NoteStream from iPad --> Mac

[postdoctoral]

Sorry for the frequent posting these days!

Today's question: is it true that there is no automatic way to have the "note stream" of the iPad app mirrored in the "notes" section on Mac?

I found an option to manually add each note and highlight made in iPadOS to the Mac note, and I realize that you can use select-all and copy them all at once into the Mac note. However, I cannot see a way to bypass the step entirely, if you simply want any highlight, annotation or comment you make on the iPad app to worm its way into the official "note" on the Mac, where it can then feature in, for example, a literature note in Obsidian via BibTex.

I imagine this separation between iPad note stream and Mac notes is completely deliberate -- the idea being that the Note attached to the reference on Mac is sort of an edited, more formal document whereas the iPad note stream may contain a lot of junk that you just highlight or flag up while you're making sense of what you read. This is a good approach -- however, adding the option to have the two be the same (iPad note stream = Mac note stream) would allow you to choose whether you want the decluttering stage to happen within Bookends, or further downstream.
Unless I'm missing something, right now, you can take your iPad note stream to a text editor manually. Or you can (manually) copy into the Mac notes, where, if you choose to, it becomes part of your .bib output for downstream editing. But you are forced to have a manual step in there.

[Jon]

In Bookends, a "note" is text contained in the database notes field.

A PDF "annotation" is highlighted text in a PDF.

There is nothing special about Bookends for iOS. Any annotations you make in a PDF, in Bookends, Bookends for iOS, Preview, etc., can be displayed in the note stream, but they belong to the PDF, not the Bookends database.

BTW, Bookends for iOS is *identical* to Bookends for Mac in this regard. Both contain notes in the database notes field, and both can display PDF annotation in the note stream.

We provide a way to import the annotations into the references notes field, where Bookends can manipulate them (e.g. export them, format them, etc.). But of you have to tell Bookends to do that, and which annotations to import into the database.

Jon
Sonny Software

[postdoctoral]

Thank you, Jon.
I think my confusion about the nomenclature is partly down to the iPad app's interface. The official database Note and the PDF annotations are not labelled, so I hadn't even realized that the both exist on the mobile app until now, when I copied all the PDF annotations into the note stream (on the Mac). Back on the iPad they just appear as two nearly identical but separate sets. (see screenshot attached).

IMG_0617.jpeg (96.38 KiB) Viewed 2166 times

I would humbly suggest that some sort of labelling of the sections dedicated to the Reference Note and the PDF Annotations on the iPad app may make things clearer. Similarly on the Mac, at first sight it's hard to locate the PDF Annotations Stream, since it does not by default populate the Note field.

I would also suggest maybe adopting a streamlined terminology, perhaps sticking to something like "Reference Note" and "PDF Annotations". I find the current options a bit confusing. On the iPad, there are "PDF annotations", the menu suggests moving to the "note stream", but when you click on an individual note (in the note stream) it's labelled "Note Card", and the long-press suggests you can "see all notes" (not the "note stream?")... Note, note cards, note streams, PDF annotations... Maybe it's just me, but I feel things could be simplified.

Finally, as I said in the original post, I do see the point of keeping the two (Notes and Annotations) separate but all I'm arguing for is a simpler way to move PDF annotations into the Note. On the Mac you can select-all and move them. On the iPad, as far as I can see, you have to do them one by one by long-pressing on each individual entry....

[Jon]

I can see how it might be a bit confusing, but there is a reason for it. Note cards are note cards, regardless of the source of text. And there really is just one note stream, in which notecards from different sources can be displayed in one location. The idea being that notes are notes, wherever you made them.

We denote different sources by color. Pale yellow means it is showing a note in the database. Otherwise, the color of the highlight in the PDF is used to indicate that it is higlighted text. Tan is used to indicate the text is the "content" of an annotation, e.g. a note. Maybe that helps.

We'll consider ways to make this more obvious.

Jon
Sonny Software

[DrJJWMac]

> We'll consider ways to make this more obvious.

I echo the request and look forward to a follow up. While colors can be useful to mean different things, the meaning can get lost, especially when the colors bleed into each other at some point. One also has to employ extra muscle memory to remember which color means what. Also, the colored backgrounds can tend to hide content or distract from easily reading the content at a quick glance. Finally, it would be nice to have information about the meta-content in the note (or annotation) visible in the view as well, especially for example a time-stamp. A mock-up of something I would find cleaner and more informative as a note field is attached.

[Jon]

You can show the timestamp of notes (Show PDF Note Modification Date In Notecards). Annotations like highlights don't have that information.

Jon
Sonny Software

[DrJJWMac]

> You can show ...

I really had to dig for this one. Could this toggle (and the one about showing highlighted PDF text) also be placed in the note view pane itself?

Also, I see now that my comments concern notecards. I see no meta content for them visible in the panel view.

[Jon]

They apply to notecards, not to the note tab view (if that's what you mean). If you mean the latter, it holds the database content, it doesn't know anything about an attachment, that's what the note stream is for. And you can see the reference's last modification date (which may or may not have been a modification of the notes), but we don't keep track of the last modification date for each field.

Jon
Sonny Software

[martinjp]

I am following this thread with interest, because I have had similar concerns.

In Bookends, a "note" is text contained in the database notes field.

A PDF "annotation" is highlighted text in a PDF.

There is nothing special about Bookends for iOS. Any annotations you make in a PDF, in Bookends, Bookends for iOS, Preview, etc., can be displayed in the note stream, but they belong to the PDF, not the Bookends database.

As far as I have been able to see, there is no way to create a "note" while reading a pdf in iOS Bookends. In OS Bookends one can create either a "PDF note" or a "notecard". (I start to find the terminology confusing at this point.) Might there be a way to offer both those two options in iOS Bookends?

Also, might there be a way to record the page in the pdf where an "annotation" (or note) has been made?