[Features request] Compatibility with other PDF readers / Bookmarks anchors / Highlight comments / Marks menu

[Elaws]

Hello,

Bookmarks, highlights and marks are very useful, but I feel like they could benefit from the following improvements :

Compatibility with other PDF readers.

Problem description

It is very frequent to annotate a PDF on different platforms (e.g. : Using Acrobat Reader or Zotero's PDF reader on iPad, and Sioyek on PC). Unfortunately, when opening in Sioyek a PDF that contains highlights and annotations from another PDF reader :

• These annotations are not searchable / deletable.
• If you add annotations and use embed_annotations command, all annotations made in other PDFs are deleted / not exported.
• All annotations and highlights made in Sioyek are not saved in the PDF and thus can't be used in other PDF readers.

Possible solution

More interoperability would be a great feature for Sioyek. Related FR on Zotero forum.

Bookmarks

Problem description

It's currently difficult to quickly see which part of the document a bookmark is supposed to show, especially if there are several bookmarks in a single page. This is mainly due to the fact that bookmarks do not have a visual indicator and neither do they save zoom level and position.

Possible solution

A solution would be to add an anchor (= any kind of visual indicator, see example just below), and also save current zoom level and position of the view.

To add a bookmark :

1. Press b.
2. Click on the document to place the anchor.
3. Write bookmark's text.

To search a bookmark, it would be as usual (gb), except that the view will now show the anchor (possibly with a different color so we quickly see it), to quickly see what the bookmark is supposed to show (and with the same zoom level / position as when the bookmark was saved) !

Finally clicking on an anchor could reveal the associated comment in the bookmarks menu (or elsewhere).

Highlights

Problem description

It's currently difficult to add a comment to a highlight. We could use bookmarks, but currently they don't quickly show to what part of the document they are linked.

Possible solution

Use improved bookmarks described above (= with anchors and saved zoom/position). Or even better :

1. h + letter to highlight selection (as currently).
2. Show prompt to add a comment (if we press enter without writing something, no comment is added).
3. Show icon to indicate that highlight has a comment (see example below).
4. Clicking on an highlight that has a comment reveals the comment (in the highlight menu, or elsewhere).

Marks

Problem description

When saving a lot of marks, it's difficult to remember its shortcut, and to which area it was linked.

Possible solution

1. m + letter to add a mark.
2. Show a prompt to add a description (if we press enter without writing something, no description is added).
3. Search mark using gm will show a menu with all the saved marks, their description (optional) and its shortcut (see example below) :

(shortcut : Description)
a : Important theorem. 
b : Image about xxx.
c : Something important I regularly want to have access.

4. Type the letter associated to the desired mark to instantly go there. Also possible to use ` + letter as usual, if you remember it without needing to access the marks menu.

As with bookmarks, it seems important to save the zoom level and position of their view.

Bookmarks and marks have a different usecase : the former allow to add annotations to the document, while the latter allow to quickly go to important locations with a shortcut. Using gm to quickly see a list of marks shortcuts and their description could be very useful.

Thanks for reading this and looking forward to read your feedback ;)

[SmallPond]

highlight comments feature +1

[Elaws]

Updated OP with Compatibility with other PDF readers.

[quickfold]

highlight comments feature +1

[chrisgrieser]

I also want to express the need for commenting highlights. A lot of people extract their annotations from their PDFs, and adding a comment to a highlight is kind of crucial for those kind of workflows.

[wenbopeng]

I also want to express the need for commenting highlights. A lot of people extract their annotations from their PDFs, and adding a comment to a highlight is kind of crucial for those kind of workflows.

I take the annotations into Obsidian when I read. I use execute_predefind_command provided by Suggestion：a command that outputs the current filename and page number · Issue #230 · ahrm/sioyek, and Feature Request: Support URL Scheme · Issue #352 · ahrm/sioyek to generate links to the target page of the pdf.

[chrisgrieser]

@wenbopeng That does not solve the problem of being unable to comment highlights, and used as a workaround it has a lot of disadvantages, like e.g. not being able to go back to a previous highlight and edit the comment there etc.