when working with Zotero, you need to finish reading pdf and then export annotations by Zotfile plugin to export pdf to a markdown file in obsidian, and the exported markdown file got refreshed every time when you want to re-export anything in that paper.
the point is that the reading experience in reference managers method is divided and not at smooth as Logseq style when you could copy the source in pdf and comment on that snippet any time you wish during the pdf reading and not have to experience any "stop to export“ process。
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i understand that, it is annoying for me too, but i don’t think it is possible for obsidian to work as a reference manager. i don’t know about the logseq and how it handles it’s pdf files but keeping huge amount of files inside obsidian is not manageable right now and i don’t see any sign that it is going to change in the future, so it is a trade-off imo.
it is also seem possible to add an auto sync feature between zotfile+mdnote and obsidian. I know it is not easy/probable but that is an option to solve this issue too
For now, I just want a more convenient way to create a link format like [[myfile.pdf#page=x]]. The plugin media extended already have a function to create timestamps pretty fast, please check it out Create a note that linked to a specific paragraph in a pdf - #33 by Ocarinalover.
i have not played much with that plugin too. yes what you want is not hard to implement. you can also use the better pdf plugin to do do just that right now. if embeded pdf page annoys you you can fold it with by putting it under a bullet point or header or something. i wish admonition plugin could support code blocks so that we can hide code blocks in it
Yeah,obsidian is quite flexible ,we can do pdf linking in lots of different ways. but not the most convenient and efficient way. I raise this topic a year ago with the hope that obsidian could host a feature that almost like industry standard(already featured in liquidtext, marginnote, polar, bookxnote, Flexcil，Qiqqa，Citavi, Remnote, Logseq, Roamresearch), and it’s a proven way to help you better understand and analyse a pdf(book,paper,comic,etc.). I really hope obisian could go a step further.
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yeah, it also would be nice if obsidian could handle local html files (as it already parses html tags). but i think they avoid that because it has some security issue and is more problematic than pdf
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Will it possible to make something like this：Create a note that linked to a specific paragraph in a pdf - #33 by Ocarinalover
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I’m looking forward to using the function. Are there any plan to develop it?
I hope that you are already know that most of the PDF reader app such as Foxit Reader, PDF-XChange or Adobe Acrobat will allow users to go to a specific page from outside. You can revoke it by command with parameters, for example:
- With PDF-XChange:
[Installed folder]\pdfxedit.exe /A page=[page number] [path to the PDF file]
The command like:
pdfxedit.exe /A page=5 test.pdf
So, my idea is that:
- There is a function like Media Extend which can choose the path to the PDF reader app and input its corresponding parameters like the above command syntax.
- There is a middle to convert the link like: “test.pdf#page=5” into 2 parts, the first is the path to the pdf file and the second is the page number we want to anchor in the PDF file.
- Once we click the link, Obsidian will call the command with the 2 parameters.
Thanks,
I haven’t tried it yet, but the following plugin may help achieve something similar to this request:
elias-sundqvist/obsidian-annotator: A plugin for reading and annotating PDFs and EPUBs in obsidian.
An obsidian link to an annotation block-reference will, when clicked, open the corresponding file and scroll to the associated highlight. If the file is already open in a pane, then the link will cause the existing pane to scroll instead.
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nice plugin, thank you for sharing. it seems to work based on an online service/component
I am not sure if it could work completely offline, and I will try it out later.
Yes, Obsidian Annotator looks just like what we need here regarding PDF annotation. It is still not approved as a community plugin, though. Hope to be so in the coming days.
Waiting for approval as community plug-in.
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The following issues may be of interest regarding offline usage and privacy maters:
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Should be fixed promptly.
Thank you for informing me. The plugin offers a good annotation experience but it doesn’t provide area-highlight function
@Ocarinalover The following plugin supports area highlight, if I understand you correctly:
MarkMindCkm/obsidian-markmind: A mind map, outline and pdf annotate tool for obsidian
Also, it supports committing/saving highlights to the original PDF document.
There is another issue discussing saving comments to the original PDF document.
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Same as I thought！
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This is quite a good solution, thank you for suggesting this plugin. I have tried it and found it still has space for improvement. and maybe other kinds of solution could be better (maybe not contaminate the vault with lots of text for labeling purposes)