Incompatible PDF annotations cross platfrom (Mac notes not shopwing on a PC, PC notes do show on a Mac - so don't use Macs?)

OK, so annotating PDFs is a really crude, unindexed, unsearchable and unintegrated implementation compared to say Mendeley’s excellent note-making approach.

But, given these limits - WHY DOESN’T IT WORK CROSS PLATFORM?

The notes I’ve made on a mac in endnote show up if I view the PDF in PDF reader on a PC but NOT in endnote on a PC.

However sticky notes made  on a PC do show up on a mac in endnote.

So - what’s causing this and why is it so irritatingly uncompliant?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We will investigate why this is occuring and schedule a fix at the soonest opportunity.

BTW, sticky note text is indexed and searchable.

 - Mathilda, the EndNote team

Glad you;re looking at this - to clarify: the sticky notes show but they are blank if made on a Mac. They do show up if I open the PDF in acrobat reader so they are ‘there’ - but not in endnote. So presumably I now need to go back through and re-make these annotations in Endnote on PC???

One question you alert me to advanced search option of sticky notes saying “sticky note text is indexed and searchable”

Some feedback: It is possible to search sticky notes yes - not from quick search but from full search. Unfortunately two key options aren’t available: combined search PDF + PDF Notes (i.e. search text of a paper and my annotations) and usable search results.

By usable search results let me explain: the way annotations are (not) integrated makes them difficult to use like this. 

When I search I want to see a google books / mendeley/acrtobat reader like results (at least as an option) showing and highlighting the word or passage and allowing me to go direct to the search case/result and to the next one etc. etc.  - you know, like mendeley does. The current system is equivalent of google search returning a home page only and saying “your terrm is somewhere in this site - good luck”. It doesn’t give me search results it gives an index without page numbers and that’s all - so yes searchable and indexed but inpenetrably so. 

WHERE the search result is found is not indicated clearly in search results, I can limit to searching in the PDF notes but then must go through the whole paper to find the right note rather than using the note to find the right bit of the paper! :crying_cat_face:

PLEASE look at mendeley’s rendering of notes IN THEIR INTERFACE - you can see all the notes made incorporated and visible, click on a note and jump to that bit of the text - now THAT’S annotation: usable, contextualised and used as a bookmark to key passages in a paper not something hidden in the paper where a word appears if you can find it. Then maybe look at how search results are done in say google books, acrobat reader, gogle or almost any other service that calls itself ‘content search’ and means it.

Annotations and search results should help me find text not require searching in the text to find where the word appears.

I live in hope that one day either Mendeley will get their referencing as reliable and well done as endnote or endnote will spot we’re now in 2012 not 2002.

Thanks for this additional feedback about the Quick Search and annotations treatment. We’ll look into those improvements too.

 - Mathilda, the EndNote team.