Extract Comments from PDF via Script

ctietze

This discussion was created from comments split from: Sample Note - open to suggestion for improvements.

It is a reply to @ndpi's request for @achamess's PDF script.

msteffens

@ndpi, I've written a few scripts that extract PDF highlight annotations from Papers 3:

• export note+highlight annotations to individual files
• copy note+highlight annotations to the clipboard
• export note+highlight annotations to DEVONthink Pro

These could maybe serve as examples or starting points for you. For more info on how to script Papers 3, see Scripting Papers 3 for Mac with AppleScript – A Getting Started Guide.

msteffens

@ndpi, and here's a script that copies formatted references and citekeys (in MultiMarkdown format) to the clipboard:

-- For all publications selected in Papers 3, copies their citekey and
-- formatted reference to the clipboard
tell application id "com.mekentosj.papers3"
    set selectedPubs to selected publications of front library window

    set outList to {}
    repeat with aPub in selectedPubs
        set pubCitekey to citekey of aPub
        set pubReference to formatted reference of aPub
        copy "[#" & pubCitekey & "]: " & pubReference to end of outList
    end repeat

    set the clipboard to my mergeTextItems(outList, linefeed & linefeed)
    display dialog "Copied info for " & (count of selectedPubs) & " publications to the clipboard." buttons {"OK"} default button "OK" with icon 1
end tell

-- Merges the given list of text items using the given separator string
on mergeTextItems(textItemList, aSeparator)
    considering case
        set prevTIDs to text item delimiters of AppleScript
        set text item delimiters of AppleScript to aSeparator
        set mergedText to textItemList as text
        set text item delimiters of AppleScript to prevTIDs
    end considering
    return mergedText
end mergeTextItems

ndpi

@msteffens This is very helpful, thank you! AppleScript is still somewhat of a strange beast to me - and I've worked as a professional software engineer.

achamess

@ndpi I highlight in Skim.app and then extract to Sublime ZK.
Here is the script. I can't promise it still works. But give it a try. It's pretty amateurish but it gets the job done for me.

https://github.com/achamess/skim_to_md_script

magnus

Suggestions for Emacs from various sources in this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/7yxg1t/extracting_pdf_highlights_and_linking_back_to_pdf/