Upgrade StorageFeature request: Automatic linking of linked/attached file when creating book chapter
Apologies if this has been addressed previously -- I was unable to locate the topic in the forums.
It would be extremely helpful if creating a book chapter from an edited volume, etc., would automatically make a link to the book attachment or link.
In other words, not having to navigate back to the original book and then open it would reduce friction and streamline the work process.
Concrete example:
I create the following book entry, linking it with the PDF:
Lindroth, Marjo, Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, and Monica Tennberg, eds. 2022. Critical Studies of the Arctic: Unravelling the North. Springer.
From the right-click context menu I select "Create Book Section" and manually create this item:
Tennberg, Monica. 2022. “Narratives.” In Critical Studies of the Arctic: Unravelling the North, edited by Marjo Lindroth, Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, and Monica Tennberg. Springer.
In my requested featurea, this would already link to the book PDF so that double-clicking the entry would open the book. Ideally, if the page numbers were included in the book section entry (they are in this case), double-clicking would open to the first listed page.
As it is now, I have to click "Related" in the right pane, navigate to the book entry, then double-click and navigate to the correct page. This is four steps. I believe it could be one, the same for opening the book itself.
It would be extremely helpful if creating a book chapter from an edited volume, etc., would automatically make a link to the book attachment or link.
In other words, not having to navigate back to the original book and then open it would reduce friction and streamline the work process.
Concrete example:
I create the following book entry, linking it with the PDF:
Lindroth, Marjo, Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, and Monica Tennberg, eds. 2022. Critical Studies of the Arctic: Unravelling the North. Springer.
From the right-click context menu I select "Create Book Section" and manually create this item:
Tennberg, Monica. 2022. “Narratives.” In Critical Studies of the Arctic: Unravelling the North, edited by Marjo Lindroth, Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, and Monica Tennberg. Springer.
In my requested featurea, this would already link to the book PDF so that double-clicking the entry would open the book. Ideally, if the page numbers were included in the book section entry (they are in this case), double-clicking would open to the first listed page.
As it is now, I have to click "Related" in the right pane, navigate to the book entry, then double-click and navigate to the correct page. This is four steps. I believe it could be one, the same for opening the book itself.
I've been using Zotero for a short time and recently started using the forum to learn a bit more about the program, so my answer might be incomplete.
I had the same interest as you and found some similar or related topics to your question on the forum; I believe they relate to the "Bookmarks" topics.
Examples found: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/107229/feature-request-connected-edited-volumes-and-their-chapters
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/97455/feature-request-bookmarks-in-the-pdf-reader#latest
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/495995#Comment_495995
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/107272/adding-personal-bookmarks-to-a-pdf
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/484482#Comment_484482
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/482760#Comment_482760
There are probably missing links to examples in this topic and its solutions, and I may have also mistakenly included topics that aren't necessarily directly related to your request. This confusion may have occurred because I've been searching for a solution since April 30, 2026, so I browsed the forum quite a bit.
Currently, Zotero doesn't have a native solution for this issue. From what I've read, some users employ plugins like Zutilo, Actions and Tags, Better Notes, and Jasminum.
I'm only familiar with Zutilo; I recently downloaded Better Notes but haven't used it yet, so I can only explain the solution I found with that plugin.
The solution I see users suggesting is using annotations like "Bookmarks".
Or what I started testing this week with Zutilo, based on the answer in the topic https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/120687/feature-request-internal-links-to-bookmarks-and-highlights from the user ZenonMarko.
Basically, what I did was:
1. I went to the page of the chapter of interest in the book;
2. I right-clicked on the attachment within the parent item, then "Copy PDF links";
3. In the book section, right-click, go to "Add Attachment" and in "Web Link" paste the link you copied, note that it will be similar to this: "zotero://open-pdf/library/items/WHMUK2Y9?page=";
4. This link will always take you to the last page that was open in your attachment, but we want it to take us to the specific page of the chapter of interest, so we must add the page number of the *document/file* to the end of it. If you put the page number of the book, the link will take you to the wrong page.
Note: If the book chapter you're using as a bibliography has a DOI or URL in the "Information," clicking directly on the parent item will prioritize the DOI or URL link. This is currently proving somewhat inconvenient for me. I haven't yet found a solution that makes Zotero prioritize one attachment over another, but this solution has worked for me for now. I believe new Zotero plugins and features will improve this issue in the future.
I used Google Translate for this text, sorry if there are any errors.
I hope it was helpful, best regards,
José Otávio.
@JoseOtavio 's workflow works nearly perfectly. Had to make minor adjustments because the PDF link copied by Zutilo don't include a page number and because the page numbers are not for the paginated number, but for the total pages. In other words, page 10 of the book might be page 23 of the PDF, and it is the latter that is needed for the link to function as desired.
@dstillman I'm not sure I understand the comment, but I assume that you are looking at this as a technical/programming matter and that you mean that the request to automatically link to the PDF should be seen as separate from the request automatically link to the specific page based on the first number in the Page field?