Is there really no way to link to a page of a PDF?

Scrivener
1

Hi all, new to Scrivener. Did the interactive tutorial and have the free 30 day trial. I’m trying to use Scrivener to collect the 200+ page Google Doc I have, plus folders of resources including nearly a dozen PDFs that I need to be able to reference quickly. Scrivener is almost perfect, if a bit dense, with the exception of the fact I cannot figure out how to link from a text file I write in the Draft folder to a page of a PDF in the Research folder. It seems really odd that this super complex software can’t do that so I’m wondering if I missed something in the tutorial, or if there’s a way to do it I’m not seeing?

2

Hi, magneticsouth, and welcome to Scrivener and to the forums. As I understand it, a PDF file is essentially an “attachment,” appended to native Scrivener text but not actually part of that text. But even if you were to copy the content of a PDF and paste it into a Scrivener document, details within the document can’t be linked to, only the entire document. I could be wrong, but I think that capability is being implemented in version 3, currently in very advanced beta. But someone else will have to verify that.

3

Hello folks,

I’m new to Scrivener and was just wondering whether it is possible to link to a specific page in a PDF document?

Thank you.

4

There is the Hook Productivity App, check it out

It can be done with this app

5

If you open a link to an external document that is a PDF, and your reader pays attention to the #page=x parameter at the end of the filename, then it will.

The only Mac PDF reader I know of (besides Hook, maybe?) that will do this is the Adobe PDF reader. Not Preview, and not any of the many PDF reading/editing programs I’ve tried have this capability.

Create a Scrivener bookmark an external PDF document, then edit it to add #page=x where “x” is the page number you want it to open to. Then make sure the default PDF reader for Mac OS is the Adobe Acrobat reader. Clicking on the link should open the pdf to that page.

1 Like
6

DevonThink will create/open links to individual pages.

7

Thanks yes I’ve seen Hook, it is very good, but I was hoping Scrivener would have a method so I could avoid having to subscribe to another app.

8

Thank you for this and I will bear it in mind but I’m going to go with the Devonthink method since I have DT. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use it in that way but it’ll do for now.