When reading pdf documents in Zotero, I frequently use the hand tool. When I hover over links, a "Smart Reference Popup" appears, which I find very distracting. I also request an option to disable this feature.
    Thanks
  • jpasquier
    Hi, I would also appreciate being able to disable the smart reference feature. Thank you.
  • lydiahm
    Echoing above commenters that I would also appreciate being able to disable the smart reference feature. Thank you for all your work on Zotero - hugely appreciated.
  • kirschsubjudice
    I would like to add my name to the list of folks who would like a way to turn this feature off. Thank you!
  • AlanSquare
    I would like to add my name to the list too, thank you a lot
  • jemie221b
    I hope to disable smart reference feature. When you read a paper, you have to pay attention to where the mouse is to avoid the noisy pop‑up from appearing.
  • 87287g082gd08yg4f3
    I would also like to see an option to disable this feature. Personally, I find the automatic highlighting of words unnecessary, and the pop-up itself doesn't seem to work consistently. It significantly disrupts my reading flow and overall experience. Having a toggle to turn this off would be much appreciated.
  • dstark
    In some ways, this really is a nice feature, but it's not one I often find myself in need of. So, for me, it usually just proves problematic when it (1) identifies too much text as an anchor (e.g., a full page or paragraph), (2) links an anchor to another part of the document incorrectly, or (3) both.

    In the past, I've had trouble dismissing the popups. But now `Esc` (twice) seems to do the trick. So, that's helpful, though I wish I could recall if I've tried this method when I've had trouble getting the popups to go away while I was viewing or trying to select text identified as an anchor on a given page.

    Would it perhaps be possible to consider

    1. an option to disable these popups (even in the config editor), as others have suggested here, or
    2. some kind of key in the viewer that will show and allow interaction with text identified as anchors so that the popups can be displayed (i.e., an easy way of enabling this feature on an as-needed basis rather than having it always on by default) or
    3. both?

    While searching the forums for an answer to this issue for myself, I also came across the following threads with similar inquiries:

    - https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/118119/toggle-turn-off-pdf-popup-when-hovering-over-links
    - https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/128765/disabling-the-link-preview-in-pdf-viewer
    - https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/116791/smart-reference-popup
    - https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/118628/turn-off-reference-popup-in-reader
  • kuniipa
    Interesting thread. I like the feature too, and use it a lot, but sometimes it's a bit distracting also.

    It sure is necessary to hover the text do open the pop-up, but, well, if I want to highlight one part of the text, the cursor needs to me moved across the document to reach the starting point of the selection. It is during this movement that the cursor activates the pop-ups without my intention to see these pop-ups. And it should not be required of the user to dodge all anchors when moving the cursor... :P

    I think the simplest solution would be to set a key that must be pressed to activate the popups, like Ctrl (I'm not a dev... so I might be very wrong). This is the behaviour in Obsidian, for instance.
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