Currently, the chrome extension for paperpile is required to read PDFs in the browser.
However, my Uni laptop doesn’t let me install chrome extensions. This means I can’t view, read, or reference my PDFs while working on my work computer. I can only use paperpile on my personal computer. This is a real shame.
It would be amazing if the plugin was not required, or if at least limited functionality was possible without the chrome plugin.
Just ask your IT-department to put the extension on the whitelist.
That was my first thought too. Unfortunately they don’t have a whitelist and don’t allow extensions. It’s frustrating, but I can imagine if this happens to me it happens to more folks.
The extension provides the majority of the service’s functionality; adding papers to your library, sourcing the correct reference information, sorting your library by label/folder, and so on.
However, it isn’t explicitly required if you only want to read PDFs that are already in your library. Those are just stored in a folder of your Google Drive account. That means they can be opened just like any other PDF, using either the local GDrive app or the web interface at https://drive.google.com
You won’t be able to use all the metadata for sorting the library, but Google has pretty good search functionality within Drive - including the full-text search.
Your highlights and comments are embedded in the PDF too, so anything you do outside of Paperpile’s extension should be visible within it once you get back to your personal computer.
You are right, @Maura – a fair amount of users have reported this limitation over the years, so we do have plans to enable usage of our features without the browser extension in the future.
Thanks @Daniel and @Kyle_Marriott for your thoughts!
the “new” version seems to require the extension.
I work for a government contractor that has clamped down on browser extensions.
Is there any way to implement paperpile without an extension - maybe by visiting a page the reloads the required javascript when first visiting my paperpile library?
Thanks.
Welcome to our forum, @Greg_Sullivan! Usage without the extension will be properly enabled later this summer. Please contact us directly via in-app messenger or email (support@paperpile.com) and we can discuss a potential workaround for your use case.
Hi Vicente,
Was there any update on this issue? It is still a problem.
Welcome to our forum, @Heman_Gharibnejad. Paperpile’s Chrome extension helps you to download PDFs, auto-update reference details, and create citations in Google Docs.
But you can use Paperpile’s web app without the extension. Open Paperpile in a new tab. Go to chrome://extensions, switch off the extension by toggling the switch off, and in the web app tab, click Skip for now in the Chrome extension modal. After that, you can use the web app without the extension, but please note that some functions will be disabled, like automatic PDF downloading.
Thanks Suzanne,
Unfortunately what you described is not an option on the chrome browser. There is no option to skip installing the extension. At one point I had it installed but it was blocked by admin policy and it can’t be used at all. I am afraid I can’t use the app at all on admin controlled computers.
Thank you for letting us know, @Heman_Gharibnejad. I’ve shared your feedback with the team. Is using Paperpile on a different browser an option for you on these computers? If you sign into Paperpile in Firefox or Safari, you should not be prompted to install the extension. Other Chromium based browsers like Edge may also be worth a try.