Read and navigate PDFs

Use this guide to read a PDF in Atlas, move through its pages, and verify that citations link to the correct passages.

Open the PDF

Select the source from the project list. It opens in the middle panel.

If you arrived by selecting a citation in chat, Atlas opens the PDF near the cited passage. Before reading the cited section, confirm that the document title and visible content match the source you expected.

Navigate the document

Use the viewer toolbar to:

Scroll continuously through pages.
Jump to a specific page number.
Search for a phrase using the search control.
Zoom in or out with the zoom controls.
Rotate pages if needed.

For research papers, start with the abstract, introduction, methods, results, limitations, and conclusion. For reports and reference documents, use section headings and tables to locate the evidence you need.

Verify a citation

When a chat answer cites a PDF:

Select the citation badge.
The viewer scrolls to the cited passage and highlights it.
Read the highlighted sentence.
Read the surrounding paragraph for context.
Check whether the passage supports the claim Atlas made.
Look for caveats or qualifications nearby.

A citation is a path to evidence. The passage may support the claim accurately, partially, or in a way that requires interpretation. Reading the surrounding text is how you confirm which it is.

Handle page number differences

PDF file pages and printed page labels often do not match. A paper might label its introduction as page 1 even though the PDF file has cover pages before it. Atlas citations reference the file page, not the printed label.

When page numbers seem off, search for a phrase from the cited passage to confirm you are on the right page.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Search does not find text	The PDF may be scanned or image-based
Citation opens near but not exactly on the phrase	Search for the phrase on that page to locate it
Viewer is slow to load	Large PDFs and image-heavy documents take longer to render