Exporting Notes / Highlights

[RamonR]

Hello all,

I have had an Aura One for 2 years now and I'm very satisfied with the screen and speed of the device. However, taking notes / highlights and exporting them is very cumbersome. The workflow is so annoying that I don't even bother with it anymore, which is really hurting my retention in non-fiction books especially.

The Kindle e-readers seem to support Readwise. What's really nice about this is that it has an option to display a random highlight / note which is good for repetition. That said, I don't like the Amazon ecosystem.

I know that in KO Reader it should be possible to export to Evernote at least, but before I go through all the trouble of adding a custom reader, how well does that even work? It's hard to find any examples of people doing this online.

Are there any other alternative workflows to easily export highlights / comments to any major note taking app? (Evernote, Readwise, Notion etc.) How do you guys deal with this?

Thanks

[koboyedi]

You're probably aware of the following (semi-cumbersome) method but just in case you're not, here's the link:
https://medium.com/@angeldan1989/how...s-20606b7159b6

[davidfor]

@RamonR: I have covered how to get annotations from Kobo devices in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...01#post3215101. There is one method I can think of that is missing, but, it doesn't work with firmware later than 3.19.x.

As to feeding to other systems, it has been mentioned in the past, but not discussed much. From what I can tell, I don't think many people are using annotations on these devices in way that this would actually be useful. Personally, my use is limited to marking errors to fix and something to look up later. I don't know if any of the methods above are suitable for feeding to these other systems. It is probably possible to change some to be more suitable, but, it would depend on what is needed and how much interest there is.

And as you are interested in using Readwise, you should hassle them. I read their FAQ and what they say for the Kobo devises is a cop-out. Especially as they include instructions for using the "My Clippings.txt" file from a Kindle. It isn't as convenient if you have to plug the device in, but, it is possible and would expand their market.

[RamonR]

Originally Posted by koboyedi

You're probably aware of the following (semi-cumbersome) method but just in case you're not, here's the link:
https://medium.com/@angeldan1989/how...s-20606b7159b6

Thanks, that's already a step in the right direction at least! Wasn't aware to be honest!

[RamonR]

Originally Posted by davidfor

@RamonR: I have covered how to get annotations from Kobo devices in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...01#post3215101. There is one method I can think of that is missing, but, it doesn't work with firmware later than 3.19.x.

As to feeding to other systems, it has been mentioned in the past, but not discussed much. From what I can tell, I don't think many people are using annotations on these devices in way that this would actually be useful. Personally, my use is limited to marking errors to fix and something to look up later. I don't know if any of the methods above are suitable for feeding to these other systems. It is probably possible to change some to be more suitable, but, it would depend on what is needed and how much interest there is.

And as you are interested in using Readwise, you should hassle them. I read their FAQ and what they say for the Kobo devises is a cop-out. Especially as they include instructions for using the "My Clippings.txt" file from a Kindle. It isn't as convenient if you have to plug the device in, but, it is possible and would expand their market.

I'm on the latest firmware but thanks for the suggestion!

I must say highlighting on the Kobo feels weird in any case. It's hard to drag the handles with a great amount of accuracy. I could definitely just use my phone or a tablet, but the problem with that is that I get distracted too easily. Maybe future e-reader technology will be better for this purpose!

Nevertheless, I'll try to send them an e-mail. Hopefully more Kobo readers want this feature.

[jxall]

Originally Posted by RamonR

I must say highlighting on the Kobo feels weird in any case. It's hard to drag the handles with a great amount of accuracy. I could definitely just use my phone or a tablet, but the problem with that is that I get distracted too easily. Maybe future e-reader technology will be better for this purpose!

Highlighting on Kobo works flawlessly, but only if the ebook is in kepub format.

Of course you can convert all of your ebooks to kepub using Calibre and the KepubOutput plugin, but you won't be able to transfer the current highlightings from your epub/mobi files to the kepubs.

[ps67]

There is a problem in Kobo Aura One that can influence Highlighting: the precision of the touch is not good. As far as I can read here the other Kobo devices don't have the same issue.

[Frisbee]

Do you mean EPUB? I can't see an option to convert to KEPUB in Calibre.

Cheers

[Frisbee]

Originally Posted by jxall

Highlighting on Kobo works flawlessly, but only if the ebook is in kepub format.

Of course you can convert all of your ebooks to kepub using Calibre and the KepubOutput plugin, but you won't be able to transfer the current highlightings from your epub/mobi files to the kepubs.

Do you mean EPUB? I can't see an option to convert to KEPUB in Calibre.

Cheers

[Frisbee]

Originally Posted by Frisbee

Do you mean EPUB? I can't see an option to convert to KEPUB in Calibre.

Cheers

It's ok, I reread your message and understood the bit about needing KePub plugin

[RobertJSawyer]

If you use Evernote and just want to find your highlights, one method I use is this; it hinges on the fact that Evernote processes images so that the text in them becomes searchable.

Enable screenshots on your Kobo by adding this to \.kobo\Kobo eReader.conf

[FeatureSettings]
Screenshots=true

Henceforth a short press of the power button will take a screenshot (and a long press will power off).

Take screenshots of the screens with your highlighted text (or just of any screen you want to search later).

Offload the screenshots from your Kobo into an Evernote autosync folder.

Set up (one time) search on Evernote with these parameters and make it a "Saved Search" for easy use later:

matching ALL of the following:
contains words starting with: screen_
containing: image/png
with advanced filters: intitle:png

[RobertJSawyer]

And, of course, with this setting in the conf file, you can save all your highlights to a plain Unicode text file in the \Exported Annotations folder on your Kobo; the annotations menu will have a new option to save the annotations to a file:

[FeatureSettings]
ExportHighlights=true

[Frisbee]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

And, of course, with this setting in the conf file, you can save all your highlights to a plain Unicode text file in the \Exported Annotations folder on your Kobo; the annotations menu will have a new option to save the annotations to a file:

[FeatureSettings]
ExportHighlights=true

Thanks for your reply. I did actually do this and I didn't get the option to export highlights with long press. Not only that but after I edited the config file it broke my options tabs and page turning arrows. Now they're all greyed out. Quite frustrating as now I don't know what all the grey boxes represent. I just have to scroll through them to find what I need.

I don't suppose you happen to know what I might have done and how to fix it?

[RobertJSawyer]

You need to edit the config file with a plain-text editor that respects Unix / Mac line endings: a line feed with no carriage return (Windows usually adds a carriage return). NotePad++ is a good free one that will do the trick.

If you can't fix your config file, email it to me — sawyer@sfwriter.com — and I'll try to fix it for you and email it back.

And it's not a long-press menu choice to export annotations. Rather, from an open book, you hit the Notes button (the one that looks like a dog-eared lined page) at the bottom right of the screen when you tap to bring up the menus.

From that screen, you'll see two tabs: "Table of Contents" and "Annotations." Select "Annotations," then from the "..." menu at upper right, select "Export Annotations."

[Quoth]

Or from list of books (My Books etc), it's an extra menu item.