Update: in DTTG, the “copy item link” in the “circle with 3 dots” menu only provides the item link (as one would expect), whereas the “copy item link” in the Share Sheet actually copies the page link for a pdf!
This has been discussed in the past, but as far as I can tell, this has not been implemented. Do I miss something?
“Copy page link” in pdfs in an extremely powerful feature to interconnect information. For me it is particularly useful on the iPad: I am working through some pdf and would like to make a reference to a certain location in some notes I take. The DT item page link mechanism is the closest to make this work (unless it’s one of those long-scroll single page pdfs which I mostly avoid). Thanks to URL schemes, it works across devices and applications.
This seems such an obvious killer feature that its absence might have a technological reason. Does the pdf toolkit not allow the extraction of the page # that’s currently displayed?
Of course, we all think that our pet feature is a killer one. What do others think?
I’m not sure about the level of control in the Share menu, I.e., dynamically changing the command to Copy Page Link when a PDF is selected. @eboehnisch would have to chime in on that.
Thanks, Jim. This is really a weird story. I had this vague recollection that in past I had read about some not entirely obvious way to get the page link in DTTG. Indeed, something like “copy item link” providing it automatically. So I tried that yesterday, but I used the version in the DTTG menu (circle with three dots). This one does not provide the page link. But the one in the share sheet does! I had a 50% chance of figuring this out, and I blew it. On the other hand, it’s not ideal to have two identically named items do slightly different things.
That’s probably more a bug/glitch than intentional. Both should work the same and always provide an item link with page parameter if applicable. Noted.
Using DTTG’s URL scheme or Shortcuts, is there a way to ’grab’ a section of text from a PDF (or a highlight or note) and the page link in a single gesture?
As a knowledge worker, I’m trying to strike the right balance between taking notes that are both quick and useful. If I’m going to be extracting excerpts from PDFs over and over and collecting them in my database, it’s not worth the effort for me to spend more time diving through submenus than it takes for me to write the content of the notes.
I know about the macOS script to extract annotations from PDFs. But that workflow requires a level of methodical and systemic consistency that I can’t always reach. Extracting the notes in real-time offers me more flexibility.
Reading on my iPad always feels more playful than working at my laptop. I think that feeling is owed in part to the fact that I’m not able to work in a very productive way on my iPad because it lacks some key features that speed up my note taking work. Being able to generate a note that contains a text excerpt as well as a link to the PDF page would be a major improvement for me.
I’m happy to tell you that you’ve built a more complete product that you think!
I’ve created a shortcut that does exactly what I want. If I select text in a PDF then Share it from the pop up menu, running this shortcut will generate a new note that contains the text excerpt and a link to the page where it was extracted.
