Are annotations transferable?

[Shane R]

I highlighted, underlined and made some notes in an epub this weekend. But when I saved the epub to dropbox and opened it in other apps and also when I sent the epub to another device to read in iBooks - all the annotations were gone.

Are they saveable, or locked to the file that they are made on? Should I be able to start on an iPhone and pick it up later on an iPad or any other epub reader?

Thank you.

[Philantrop]

Marvin never modifies the epub itself. Annotations, etc. are written to Marvin's database which is not user-accessible (well, it actually is but you don't want to mess with it).

You *can* transfer annotations, etc. if you use Calibre and Marvin XD, the Calibre connector. No ebook reader but Marvin will be able to use Marvin's annotations, though.

I've not tried sending Marvin's annotations from Calibre to another device.

[Shane R]

Bummer. I'd like something that marks the file itself and then lets you use those markings elsewhere.

Thank you.

[Philantrop]

That's not the job of an ebook *reader*.

[harriska2]

I'm interested in this also. It would make the reader usable in a classroom setting where you can highlight words to look up and notes for students to read and possibly write short answers.

I think goodreader will do this for pdfs but I don't know if goodreader does epubs.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

That's not the job of an ebook *reader*.

I make notes in my books when I read them. Paper and eBooks. A lot in the Kindle app.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Shane R

I make notes in my books when I read them. Paper and eBooks. A lot in the Kindle app.

@Shane R, @Philanthrop's point was that ebook readers, including Marvin, iBooks and the Kindle app, don't actually change the contents of the original ebook when annotations are created. The annotations are stored outside of the ebook, as are bookmarks and your last location.

In order to actually modify the contents of an ebook so that annotations would appear to be a permanent part of the text, it would be necessary to use an ebook editor, but it doesn't make sense to do that for a number of reasons - the same reasons that it doesn't make sense to store bookmarks or your last location within the book.

Some ebook readers are capable of synchronizing annotations among multiple devices. That feature has been requested for Marvin.

G

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I'm interested in this also. It would make the reader usable in a classroom setting where you can highlight words to look up and notes for students to read and possibly write short answers.

I think goodreader will do this for pdfs but I don't know if goodreader does epubs.

At this time, Marvin doesn't automatically sync annotations among multiple devices, but with a bit of effort and would be possible to manually accomplish it.

Here's how I'd go about it:

• Create the annotations and highlights in the master iDevice (i.e., the teacher's iPad)
• Extract mainDb.sqlite and the Documents folder from the master iDevice (note that this includes all of the books installed in the teacher's version of Marvin).
• For each of the student iDevices, using iFunbox to copy the master mainDb.sqlite and Documents folder to the student's installation of Marvin.

At this point, each student would be starting with a clone of the teacher's copy. Then, you could assign the student to look up vocabulary words and create their own annotations, which could be individually exported by student.

Not an elegant solution, but possible.

G

[At_Libitum]

Or have them connect their iPad/iPhone to the classroom's Calibre database and transfer the annotations via Calibre/MarvinXD.

Much safer than mucking with files and iFunBox

And that these would only be usable with Marvin should not be an objection. Students are used to acquiring required materials, so just make Marvin a requirement.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

Or have them connect their iPad/iPhone to the classroom's Calibre database and transfer the annotations via Calibre/MarvinXD.

Much safer than mucking with files and iFunBox

And that these would only be usable with Marvin should not be an objection. Students are used to acquiring required materials, so just make Marvin a requirement.

This is certainly easier and safer, but doesn't satisfy the OP's request to have the students be able to see the teacher's annotations in context of the book (at least as I understood it).

G

[At_Libitum]

Originally Posted by GRiker

This is certainly easier and safer, but doesn't satisfy the OP's request to have the students be able to see the teacher's annotations in context of the book (at least as I understood it).

G

I may be missing something, but if the teacher syncs his annotations with the Calibre library via Marvin XD, wouldn't that make them available to everyone else connecting to that library to download that book (as long as they use Marvin XD)?

Or is that a one-way route? (haven't looked at Marvin XD in a while so I may be off the mark)

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

I may be missing something, but if the teacher syncs his annotations with the Calibre library via Marvin XD, wouldn't that make them available to everyone else connecting to that library to download that book (as long as they use Marvin XD)?

Or is that a one-way route? (haven't looked at Marvin XD in a while so I may be off the mark)

It's currently a one-way sync. Marvin XD extracts a copy of the annotations from the connected iDevice in HTML format and adds them to a custom column, but it can't send them back to a connected iDevice.

G

[kguil]

You can also export annotations and import them into another instance of Marvin (say, on another device) by swiping the book to the left in the library, choose Share and "Export annotations".

An email will be created with an attachment that can be opened in the other instance of Marvin.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by kguil

You can also export annotations and import them into another instance of Marvin (say, on another device) by swiping the book to the left in the library, choose Share and "Export annotations".

An email will be created with an attachment that can be opened in the other instance of Marvin.

I will examine the annotation export as that may do the trick.

Thank you and everyone else.

[binone]

Originally Posted by GRiker

It's currently a one-way sync. Marvin XD extracts a copy of the annotations from the connected iDevice in HTML format and adds them to a custom column, but it can't send them back to a connected iDevice.

G

Are there any plans to enhance Marvin XD to allow the annotations to be sent back to Marvin? This would obviously be hugely useful.