After messing around with Zotero, PDF++, and Obsidian’s native PDF operations, I’m still coming up short for a fast AND sustainable way to attach a backlink to a text highlight on a PDF, with the added ability to double-click (or right-click or whatever) the highlight in the PDF to return to the note in Ob.
PDF++ has this functionality (and is one of the best plugins ever developed imo), but I have concerns about the plugin’s sustainability (and subsequently suddenly losing the highlights in PDFs).
Here’s what I’d like to do (on a PC, I’m not a Mac user):
- Highlight text in a PDF, with a corresponding note open next to it in Ob.
- After highlighting, that text itself needs to transfer to the Ob note. Ctrl+V in Ob is fine, but automatic text transfer to “cursor location” in Ob note is preferred.
- In the Ob note, right after highlighting, I need to be able to type “[[” to attach my own backlink to the highlighted text.
- Here’s the hard part. When done, in the PDF, I need to be able to double-click the highlight to return to the text in the Ob note.
What I’ve been doing is manually typing “[[Backlink]]” into Zotero annotations (ugh!), then when they’re imported into Ob, the backlinks automatically work, but this is very tedious and risks a typo. Typing “[[” in the Ob note itself makes it possible to just select the right backlink from the dropdown.
If I have been too dumb to find the way this can already be done (in a sustainable manner), please tell me. Native Ob functionality is highly preferred (so the Ob team can continue to squash bugs in the future), though I’d be open to a plugin or 3rd-party option if it’s sustainable.
As for my opinion on sustainability, if a single developer is promoting a plugin, while I highly applaud their skills and efforts, I personally don’t consider this a long-term solution (i.e. 20+ years). It has to be at least an ongoing group of devs (e.g. Zot) or the Ob team itself.
Definitely love Obsidian and all the developers that provide plugins free of charge, just been challenged to find reliable PDF integration that links highlights to backlinks. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.