Link Back To Specific Location in Original Document

CharlesM
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 3:56 pm
Contact:

Link Back To Specific Location in Original Document

Postby CharlesM » Sat Nov 14, 2015 4:23 pm

Just tested and then purchased CintaNotes. The auto copy and note creation feature, and the search via heirarchic tags capability are amazing.

Question: If I want to follow the link on a note back to the location in the original PDF file where I clipped the note, is there a way to do that? (i.e. I may want to go back to see the context of surrounding paragraphs from where the note was clipped.)

I thought of entering something in the Remarks field like "page 132 - top" as a pointer. I also thought of looking at my note to find a unique phrase, and then following the CintaNote note link back to the PDF document, and using the PDF search tool to find that phrase in the document (hoping there is only one instance).

Are there other ways to do this? Maybe something in CintaNotes I am overlooking?
User avatar
usbpoweredfridge
Posts: 410
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 11:08 pm
Contact:

Re: Link Back To Specific Location in Original Document

Postby usbpoweredfridge » Sun Nov 15, 2015 8:38 am

Hi CharlesM,

It appears you have posted this twice, I will just reply in this one as it is the (slightly) latest thread.

There are a few things to mention here. For links like this:
1. The file format that you are using must support that feature. For example, HTML is a format that does (anchors).
2. The program that you are using to open the file must support that feature. Using the HTML example (as it is a format which supports links like this), most web browsers will know what to do when you open a link with an anchor tag in it.
3. The 'link' must be exposed to a third party program (CintaNotes in this case).
4. The 'link' must be able to be passed to that program via some sort of link (in the case of HTML, that is a normal URL with the anchor name appended at the end after a hash sign).

All those must be true for this to work in an external program such as CintaNotes.

With regards to #1, I know the PDF format supports bookmarks, at least when opened with Adobe Reader (I'm not sure if Adobe is the only PDF reader to implement this or not though), so this one would be true.

With regards to #2, at least if you use Adobe Reader, then this one would also be true.

With regards to #3, I don't know - I can say that I have never seen a program that can pass a link to a PDF viewer that goes straight to a section in a PDF. The PDF format may support this, it may not. Alex (one of the CintaNotes developers) would know for sure.

With regards to #4, again - I don't know. I can say that I have never seen a link that contains a PDF and some sort of anchor to a particular section. Again, Alex would probably know for sure.

So at the moment, for PDF files, I don't believe this is possible using any external program (CintaNotes included), as I don't believe that the sections in a PDF are exposed to any third party programs, and I don't think there is a link format for it even if it was. The only way I can think of off the top of my head to do this would be the way you suggested - put a note in the remarks field with the section name/page number/paragraph etc and then manually navigate to that section after you click the link to the PDF in CintaNotes (which will at least open the PDF).

I daresay Alex will be along in the near future though, and he may have some other ideas.

Chris
User avatar
CintaNotes Developer
Site Admin
Posts: 5001
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:45 pm
Contact:

Re: Link to Specific Location in Document

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Sun Nov 15, 2015 2:48 pm

Hi Charles,

Unfortunately such functionality would be very difficult to implement.
If opening a specific PDF file can be handled by the system and CN shouldn't know anything about your PDF reader,
scrolling to a specific part of the document can't be done in a program-agnostic way. And even if we do it, say, for
Adobe Reader, the solution can easily become broken when the next version of it comes out.
So I doubt this is worth the effort. But you're welcome to add the idea to roadmap.cintanotes.com, and if it gets
more than 10 votes we'll start investigating more thouroughly.
Thanks
Alex
CharlesM
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 3:56 pm
Contact:

Re: Link Back To Specific Location in Original Document

Postby CharlesM » Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:06 pm

Chris and Alex,

Thank you for your very thorough and clear replies. I can see that this would be a significant undertaking and I will not be asking for this as a feature request.

One reason I thought it might be possible is that Nitro Pro (which we use here in the office as an alternative to Adobe Acrobat) always opens a document at your last view (page and zoom). It apparently stores these view data in a history list (see link below).
http://ccm.net/faq/24585-nitro-pdf-read ... ing-a-file

So I was thinking maybe CintaNotes could access that view data at the time the user copies the note.
But then I came across some information that says a Nitro Pro user cannot directly access the history list data (see link below).
http://support.nitropdf.com/entries/601 ... tory-list-

So that means you as the CintaNotes developer would have to work with the Nitro Pro developers to find a way to access and use that view information. And that method would not work for Acrobat or any other PDF software. So I definitely see your point about how difficult this would be.

Thank you for your answers to my questions.
santhano
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:25 am
Contact:

Re: Link Back To Specific Location in Original Document

Postby santhano » Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:41 am

Even though an old thread, just want to share a piece of info.

I have been using Docear http://www.docear.org/extensively before shifting to CintaNotes. The feature CharlesM suggested is available on that programme. The anchoring option works when using the pdf programme PDF Xchange viewer https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer with Docear (no other pdf viewer work).

Also, one problem I found with CintaNote is that the file linking option doesn't work when using any other PDF viewer other than Adobe Acrobat. Is this a bug?

Many thanks for the excellent programme.
User avatar
CintaNotes Developer
Site Admin
Posts: 5001
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:45 pm
Contact:

Re: Link Back To Specific Location in Original Document

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Mon Jul 10, 2017 7:31 am

Hi Santhano,

santhano wrote:I have been using Docear http://www.docear.org/extensively before shifting to CintaNotes. The feature CharlesM suggested is available on that programme. The anchoring option works when using the pdf programme PDF Xchange viewer https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer with Docear (no other pdf viewer work).


Thanks for the info! I wonder how they do it. But the fact that it works with ony one PDF reader is

Also, one problem I found with CintaNote is that the file linking option doesn't work when using any other PDF viewer other than Adobe Acrobat. Is this a bug?


Did you open the PDF file using double-click in Explorer?
For the document linking to work, the document needs to be in the command line of the process. This happens when you double-click PDF to open it. When you use File/Open, CN can't get the path to the document.
Alex

Return to “CintaNotes Personal Notes Manager”