# Need help getting noter/pdfs and org-roam-bibtex to work **URL:** \ **Category:** Requests\ **Created:** [September 26, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794 "2020-09-26T13:53:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sinqbad](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/sinqbad/32/414_2.png) [@sinqbad](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/sinqbad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794/41 "2020-10-01T15:08:27Z")
THREAD SOLVED Summary: The problem was that when I used org-ref (or helm-bibtex) “open pdf” from the menu function, a buffer to dired “/” would open rather than the pdf. This was actually two problems that I confused for one. The first issue was that the menu that I was using was the org-ref menu’s (C-c C-o on cite:) “2. Open PDF” option. As @nobiot discovered what is actually happening is that org-ref-open-pdf-at-point calls org-open-file which opens the file in the default pdf view. @nobiot so helpfully provided a solution. The second issue is that relative links for the `file` field weren’t being parsed correctly by helm-bibtex. This was solved by changing the `file` field to jabref links: this is done via Zotero. Also don’t forget to set `bibtex-completion-library-path` to the parent folder of the exported bibtex files. Huge thanks to @nobiot and @mshevchuk for all their help. Absolute legends. ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794/42 "2020-10-01T17:26:08Z")
Thank you for your great summary. Now that you have solved the original problem, I don’t need to dig much further (congratulations; it’s your solution 🙂)… My BBT setting on Windows looks different. I don’t turn on the JabRef metadata, I get the absolute path for the file, and I have no problem with openning PDF (and also `:NOTER_DOCUMENT:` property to open Org-noter from the note (for your other issue in another post)). ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/orgroam/original/1X/1f511c4e1aa3074cdec2a941981549847c2f6489.png) **Figure 1.** BBT’s configuration for export I have on my Windows ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/orgroam/original/1X/d30337b7e0cf1666f57e9f59bc8ccaa2109c55ec.png) **Figure 2.** Open the associated PDF by calling `M-x org-noter` from the note (`.org` file). ---
**Author:** ![sinqbad](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/sinqbad/32/414_2.png) [@sinqbad](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/sinqbad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794/43 "2020-10-01T17:36:09Z")
My solution technically fixes the issue I had however, yeah, it seems like the jabref messes up the org-noter functionality. I’m on linux so I think that’s why I’m getting the relative paths rather than absolute. I’ll keep looking into. Slowly getting a phenomenal setup going. ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794/44 "2020-10-01T21:03:27Z")
@sinqbad, You might like to quickly check this below? I don’t believe it is OS specific. relativeFilePaths in [hidden preferences](https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/installation/preferences/hidden-preferences/#relativefilepaths) is set to off by default. You might have it set on for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![gcoladon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/gcoladon/32/976_2.png) [@gcoladon](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/gcoladon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794/45 "2021-04-26T01:55:47Z")
> [@nobiot](#): > > I don’t know if you are up for this, but I’d put `edebug-defun` for function `bibtex-completion-open-pdf` and run the action as normal. That should bring up a debugging session like I see below. You should be able to press space to evaluate one line by line, and see what `bibtex-completion-pdf-open-function` variable evaluates to. @nobiot, I wanted to thank you for making this suggestion above, which I just happened upon in the last month. Even though I’ve been using Emacs off and on for 30 years (!), I had never heard of the edebug functionality, but now it’s one of my favorite things about Emacs, along with `advice`, which I found out about last month by posting a question to Stack Overflow. Now, whenever there’s something in Emacs I want to change, I edebug a function in the vicinity of what I want, look at all the values of all the sexprs as they are evaluated, and then figure out how to use advice to change things to work the way I want them to. Emacs is a hacker’s paradise 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 7:47am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794/46 "2021-04-26T07:47:40Z")
Yes, I think edebug helped me learn Emacs and Elisp very quickly over the last year. When I started using Org-roam about a year ago, I hardly wrote Elisp; now I feel much more comfortable. … Now it is blessing and curse; you will be sinking more disposable time into Emacs 😉 [Previous page](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/need-help-getting-noter-pdfs-and-org-roam-bibtex-to-work/794.md?page=2)