And the basics are in place
Your library syncs in both directions. Synced papers stay readable offline. Dark mode reaches the PDF page too, and the app is available in 20 languages.
Rectoly opens your Mendeley or Zotero library on Windows and Mac as a reader built for papers. Two-column PDFs reflow into one clean column, your notes come together across papers, and quotes, figures and tables leave with their source attached — ready for Word, LaTeX or Obsidian.
Free for 14 days · then once: $49.99 for Mendeley, $19.99 for Zotero
A reference manager stores the paper and a PDF viewer shows the page. Reading closely, comparing papers and pulling out what you will cite usually happens in a pile of windows and copy-paste. Rectoly keeps that work in one app, on the same computer where you write.
Two columns are made for print. Rectoly reads the structure of the paper and lays it out again as one column: figures where they are first mentioned, equations at full width, page headers and footers gone.
The reflowed text on one side, the real PDF page on the other, following along as you read. One click takes you to the same spot in the PDF.
Open a second paper next to the first, each with its own page, zoom and notes. Or open the same paper twice: the text here, the figures there.
Click or hover over a citation like [12] and see the reference behind it, without losing your place. A mention of Fig. 3 brings the figure to you instead of sending you scrolling back.
When a PDF comes without bookmarks, Rectoly estimates the outline from the paper itself and says that it did. Jump by section in any paper.
Annotate where you read, on the PDF page or right on the reflowed text. Every mark is placed at its real position in the PDF, so it syncs to Mendeley or Zotero like any other annotation.
Highlight, underline, add notes and write by hand on the reflowed text. There is no going back to the two-column page just to mark a sentence.
One search covers the full text and the annotations of every paper on your computer, and each hit opens at its page.
Pull Methods, Results, Limitations and the other sections out of many papers into one table, a row per paper. No AI and nothing uploaded: Rectoly reads the structure that is already in the PDF.
Keep one plain Markdown note per research question, open beside the paper. Send a passage to it with one shortcut, drag fragments between Claims, Evidence and Objections, and press Enter on a fragment to jump back to the sentence it came from.
Rectoly is not one more editor. Its job ends when what you read reaches what you write: Word, LaTeX, Obsidian or your reference manager.
Export every figure as a PNG and every table as a CSV, for one paper or a whole shelf. Copy a table and it pastes into Excel as cells, not as a picture. Tables Rectoly is unsure about are marked for a check.
Export your highlights as Markdown grouped by the sections of the paper, each quote with its citation key and page number. A CSL-JSON file goes with it for other tools.
Copy from the reflowed text and the printed page number comes along: p. 312, not page 5 of the PDF. The BibTeX entry and the citation key are one click away.
Export a research theme as Markdown or a Word file, with a reference list built from the papers you quoted. Or let Rectoly keep one note per paper in your Obsidian folder, named by citation key.
Open the .docx, .odt or Markdown file you are writing next to the paper you are reading. The preview follows every save from Word.
Send the notes of a paper to Mendeley or Zotero as a note on the item. Or export a PDF with your highlights and handwriting drawn in, which anyone can open.
Write on a tablet, and the same strokes appear on your Windows PC or Mac, right where you wrote them. With Zotero, handwriting syncs as Zotero ink annotations, so it shows in Zotero itself too. Mendeley's annotation format has no type for handwriting, so Rectoly for Mendeley carries the strokes itself, from one Rectoly device to the next.
Highlights and notes sync as regular Mendeley or Zotero annotations, so they appear there too.
Your library syncs in both directions. Synced papers stay readable offline. Dark mode reaches the PDF page too, and the app is available in 20 languages.
Buy Rectoly once and it unlocks on every device where you sign in with the same Mendeley or Zotero account.
Rectoly for Mendeley and Rectoly for Zotero are separate apps, and each is bought on its own.
No subscription. The same one-time price as on iPad, and it covers every platform.
Already bought Rectoly on iPad or iPhone? Sign in with the same Mendeley or Zotero account and the Windows and Mac versions are included.
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), including Windows 11 on Arm · macOS 14.6 or later on Apple silicon or Intel · iPadOS / iOS 17.6 or later
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