internal links to notes, annotations, note sections, and so on?

I would love if in Zotero notes and annotations, I could link directly to *other* notes and annotations.

For example, I make a note in one paper about some topic -- and then in another paper, I see something very closely related. I'd love to make an annotation note there, and in it link to the first annotation.

Or, have links to regular Zotero notes -- or even sections in a note.

I'd also like to have backlinks -- that is, for Zotero to maintain the overall link data structure so that you can right-click on some note or annotation and see what links to it.

Having this kind of thing would be very helpful. I could make a dense, rich set of notes around some area and make it easy to navigate my own collection and annotations and notes on various topics.

Extra bonus points for...

- having such links work from outside Zotero -- so I could make a link in some external document, say some markdown file, that would launch Zotero straight to the note or annotation.

- more generally, more robust support for links from outside Zotero to particular items. It seems like it ought to be easier to right-click on a book or paper or whatever in Zotero and get some kind of URL -- either `zotero://somethingsomething` or a web URL to that item -- that I can use in other documents.

- the other way: having some kind of link to external documents work in Zotero. Say I have a "research-notes.md" file -- I'd love to have Zotero support linking to (at the very least) that file; even better, to a line number or particular bit of text. Something not so unlike URLs that link to particular bit of text on a page, like:

https://www.zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide#:~:text=free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources

I suspect this all a pie-in-the-sky feature request, but if there's anything similar available now, I'd love to hear about it.
  • Have you checked out the better notes plugin? https://github.com/windingwind/zotero-better-notes
  • edited 10 days ago
    - more generally, more robust support for links from outside Zotero to particular items. It seems like it ought to be easier to right-click on a book or paper or whatever in Zotero and get some kind of URL -- either `zotero://somethingsomething` or a web URL to that item -- that I can use in other documents.
    The Zutilo plugin can create zotero://select links that link directly to items from inside and outside Zotero.

    (I think you can also create something -- or use soemthing already existing -- using the actions&tags plugin)
  • @julewt: Better Notes looks nice and does a lot of what I want! I especially like the auto-sync with external markdown files...but you can't choose a specific file, you have to use the name that BN decides. :/

    I also want links to arbitrary annotations -- a highlight, a note annotation in a PDF. But, a good start.
  • @adamsmith, I have tried Zutilo and other "make a link" things and I have never gotten it to work the way I want. I want some link I can use elsewhere that will launch right to Zotero, but I've never been able to get some kind of zotero:// link that actually does that. I will try again but somehow it just never seems to work for me.
  • This plugin (Zotero annotation links) also works perfect to link between annotations within the same PDF, across different PDFs, as well as from external apps.

    https://github.com/mobench/zotero-annotation-links#readme
  • Annotation Links is very nice! Together with Better Notes, that gets me a long way towards what I want. Though I do still see:

    * Annotations in PDFs don't seem to do clickable links at all. I can paste in `zotero://` links and they appear as I expect but aren't clickable; I can paste in a link to a note, but I just get the description text, not an actual link.

    But this is progress. Thanks for the links -- it seems I should do more searching of the plugins out there. (Or write my own...or vibe-code my own...?)

  • @dsquared Maybe I did not understand you, but yes, the links are clickable! You should click on the chain icon at the top/right:

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2580262/n617hsydlcinupmxic1z.png
  • Hrm, I don't see that: my note annotation in a PDF gives the following. Is there some option I need?

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u34303/oaajhcjp7fj0rzgr2fvh.png
  • That's strange; it might be related to your operating system (?). I'm using Windows 11, and the screenshot I showed you is from the left pane—it's not a “floating” window like yours seems to be.

    Maybe you should report it to the developer on GitHub.
  • @dsquared: The clickable links only work in the Annotations Sidebar on the left of the PDF Reader. It will not work from the PDF Reader if the Sidebar is closed:
    Clickable link icons — Annotations containing zotero:// links show a chain icon in the sidebar; click to navigate
    https://github.com/mobench/zotero-annotation-links#-features

    There is already an issue raising this problem:
    https://github.com/mobench/zotero-annotation-links/issues/4
  • > The clickable links only work in the Annotations Sidebar on the left of the PDF Reader. It will not work from the PDF Reader if the Sidebar is closed:

    Ah, I see that now. Thanks!

    But even then...what if I have two links? You get a little drop-down when you click the icon...but, to be honest...ugh, that's not great UI. We all live on the web, we click hyperlinks all the time -- I wish my annotations could be just like that. And also that they worked with Better Notes links, too.

Sign In or Register to comment.