Moving from PDF++ or Annotator

Last updated 10 October 2026

Octavo reads EPUB and PDF in one reader, on desktop and on your phone. You can switch without rewriting a single note: your existing links keep working, and your Annotator highlights can be imported in one click.

What carries over from PDF++

Your links open in Octavo. Octavo uses the same link format as PDF++: [[paper.pdf#page=12&selection=3,0,5,17&color=yellow]]. Clicking one opens the PDF at that page with the passage selected. Links with annotation= or rect= open at their page.
Colours. Links keep their &color= part. Octavo highlights in yellow, green, blue, pink and purple, plus underline, and writes the colour into every link it makes, just like PDF++.
Backlinks. Every note that links to a passage in a PDF is drawn on the page, as in PDF++. Click the mark to open the note.
Copy formats. "Copy as" in the selection menu copies a quote, a link or a callout from templates you can edit (Settings, Octavo, Copy formats), with variables such as {{text}}, {{page}}, {{link}} and {{citekey}}.
Auto-paste. Turn on "Auto-paste into last note" and every new highlight lands in the note you were writing, with its link.

What carries over from Annotator

Highlights and comments. Run "Octavo: Import highlights from another reader", choose Annotator, and Octavo reads every note with annotation-target. Highlights, comments and tags go into each book's note.
Positions. Annotator stores the highlighted text, not a page position. Octavo finds each passage by its text the first time you open the book, then remembers the exact spot.
Your Annotator notes are not changed or deleted. Keep them until you are happy with the import.

Make Octavo your PDF viewer

Install Octavo from Settings, Community plugins (search "Octavo") and enable it.
In Settings, Octavo, turn on Open PDFs in Octavo (it is on by default). Every PDF and every PDF++ link now opens in Octavo.
Want the built-in viewer for one file? Use the reader's menu, "Open in Obsidian's PDF viewer". Turn the setting off to go back completely; nothing in your notes changes.
You can keep PDF++ installed while you try Octavo. If both try to open PDFs, turn off the setting in one of them.

What is different

Highlights live in a book note. PDF++ puts highlights only where you paste them. Octavo also keeps every highlight as a callout in one note per book, so nothing is lost when you close the PDF. "Export highlights to note" writes a separate literature note grouped by chapter or page, and refreshes it without touching what you wrote around it.
Nothing is written into the PDF file. Your PDFs stay exactly as they were, which keeps sync small and safe.
Area selections. Links with rect= open at the right page; drawing a new rectangle selection is on the way.
Hover previews inside notes for PDF links are on the way. Inside the reader, a highlight with Cmd or Ctrl held shows a preview of its note.
More than PDF. The same reader handles EPUB, with phone layouts, crop and fit, read aloud, a library view and imports from Kindle, KOReader, Readest, Zotero and more.

Students and Zotero

Add citekey to a book note (Zotero Integration with Better BibTeX does this for you) and "Copy citation" copies [@citekey, p. 12]. Zotero PDF annotations in a Zotero Integration note can be imported from the same Import highlights dialog. Students get 50% off Octavo Cloud: email us from your school address.

Stuck? Email eliud@munyala.pro with the link that does not open and we will fix it.