The new built-in PDF preview feature in Zotero 7

yunforce
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Zotero 7 for the convenience it has brought to my literature management. The new built-in PDF preview feature in Zotero 7 is indeed very useful. However, I have noticed that the preview window cannot be resized to a larger size. When I was using Zotero 6, I relied on the zotero-preview plugin for PDF previews, and on a 27-inch screen, I could easily display a full page of a PDF using half the screen, making reading much more convenient. Unfortunately, it seems that the preview feature in Zotero 7 cannot achieve this. Would it be possible to upgrade this functionality? I believe it would greatly improve the reading experience in Zotero 7.
  • fangzz
    Couldn't agree more! I need to view pdf's on half a screen and hope to upgrade soon!
  • martynas_b Zotero Team
    For large displays, and if you not only want to preview a figure but also read text, it might be better to use split screen mode. We plan to add a quick way to open the preview page using Cmd/Ctrl + click (or a similar shortcut).

    Would that solve your issue?
  • yunforce
    Thank you for your quick response. It might be due to my personal habit, but I feel that combining preview and shallow reading would be more convenient than having to preview and then click to read in depth. In most cases, we just need to skim quickly. Attached is a screenshot of me using Zotero 6 with the PDF Preview plugin, which I believe is a method worth promoting.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9581255/7ar3i7es4imfz4y4kyid.png
  • martynas_b Zotero Team
    Sorry, I misinterpreted what you said and thought you were talking about the in-PDF preview where you can preview internal links.

    Do you mean that when you resize the right pane, the PDF page width at some point stops increasing?
  • yunforce
    yes, that will stop to increase at some point.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9581255/mo0es5vjagzwvqbixuah.png
  • gu465000
    agree! I need to view pdf quickly, hope to upgrade soon!
  • dingjh95
    I have the same problem and hope to solve it. Thank you for your efforts！
  • rg_software
    Let me just add my voice for the same functionality. Many of us have large screens, and it seems absurd to click back and forth between the tabs just to read documents that take half the screen size. Browsing sources while having full text on the right is extremely handy, and it is hard to understand why anyone would oppose this idea. The current preview shows only one page, which is quite an unusual solution itself, and its width is limited by some artificial "magic" number, apparently reflecting the size of the designer's own screen rather than some objective need.
  • yuanjianlong1
    I also need
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited September 5, 2024
    In the latest Zotero beta, the preview can now better use the available screen height at wider pane sizes. The change will be in 7.0.4 soon.

    @rg_software: Please see Etiquette. This isn't an appropriate way to post here.
  • haroldmao
    Agreed! I need to view pdf quickly. Will this function come soon? that is great
  • enozkan
    I think the old quicklook function, available through plugins most recently, but not in Zotero 7 (yet), is still more convenient and functional than the PDF preview. I understand the reasons it is not implemented (as mentioned before in the Forums), but it would still be fantastic to be able to hit space on the item and the primary pdf would appear with easy zoom in/out, flowing pages, ability to copy, etc.

    It is one function I am missing, which can be added via an updated plugin.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    The change mentioned above is now available in Zotero 7.0.5.
  • Zotter1
    I have upgraded to 7.0.5 and still have the same issue. The text is too small to read. Is there a way to downgrade to Zotero 6? I can't find a link to that file. I know that you posted elsewhere that it's not recommended because there isn't support for 6, but I can't read the PDF thumbnail in the preview pane in Zotero 7.
  • fre.ms
    For those who miss Quick Look here: zotLook, a fork of Guillaume Chapron's Zotero7QuickLook, brings it back on Space, on macOS, Linux and Windows. The preview window is whatever size you drag it to, the whole document is there at once, and text can be selected and copied; Zotero's annotations are drawn in as well. It sits beside the built-in preview rather than replacing it.
  • LingyunZeng
    I just started using Zotero 10.0.6，as I heard it for long time and recently it can be linked with Overleaf for inserting reference to manuscript.

    Everything in Zotero is nice; the only one issue I am experiencing is that I can not zoom-in/out or annotate in the right pane, which shows a preview of the PDF. In EndNote, I used to check the paper from the left pane, then read/annotate it from the right pane, without opening it in a separate window.

    Any chance can I do it similarly in Zotero? Appreciate any help!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited today at 1:22am
    @LingyunZeng: No, it's just meant as a preview. PDFs open in tabs by default, not separate windows, and you have a full reader interface with annotations on the left and notes on the right. I'm not sure why you'd want to do all that in a small preview in the right pane.
  • LingyunZeng
    Hi dstillman,
    Thanks for the quick reply!
    I guess I am indeed very used to the EndNote workflow. The main reason I prefer reading and annotating in the right pane is efficiency when skimming through multiple papers.
    Many times, I just want to click a reference on the left, quickly jump to the right pane to find the specific information I need (or add a quick note/highlight), and then move straight to the next paper. This is exactly what I do on EndNote. Having to open a new tab every time—and then close it afterward—adds extra steps and clutters the workspace when I am dealing with dozens of papers at once.
    That being said, I understand Zotero has a different design philosophy, and I will try to get used to the tab-based and multi-window interface! Thanks again for the explanation.
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