u/WavingFree

This is for anyone who keeps their literature notes in Obsidian but still likes to read and annotate PDFs in Zotero.

If that's your setup, you're probably switching between the two apps constantly or using an obsidian-side plugin that adds admin to your reading. Obsidian Notepad for Zotero is meant to take that friction out: your note stays a plain markdown file in your vault, but you can open and edit it right inside Zotero's item pane while you read, and your PDF highlights flow into it automatically — so it's up to date by the time you're back in Obsidian.

It's a Zotero extension — it installs in Zotero, not in Obsidian's Community Plugins — but the whole point is keeping your Obsidian notes tidy and current.

A few things worth knowing:

• It's a real markdown editor in the Zotero pane, with an Obsidian-style reading view (links, headings, bold/italic render inline).
• Highlights land in blocks that re-sync without touching your own writing.
• By default, click 'update' to draw new annotations into the note. This can be automatic by changing the settings.
• No hidden database — the file is a normal vault note, so Obsidian indexes it as usual ([[wikilinks]], properties, the lot).
• Notes can be created from adaptable templates (same flavour as popular Obisidian based Zotero plugins).

Early beta, Zotero 7+, Windows/macOS/Linux. Install the .xpi from Releases (in Zotero: Tools → Plugins → gear → Install From File…); it auto-updates. Works best with Better BibTex but should work standalone.

https://github.com/Acatechnic/obsidian-notepad-for-zotero

It's beta — back up your notes / try a test library first. Zotero->Obsidian sync by default; an opt-in feature can push tags back to Zotero (with a preview/confirm step).

Would love feedback from anyone who works across both apps: did setup make sense, what broke, what's missing? Thanks!