Hover-over citation box in PDF Viewer

Feature requests
1

I’m a new user who switched from Zotero, and I love Paperpile’s intuitive, smooth interface—it’s a game-changer for my AuDHD brain, which thrives on this organizational brilliance! Zotero felt clunky and lacked the flair I need to stay focused.

One feature I miss from Zotero’s PDF viewer is the hover-over citation preview. When you hover over a citation (e.g., [4] or a date), a small pop-up box shows the full reference without scrolling to the bibliography. It’s super practical for quick checks and keeps my reading flow intact, which is crucial for avoiding ADHD distractions.

Additionally, Zotero’s viewer has a back button (a little arrow at the top) that appears after clicking a citation link to jump to the reference list. It lets you return to your previous spot instantly. In Paperpile, some PDFs have clickable dates to go back up, but many don’t, and scrolling back is a flow-killer for my brain.

Could you add:

  1. A hover-over citation box showing the full reference in the PDF viewer?

  2. A back button to return to the reading position after jumping to the references?

These would make Paperpile even more AuDHD-friendly and streamline research. Thanks for an amazing app!

2 Likes
2

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback @SamuelF—we’re glad to hear that Paperpile’s interface is working well for you! A hover-over citation preview and a back button in the PDF viewer to return to your original reading position after viewing a reference both sound like useful improvements for smoother reading and navigation. We’ve added your +1s to our internal feature tracker for the team’s consideration at a later date.