Web Clipper/Highlighter and Kindle highlights/notes extraction Extension

@Klaas Need to add a “space” after the bullet * in the Bullet box, for it to interpret as bullet in obsidian. So should be "* " in bullet box. Or can use "- " which is the default I have for Roam. If you want indents and bullets then i recomend just use the default Roam settings and then just change the Italics from double underscore “__” to single underscore “_”. It sounds like that is what you are looking for.

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@kimstacks I have on my to do list to record a quick video / DEMO for obsidian specific but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Can you please elaborate on what was confusing/challenging and hard to understand / figure out? Then i can make sure to include that in my Video and/or make it more obvious in the Extension going forward. Thanks!

I’m saying this as if I am an eyewitness to my own workflow. Not as a commentary on your current workflow. So read what i say as if you and me both are anthropologists of some kind. :slight_smile:

Without watching your youtube, i intuited I can highlight. Cause the name does say highlighter :smiley:

Then when I saw the short cut key, Ctrl +X i knew I supposed to use Cmd+X on mac.

Then when I saw the highlights in the window everytime I press Cmd+X. I knew instinctively I am supposed to copy paste into obsidian.

After I copy pasted into obsidian. i noticed a [[Roam Highlights]]. That’s when I thought… hmm how do I change that or remove that?

After stumbling around, and still not watching the video, (Sorry!), I figured out the settings.

Then I noticed how the obsidian setting does not have bullets. So I tried to add them back.

After copy pasting back into obsidian (first using obsidian default then second time by adding bullets and indent), I then realized, it’s kinda silly to have bullets for my particular use case of highlighting this piece.https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/01/book-review-origin-of-consciousness-in-the-breakdown-of-the-bicameral-mind/

Then I went back to highlighter and turn off the bullets and indent.

Does that help?

In fact, I might even prefer a obsidian only highlighter. Of course I’m just one data point. I might be wrong.

Thanks @smurfman111, that works.

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@kimstacks amazing! Thanks so much for that. Helps alot.

I installed it and after some fiddling with the settings it works!

By the way, after I choose “Obsidian” mode, what does the “SET” button do? It gives no feedback when I press it.

Same for “Save”—yes, it should be saving my settings, but it provides no confirmation.

Nevertheless, thank you for the work on this—just today I’ve been searching for an extension that lets me clip portions of pages in Markdown. While looking at the Chrome Extension Store I saw your extension and thought “Well, another Roam Highlighter—I don’t need that. I want a working Markdown clipper that clips a selection of a page”

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@rsdimitrov when you switch to Obsidian settings for the first time, it doesn’t actually do anything until you press “SET” which then changes the formatting, indents, bullet options etc. If you select Roam and click SET you’ll notice it change back and then if you go to obsidian again, it won’t change until you hit SET. But then you can also make further tweaks on top of the default settings and click SAVE to save/apply those. I know it isn’t the most user friendly, but I am building this for functionality/options and not pretty-ness or easy/simple “flow” as that takes more time to do that kind of stuff than actually implementing features. Once you get the hang of it then it should be easy and hopefully you will enjoy the added Settings/options I incorporate versus “pretty-ness”. I already work 60+ hours a week for my regular consulting job, so this is a complete side thing when I have free time.

As for the “roam highlighter” name in the chrome store. I hear you. I am contemplating switching the name but at the same time 90% of my users are from Roam and I published this on Chrome store at the request of Conor (creator of Roam) so kind of dealing with those factors as well.

Thank you for all the great feedback! I’m doing my best :slight_smile:

can we use this extension if we open a PDF as a chrome tab ?

I am looking for a highlight feature specifically for taking notes from PDF.

I tried that @verma (with firefox), but it didn’t work with pdf files opened in the browser.

You can try Zotero and the plugin Zotfile for that, it has a highlight extraction feature that’s pretty useful. I’ve been using it with Obsidian and it’s working well so far.
https://www.zotero.org/
http://zotfile.com/

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@rsdimitrov based on your feedback, I made some updates to how the SAVE / SET buttons work. I removed the SET button all together and now the default settings dropdown auto applies/saves the settings onChange of the dropdown selection. Save button now is greyed out unless there is something to save… then it turns blue so you know to press it and it has a hand/pointer cursor over it to give you feedback on it actually clicking and then it goes back to grey. Hope this is better! Update is waiting approval by Chrome store. Should be there by morning. Everyone should be auto updated in next 12 hours or so.

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@verma as @s-kyy said, it does not work in PDF unfortunately. It uses HTML elements behind the scenes from webpages… and PDF doesn’t have that.

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Thank you for the effort you are putting into this! I haven’t yet seen the result, but The settings’ screen functionality sounds way more clear from what you are saying.

actually this is pretty neat hack. I am a Mendeley user. But I think zotero with the highlight extractor is worth a shot.

v1.9.7.2 is LIVE!

Not many new features but a ton of optimization and fixes for some minor formatting issues that folks have been sending me. I think we are very close to having something that should be pretty darn accurate even with weird websites / HTML!! Here is list of updates:

  • Added logic to double bracket link each author from Kindle books if there are multiple authors, but all still tied to the author:: attribute
  • Changed the default settings dropdown to apply “onChange” so you no longer have to use the RESET/SET box.
  • The Save button in Settings is greyed out when nothing to save, but whenever you change a setting and it needs to be saved the Save button turns blue and is clickable.
  • BIG improvements on annoying line break issues with messy HTML / webpages. I think it should be very accurate going forward.
  • Added link to YouTube DEMO / instructions to the side window startup.
  • Fixed some HTML / CSS / Visual issues with the side window / settings window on some websites with weird HTML / CSS rules.
  • Fixed some complex bullet/header nesting issues.
  • Fixed some issues when triple clicking to select an entire paragraph. It would sometimes overflow and catch/highlight part of the next paragraph.
  • Fixed issues with <a> links back to back which was causing to move the second to the next line/bullet.
  • Fixed some minor other random stuff.
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yeah especially since I now save my pdf files with google drive and allow zotfile to rename them, it’s been a pretty seamless workflow.

And remember everyone, you can customize the shortcut keys right through chrome and firefox!

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Hi,

I am having troubles using the “Makes selected highlighted a header” feature.

I activate it, my highlight goes red, but when I paste into obsidian it is all one level.

Am I doing something wrong?

edit:
Nevermind! I figured it out!
After some poking around I found that I have not enabled indend and also a space after my "- " bullet was missing.

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@Dominik yes I need to make a Obsidian DEMO video soon… its on my list. The Obsidian settings are based off the request of many Obsidian folks who don’t want the bullets/indents that I use for Roam. So I made those settings/options. But you can and should customize all the settings to your liking, which is sounds like you have done! :slight_smile:

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I am not able to turn off links. I was capturing annotations off a medium article. The plugin lifts links from words, even though I don’t need it to

Hey all,

I hope you have been enjoying the Highlighter! Chrome finally opened up Reviews for their extensions again. If you wouldn’t mind I would love for you to leave a rating and feedback in the Chrome store!

Thanks!

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