[FR] Linking between different pdfs

[rauchert]

Describe your request

Hi,

thank you for your really great work! I really appreciate it.

I am sorry, if my question is already posed or even answered in another place. It is this:

Is is possible or can it be made possible in some way to allow linking between two different pdf files? My idea is this: I work a lot with scientific papers/books as pdfs and I would like to connect papers that cite each other. So, if in paper A there is a citation like (Author 1999, 23) and I have the related paper, let‘s call it paper B, I would like to add a link from '(Author 1999, 23)' in paper A to the corresponding page in paper B. If this link could be bidirectional it would be even better.

Any ideas? :)

[Loners-xq]

I also think it's a great idea, and it will be a great help for books and papers.

[rauchert]

@Loners-xq, as a workaround I will try to get along with this, maybe it is also an option for you:

You can highlight a reference in a paper and write the highlight directly into the pdf-file. In this case, you have the option to add a comment to your highlight, which can render markdown and therefore can also have markdown links as a content. So, you just add a link to the referenced page or passage as an annotation to the highlight, which you got from the referenced paper, that is in your vault.

For a kind of bidirectional link feeling, you could do basically the same the other way round, maybe highlight the page number with the corresponding link as an annotation.

If one chooses a specific color for this kind of reference linking, one could maybe have a consistent workaround.

I just discovered this option and have to see for myself how much I like it or not. :)

[Loners-xq]

@rauchert
Thank you very much for telling me about this method, in fact, I have also tried this and found that when the location of the linked file is moved, [] the link will not change in time and it will fail. And external links in a pdf cannot be displayed in the sidebar. All these problems hinder my use.

Until the developers make changes, there seems to be no other better way to replace it. But still hope that developers can implement this feature, let it get obsidian native link support!
Thanks again for the solution and have a nice day!

[rauchert]

@Loners-xq, I see, maybe it is not ideal. But markdown links as an annotation like [[Author_Year_Title.pdf#page=10|10]] should not break, if you move the linked pdf-file to a different location inside of your vault.