How to sync okular annotations between Windows and Linux using Dropbox?

Is there some way I can make Okular store metadata (specifically annotations) in Dropbox, so it is read by Okular regardless of which computer I am using.

For example, I have a Linux laptop with lots of Okular annotated PDFs, but when I read them with Okular on my university computer which is Windows, I do not get the annotations because they are stored in a location outside Dropbox on the Linux laptop. I know from a previous post where this stored location is. I would like to move this location to Dropbox, and make Okular recognise it on both operating systems.

Sav-econ

Posted 2014-10-17T23:58:06.703

Reputation: 161

Some one here suggested running a cronjob that backs up your folder to dropbox ... its not ideal, but its not a bad idea.

– Sun – 2014-10-20T16:48:03.280

Answers

The question is not necessary for newer versions of Okular. From FAQs section of the Okular website

Why the newly added annotations are not in my PDF document?
How can I annotate a document and send it to a friend/colleague/etc?

They explain that in newer versions of Okular, annotations can be saved directly into the PDF so not in separate metadata files. Some of these annotations can also be read by other PDF readers. The FAQs also explain that Okular PDFs can be saved as .okular files, for other Okular users to edit. (Although I do not see the need if annotations can just be saved into the PDF.)

Importantly previous annotations made with metadata method can be saved into the PDF. Open the PDF with metadata annotations, then 'save as' and the document will have the annotations saved into it. Therefore the annotations are viewable to anyone who can access the PDF via Dropbox that you have saved it in.

Sav-econ

Posted 2014-10-17T23:58:06.703

Reputation: 161

I have half an answer that I found on a blog post here. It suggests creating a symlink to a folder in Dropbox

ln -s $HOME/.kde/share/apps/okular/docdata ~/Dropbox/folder/name

This will go as far as backing up my annotations, but it will not link to my Windows Okular installations. From here I need help getting Windows Okular to read the annotations from Dropbox and also allowing annotations I make in Windows to be added to those in Dropbox, so that when opening the PDF in Linux again I also have the Windows annotations.

Sav-econ

Posted 2014-10-17T23:58:06.703

Reputation: 161

Symlinks inside Dropbox are only followed once: https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/145

– Sun – 2014-10-20T16:46:57.797

I need both windows and linux machines to be reading and editing the same metadata file. I don't think symlinks can achieve this. – Sav-econ – 2014-11-06T16:16:33.140

That is correct. You can try a tool such as DropBoxifier for Windows which may help you with the task of symlinking... But again, it won't update the files in real-time. To do that, you have to move the metadata to an actual folder inside Dropbox. You might ask for an enhancement from Okular to point to a specific directory for meta as a startup parameter.

– Sun – 2014-11-06T16:54:46.060