Extract Highlights Plugin

akaalias · December 16, 2020, 3:45pm

I’m super glad to hear Thank you for reporting!

jeffk8900 · December 16, 2020, 3:51pm

The update worked. Thanks so much for the update.

akaalias · December 16, 2020, 4:09pm

@jeffk8900 – Of course, you’re very welcome. Would you mind helping me understand how/when/where/why you use the highlighting in your workflow?

akaalias · December 24, 2020, 12:29pm

Hey all, happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!

I just pushed a new feature that we talked about for a while: Automatically create a new file after extraction.

The configuration is simply on/off (Off by default)

Yay! Hope this makes your work easier, too

akaalias · December 29, 2020, 11:47pm

Hey team, I’ve been hacking away at a related plugin that I think will be useful.

This time it allows you to extract highlighted and underlined text from your PDFs into a markdown file in your Obsidian vault.

Super simple to use, too. Just open a PDF in Obsidian, click a button and a few seconds later you have the highlights in markdown.

Here’s a quick demo to show:

There are also a bunch of settings (similar to the “Extract Highlights Plugin”) such as

Include page number (Default: off)
Include highlight color (Default: off)
Create links (Default: off)

Let me know if this tickles your fancy at all and most importantly: What should we name this puppy and what side-bar icon should it have?

“Distill PDF Highlights”
“PDF Highlights”
“PDF Annotations”
Suggestions?!

Thanks!

Alexis

Finessest · December 30, 2020, 8:28am

Hi @akaalias

Thanks for this plugin. I’m excited to give it a try. One name that came to me while reading your message was “PDFlow”.

Btw, since the update Obsidian Release v0.10.3 (Insider build) I had to rename all my old tags, and thanks to your guide on Find and replace links across all files in a vault it was painless. Thanks again!

Have a happy new year!

Abhi · January 12, 2021, 5:59am

I have two questions that I hope you can clarify

does this only work with single page pdfs ?
sometimes I see that the highlights are not shown in obsidian pdf, but drawings/scribblings (tablet) are. Do I have to flatten my highlights for this plugin to work?

geraldooka · January 12, 2021, 7:23am

I just wanted to say thank you for this awesome plugin. Knocked it it off the park!

I like the new idea as well. I’m not sure I’ll use it for my formal work as I use Zotero for managing citations and bibliography creation in my research reports. However for my personal research it would come in handy for sure!

akaalias · January 12, 2021, 1:57pm

Hi @Abhi, thank you for your questions!

The PDF highlights plugin looks at all pages in your PDF
I’d have to see an example for that. The PDF viewer included in Obsidian may render things differently. If you want, send me an example PDF to test extracting highlights or just try yourself

akaalias · January 12, 2021, 1:58pm

I should probably add that the “PDF Highlights” plugin is now officially in the Obsidian 3rd Party Plugins directory!

To install it, just search for “PDF Highlights” and install and activate

akaalias · January 12, 2021, 2:07pm

Thank you so much! If it helps even a little bit during personal research, I’m happy. Cheers!

Abhi · January 13, 2021, 6:05am

@akaalias
Thank you for the response. I tried with a multipage pdf, the kind that I use regularly for my note-making. I am uploading it here. It is already highlighted in some places which shows up when I open it in Acrobat or DrawboardPDF. But when I click the plugin icon after placing it in Obsidian vault, nothing happens.

I have uploaded it here, please have a look if it is compatible.
usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1BbpZUWfpIDBI-dSDTmStlnFraBNa08JO/view?usp=sharing

akaalias · January 15, 2021, 2:04pm

Hi all!

I’ve got some really cool news (at least I find it so exciting) about a SECRET new mode in the Highlights Plugin.

I’m not going to say too much though. Watch the video and let me know if this is CRAZY?!

anicholslcsw · January 15, 2021, 2:34pm

This looks awesome! Thanks for your work

arminta · January 15, 2021, 6:22pm

Really cool!!

I-d-as · January 15, 2021, 9:03pm

Can’t wait to try it! Thanks so much.

anicholslcsw · January 15, 2021, 10:01pm

So far, works like a dream

Marc-A · January 15, 2021, 10:42pm

Great idea – share your excitement and enjoy your generosity. Works a treat – and it adds an amazing function to an already great pugin. Thanks!

akaalias · January 16, 2021, 11:37am

Thank you so much @arminta, @I-d-as, @anicholslcsw and @Marc-A for your kind words!

If you wanna learn more, here are 3 tips and tricks that I forgot to mention yesterday:

Cheers!

Ward · January 19, 2021, 6:15am

Hi Alexis. Thank you for the great plugin and YT video. But I have a few problems. I am on the same version as you. 0.10.8. Extract Hightlight plugin is installed and the highlights are working if I use == . It is not working with the shortcut. If I click on the button on the side bar the MOC is created but not all the notes. I have anabled all the settings like in your video. Also the two shortcuts are not working. ALT+SHIT+_ and CTRL+ALT+H What can be wrong? Your plugin is version 0.0.16