🖍️ Highlight, Comment, Summarize, and Manage Research Notes Directly in Your PDFs

Enhance your research workflow with Zetaref, the AI-powered reference manager designed for students, researchers, and academics. Learn how to highlight, comment, and write notes directly inside your uploaded PDFs.
All annotations are automatically synced to your account, so you can easily review, search, and reference them later — across any device.

📂 Opening the PDF Details

To start annotating a paper in Zetaref:

  1. Go to your Library and select any uploaded PDF.

  2. Click the “PDF” tab to open it in the Zetaref PDF Reader.

  3. Inside the reader, click the “Annotations” button to launch the annotation toolbar.

You can now highlight text, add comments, or attach notes to specific sections of your paper.

Zetaref PDF annotations example

💡 Tip: You can resize or reposition the sidebar to better view your notes while reading.

🟨 Highlighting Text

Highlighting helps you visually organize key ideas and quickly revisit important findings during your literature review.

How to Highlight

  1. Click the Highlight tool.

  2. Select the text you want to highlight.

  3. Choose a color to categorize your highlight:

    • 🟡 Yellow: Key findings or definitions

    • 🔵 Blue: Methods or approaches

    • 🟢 Green: Supporting evidence

    • 🔴 Red: Critical points or issues

Managing Highlights

  • View all your highlights under the “Highlights” sidebar tab.

  • Click any highlight to view attached notes or jump to the section in your PDF.

  • Change colors or remove highlights anytime — your changes sync automatically.

🗒️ Adding Notes & Comments

Take contextual notes directly on your PDFs to capture insights or reflections. Zetaref supports both inline and standalone notes.

Inline Notes

Attach comments to specific text:

  1. Highlight a sentence or paragraph.

  2. Click “Add Note”.

  3. Type your comment or observation.

Use inline notes to capture your thoughts while reading or to draft short summaries for specific sections.

Standalone Notes

Add general notes not tied to text:

  1. Click “Add Note” in the annotations toolbar.

  2. Type your note — ideal for overall reflections or paper summaries.

Editing & Deleting Notes

  • All notes are editable at any time.

  • Click the note menu (⋮) to edit or delete a note.

  • All edits automatically sync to your Zetaref account.

💡 Tip: Use short, descriptive titles or keywords in your notes to make them easier to find later.

🧩 Organizing and Searching Annotations

Zetaref makes it effortless to manage your annotations across multiple papers:

  • Filter by color, note type, or keyword.

  • Search across all highlights and notes in your library.

  • Export annotations as summaries or structured notes for literature reviews.

  • Sync across devices — your highlights and notes are always available.

✨ Use annotations to generate structured insights, summaries, or draft sections of your literature review directly in Zetaref.