Search pdf annotations (notes) created in other editors

[Ken]

Hi,
Is there a way to search the notes I have added to pdf's in, for example, PDF Expert or Preview? They appear in the Bookends Note Steam, but I cannot find a way of searching for them. Have I missed something? Or would it, Jon, be possible for you to add this functionality.

I have come to use this as the primary way of adding comments and notes to texts, so it is somehow essential for my workflow. It is possible to export the annotations from PDF Expert (or the Highlights app) and thereby make them searchable in a new document, but it would be much easier if all my pdf-notes were searchable in Bookends.

Thanks in advance,
Ken

[Jon]

No, you can't do that. Spotlight doesn't index PDF annotations, so Bookends would have to physically open every attached file, extract all the annotations, and search them. I think DEVONThink is what you want -- please check it out to see if it suits your needs.

Jon
Sonny Software

[FredS]

This is really helpful. Ive been using Macs for so long and never realized that annotations aren't index in Spotlight. It works with DEVONthink. Makes me wonder, can a Bookends library be stored in DEVONthink.... not that I would want to.

[Jon]

Bookends and DTP get along very well together. We have worked together to develop protocols for getting Bookends data into DTP and to create links in DTP back to references in Bookends. You should search our respective forums for post about each other (DTP here, Bookends on their forum).

Jon
Sonny Software