Introduction

An important workflow that I want to have in Obsidian is being able to preview and annotate pdfs. These pdfs can be reference papers, textbooks, or lecture slides.

In the past I used Zotero to manage all the pdf syncing and used Symbolic Links to bring them into the vault. A more elegant solution is to store all pdfs directly in the vault just use Syncthing (preferably with dedicated server, but peer to peer also works) to sync the obsidian vault.
This leaves the issue of reference paper meta-data, which Zotero solves.

Plugins required:

  • Zotero Integration
  • PDF++

Zotero

Zotero is a reference manager. Great for collecting and organizing research.

  1. Install zotero.org and install Zotero
  2. Install Better BibTeX for Zotero plugin
    1. Download the .xpi file from releases page
    2. On Zotero, go to Tools->Plugins
    3. Drag and drop the .xpi file into Plugins Manger window
    4. On Zotero, go to Edit->Settings->Better BibTeX
    5. Change Citation Key formula to auth.lower + year (change based on preference)

Resources
How To Use Zotero (A Complete Beginner's Guide)

Zotero Integration

This plugin imports metadata for papers from Zotero.

Resources
(Github) Obsidian-Zotero-Templates
(Youtube)

  1. In Zotero Integrations settings, click Add new Import.
  2. Copy the following settings.
    1. Name: Import Paper
    2. Output Path: 03 - Resources/Papers/{{citekey}} - {{title}}.md
    3. Image Output Path: 05 - Media/Papers/Images/{{citekey}}
    4. Image Base Name: {{citekey}}
    5. Template File: 99 - Meta/00 - Templates/(Template) Paper.md
  3. Create a Paper template.

(Template) Paper.md

---
tags:
  - 🌎Resource
related:
  - "[[Papers]]"
title: {{title}}
aliases: {{citekey}}
authors: [{{authors}}]
url: {{url}}
id: [{{DOI}}]
attachments: 
  - "[[{{citekey}} - {{title}}.pdf]]"
---

# {{title}}
  1. Use CTRL+P, then search for Import Paper to bring up Zotero search bar. Select any paper from there
  2. Manually save a pdf with the same anywhere in the vault (preferably same location as the note 03 - Resources/Papers)

PDF++

Usage

  1. Open a PDF in Obsidian.
  2. Highlight text.
  3. Select a color.
  4. Paste into a note.

Enable auto-copy avoid having to select a color each time.

Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dU6WXULSqg