# [[2023-026 Best tools for organizing PDFs in Obsidian]] <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VqOc9OsMX_s" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> ## Pre-production ### Thumbnail ![[2023-026 Best tools for organizing PDFs in Obsidian.png]] ### Title 1. best way to organize pdfs in obsidian (46) 2. pdfs in obsidian (35) 3. organizing pdfs (81) 4. organizing pdfs in obsidian (47) 5. best tool for organizing pdfs in obsidian (47) ### Hook Most of the books, fictional and nonfictional, that I read are in either .mobi or .epub format, which means I read them on a Kindle or on a Kobo reader. I already have a workflow for highlighting those books and taking notes on them in Obsidian. However, there's one glaring gap in this system: PDFs. I've ended up with a lot of PDFs. I mean, a lot of PDFs. 137 GB worth of them-- all related to RPGs. RPG books are different, because they're not really the sorts of things I would want to highlight. They're part reference, part fiction... which means they fall through the cracks in my process. Until recently. In this video, I'm going to show you the different options I tried out to get a handle on this PDF mess, why I chose the tool I ended up with, and how to set that up to work with Obsidian. Spoiler alert: it's Zotero. ### Structure - My use case isn't academic. I don't care about citations, I care a little bit about highlights, but not a lot. I care about applying tags, being able to do Dataview queries to find things by category, and having tables of contents that I can click and go to exactly the page I want. - My requirements - [[Organising PDFs.canvas|Organising PDFs]] - Possible solutions | Solution | Categorise | Process | Reference | Local | Cloud | Share | Cons | | ------------ | ---------- | ------- | --------- | ----- | ----- | ----- | -------------------- | | Obsidian | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | limited PDF features | | DevonThink | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | bloated, expensive | | Readwise | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | SaaS platform | | macOS + Skim | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | OS-specific | | Zotero | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | A bit janky, plugins! | - Obsidian - Categorise: ❌ - PDFs can't be tagged (unless you use Excalidraw but that has disadvantages) - Process: ❌ - Can't read or annotate (though some there are plugins that help with this, they're not as good) - Reference: ✅ - You can make deep links [[20190403-01.pdf#page=2]] - Local: ✅ - Cloud: ✅ - Share: ✅ - Cons: limited PDF features - DevonThink - Categorise: ✅ - tags - Process: ❌ - you can't really annotate and bring them into Obsidian - Reference: ✅ - you can also do deep links - Local: ✅ - Cloud: ❌ - errors when your files are on Dropbox or iCloud and not local - Share: ❌ - just doing this with two of my own computers was a pain and took ages, DevonThink To Go (DTTG) is iOS only. - Cons: bloated, expensive - Readwise - Categorise: ❌ - tags - Process: ✅ - excels at this - Reference: ❌ - no deep links to PDF - Local: ❌ - Cloud: ✅ - Share: ❌ - Cons: SaaS platform - macOS + Skim - Categorise: ✅ - tag through native macOS (for example) - Process: ✅ - Skim does actually let you highlight stuff - Reference: ✅ - Skim provides deep links - Local: ✅ - can be local - Cloud: ❌ - doesn't work if not local - Share: ❌ - can't really share stuff - Cons: OS-specific - Zotero - Categorise: ✅ - tags - Process: ✅ - highlight and annotate - Reference: ✅ - deep links, but download Zutilo plugin - Local: ✅ - yes - Show how to add a file (linked) - [Zotero folder import](https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-folder-import) - Cloud: ✅ - yes, no reindexing required; change base folder and use linked files - Share: ✅ - - Tools > Settings > Advanced > Files and Folders and change Linked Attachment Base Directory - Cons: janky, plugins required - Using it with Obsidian - [Dataview Queries for Arcadia](obsidian://open?vault=ttrpg-vault&file=Dataview%20Queries) - [13th Age](obsidian://open?vault=ttrpg-vault&file=sources%2F13th%20Age%2F13th%20Age) - [Numenera Discovery](obsidian://open?vault=ttrpg-vault&file=sources%2FCypher%2FNumenera%2FNumenera%20Discovery) ### Outro I've known about Zotero for a while, but I'd only considered it within an academic context. It turns out it works pretty well for non-academic PDFs as well, especially when used in conjunction with Obsidian. It was a lot of work just to find a system that works for me. Thanks to Andy Polaine, argentum, and Leah Ferguson for letting me pick their brains about various things, and thanks to the folks on my Patreon-only Discord server for giving me the final push to get this video recorded. If you'd like to see more about how I get the most out of these RPG-based PDFs, check out this video on my DM's Brain Attic in Obsidian. Now I gotta go tag and do ToCs for the rest of my books... the things I'll do for games. Thanks for watching. *Wünscht mir Glück!* ### Related videos and resources Tools - DevonThink: https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink - Readwise: https://readwise.io/nicole - Skim: https://skim-app.sourceforge.io/ Zotero plugins mentioned - Zotero folder import: https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-folder-import) - Zutilo: https://github.com/wshanks/Zutilo - MD Notes: https://github.com/argenos/zotero-mdnotes Support MCDM on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mcdm Thanks to the following people for their input and help in experimenting: - Andy Polaine: https://polaine.com - Leah Fergusson: https://leahferguson.com/ - @argentum#3920 on Discord - The lovely folks on my Patreon Discord server: https://patreon.com/nicolevdh ### Pinned comment ``` This was a long one, but I wanted to be thorough! Use the timestamps to jump around, and check the description for links to tools I mentioned. I also want to call out something about the Zotero deep link format. The Zotero link should be in one of the two formats to be clickable from within Obsidian: - zotero://open-pdf/library/items/4MEZZRVW?page=1 OR - zotero://open-pdf/0_4MEZZRVW/8 While experimenting, I found that only the first worked for me, but oddly, the second worked better for friends and we couldn't figure out why. Try both! Obsidian plugins used: Dataview, Templater THEME: AnuPpuccin: https://youtu.be/7-SOwxpZQNI ``` ### Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:03 My requirements and criteria for a PDF organization tool 03:30 Option 1 - Obsidian 06:06 Option 2 - DevonThink 08:23 Option 3 - Readwise 10:28 Option 4 - macOS + Skim 13:35 Option 5 - Zotero 14:17 Categorize: Installing plugins in Zotero 17:06 Process: Annotating in Zotero and exporting to Obsidian 18:40 Reference: Deep linking in Zotero 21:46 Save: Linked files instead of stored files in Zotero 24:13 Share: Changing the linked attachment base directory in Zotero 25:30 Example - Processing Arcadia PDFs in Obsidian ## Post-production - [x] Create captions using Rev, then edit them. - [x] Take a thumbnail photo and create one for YouTube (1280 x 720). - [x] Add description. - [x] Include the title and any keywords in the first few sentences, but in a natural way. - [x] Add related videos and resources as links. - [x] Add end screen. - [x] Add cards if necessary. - [x] Add chapters/timestamps for YouTube if longer than 5 minutes. - [x] Add mid-roll ads/check monetization settings. - [x] Add pinned comment. - [x] Post video preview on Patreon. - [x] Schedule on YouTube. - [x] Add video to relevant playlist(s), or create a playlist if necessary. - [x] Promote on Twitter/LinkedIn as appropriate. - [x] Create a blog post on [site](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com). - [x] Add to video-database. - [x] Add to other notes in my vault as appropriate.