Copy Page link is very conveniently located in the contextual menu of pdf page for researcher/reviewer. IMHO, DT can also consider to include “copy select text and page link” or “highlight and copy text and page link” right under the item .
I think it is more of a fluid process for reviewer/researcher wanting to copy/cite a piece of the original text into an annotation note and immediately write down their thought/note before moving on to the next paragraph/page. Admittedly @BLUEFROG (Using Insert Back Link in AppleScript) and others (Looking for clarification on linking) have already provided scripts doing just that, but it would be nice to consider adding it as a standard feature?
Together with the wonderful function “Summarize Highlights” will probably fulfil all citation/note taking needs at all levels?
Such commands would actually have to use the document’s title for the link as the result might be used in other apps and there you do not only want the page number. Makes me wonder whether a new command “Insert Selection & Back Link” in the popup menu of the Annotations & Reminders inspector would make more sense. This would also support other document kinds.
Perhaps such function can exists in both situations but may need a clever and consistent solution from you guys! I guess we can always wait for future version update after the first full version is out…
Not trying to make things complicated but to provide three thoughts for consideration:
(1) Use aliases instead of name when aliases is available. That will probably dramatically reduce the length of the link displayed - if users assign a short reference in aliases?
(2) For users who are focusing on one-document review process, drop down function in A&R pane and insert only page/timeline info in backlink makes a lot of sense.
(3) But some users may need to consolidate ideas and relevant notes from different documents. In that case it is useful to have such function in the contextual menu.
“Summarize Highlights” very successfully satisfies (2) and (3) for users who need a broad-brushed summarisation of info from one/multiple documents. But journal articles review for research is rarely a one-pass or a batch process (at least for me) and is usually an on-going and incremental process.
For me, I keep document-specific annotation note to summarise the core ideas for each article and topic notes to consolidate ideas mentioned from different papers that are related to each core concept/theory/subject. And that means I am doing both (2) and (3), either simultaneously or sequentially.
Thanks for the info. It seems to me that aliases as described in the document of DT is more for the purpose of wiki style link (? hope I’m not too/totally wrong in seeing aliases as another unique identifier) and for that reason it seems consistent to use full name as default for backlink but can be switched to aliases for shorter name if aliases exits. But this could be a very naive suggestion…
Yes, aliases are derived from wiki technology, but they can be used for more general purposes, if desired.
For example, if you added an alias to a group in a database using group Tags, you could type the alias in the Tags bar for a file and the file would be replicated into the aliased group. When you look at the Info Inspector or navigate away from and back to the file, you’d see the group Tag shown, not the alias.
Thanks for the info. In fact, I used to replicate items to difference groups by using “Replicate to” with “excluded groups from tagging” checked. The method you suggest is much quicker and also less likely to replicate the items to the wrong group (which happened all the time)!
You’re welcome, but don’t see my suggestion necessarily as advocating that. Using group Tags is useful, but like indexing, should be approached with some consideration. But if it works for you, great!
Nice! If you’d like to start a new topic and share how you’re using aliases, some people could get a nice real-world education on how useful they can be. Your call.
PS: No pressure. Life gets busy and most of us can’t spend time writing novels on forums
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