Clara Highlights/Annotations trasnfer to PC

[pavelh]

Hi,
after the crash of my Kindle 3, I am looking for a new device and I think it will be Clara HD.

My main issue before the buy, that is rather difficult to confirm w/o having the device with me and testing all the advices presented here, is - I need to be able to transfer highlights and annotations from sideloaded books to PC as easily as possible. I buy only DRM-free books from local resellers (e.g. kosmas.cz) and I don't want to support DRM in any way... which locks some solutions to this issue for me.

On K3, I became used to transferring a text file that held history of all highlights and annotations and then used my VBA script to turn that into a manageable Excel table, so I am used to some kind of extra work in this regard.

I am also not particularly dependent on keeping formatting of the original text. It would be a nice bonus, but it is not required.

I use Calibre, so perhaps Kobo Utilities could do it? (last update seems to be 2017 though...). Or any other solution working on Clara?

Any advice, pls?

Best,
pavel

I know very little about it, but there is an Annotations plugin in calibre that will let you do things like this.

Here's a recent thread about it:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=268071

And 2 tools in calibre that will do this:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=215339
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=241206

[pavelh]

Hi maximus83!
Thanks for your reply!!

Unfortunately, the first thread does not mention Clara, just Kobo. From what I gather, it could be applicable... maybe. I am not certain. That's why I hope for someone who owns Clara to help me out here.

Same for the plugins. I have actually tried Calibre/Annotations for K3. Didn't do what I needed back then.

Do you have Clara?


pavel

[pavelh]

Interestingly I just chatted with Kobo support about this and they were like "what? transferring highlights to PC is not possible. you would like that? (surprise) let me put that on the wish list" (paraphrasing)
OMG :-(

[ps67]

Except obvious peculiarity in hardware (physical buttons for Forma, Comfort light ecc.) as far as I know Kobo firmware is substantially the same for all Kobos. (I think I am right but if I am wrong somebody tell me )
If something like annotations plugin which is not dependent from a particular hardware works for a not specified Kobo model should works also for Clara.

[milady133]

Something to consider regarding annotations and highlights in Kobos is that they don't seem to work as smoothly as in kindles, or so people say (I don't own a Kindle to compare, and hardly highlight). It can take some time to get used to it.

Enviado desde mi SM-T580 mediante Tapatalk

[pavelh]

re: If something like annotations plugin which is not dependent from a particular hardware works for a not specified Kobo model should works also for Clara.

That is my exact hope. Hoping to get certain here before the buy though.

[pavelh]

re: Something to consider regarding annotations and highlights in Kobos is that they don't seem to work as smoothly as in kindles, or so people say (I don't own a Kindle to compare, and hardly highlight). It can take some time to get used to it.

In Kindle 3 it was, well, stupid. Inserting a highlight or annotation was more or less ok, but exporting them was crazy. You basically get history of your results, but not the final outcome. So if you delete a part of a highlight, it is not reflected in the txt. If you change your highlight, you get multiple instances of the highlight in the txt. Once you learn about it, you can work around it. I figured it out after several years of using and about two weeks before the screen froze on me.

I can't image it could get worse than that. Then again I read somewhere on some e-readers you have to export highlights for every book by hand (on Kindle 3 you have them all in that txt) and I am thinking, well, it can get worse :-( If this is true, I cannot fathom the stupidity of the board who signed on on this :-(

pavel

[Quoth]

Use Calibre
Kobo using Kobo Utilities is FAR faster and more complete info than Annotations plugin, which is far better than the Kindle. Kindle seriously lacks info useable outside of Kindle about location.
The Kindle is better GUI / performance to select the annotation as long as it's not an old keyboard / joystick model.

Originally Posted by pavelh

Do you have Clara?


pavel

Yes. And I just returned it as I found the Kobo hardware/software not to my liking. :-)

[pavelh]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Use Calibre
Kobo using Kobo Utilities is FAR faster and more complete info than Annotations plugin, which is far better than the Kindle. Kindle seriously lacks info useable outside of Kindle about location.
The Kindle is better GUI / performance to select the annotation as long as it's not an old keyboard / joystick model.

Thanks for your advice!


p

[pavelh]

Originally Posted by maximus83

Yes. And I just returned it as I found the Kobo hardware/software not to my liking. :-)

Interesting. So you tried Calibre+Kobo Utilities with it and it worked?

May I ask what did you dislike about Clara, pls?


p

Originally Posted by pavelh

Interesting. So you tried Calibre+Kobo Utilities with it and it worked?

May I ask what did you dislike about Clara, pls?


p

I did not try the Kobo utilities before I sent it back, but was responding to your question about whether I had a Clara.

What I did not like about it is summarized in this thread, see my OP, and my last post in thread on why I returned it. Short version, I found both the hardware, and the software, to be unsatisfactory and I am not planning to replace it with any e-ink device. I find it just too frustrating about the lack of features (lack of adequate storage and an SD slot, modern connectivity options like USB-C ports, lack of adequate system memory and CPU, as well as many missing features in the software and incompatibilities with Android and PC versions of software).

For me, I'm not willing to deal with all these shortcomings in underpowered, overpriced, proprietary-platform devices, just so I can have the privilege of reading in e-ink or in the sunlight. I am going to stick with devices and apps that will let me read my books on any android device or PC, and my reading data (annotations, positions, etc.) are preserved across all apps/platforms without any quirks or workarounds. At the moment, the best solution I've found for that is managing all my books in Calibre, and uploading everything to the Google Play bookstore, which gives me everything I'm looking for (including, per your OP issue, the ability to easily export notes and to access them on any device).

[pavelh]

Very interesting point. I think I understand your POV.
Thank you
pavel

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pavelh

Thanks for your advice!

For the record, I actively discourage use of the bookmark fetch that is in the Kobo Utilities plugin. It was something I wrote while learning about the annotations in the device and because I didn't like the experimental function that calibre had. Plus the Annotations plugin didn't exist at the time. If something breaks this, I'm not sure I'll bother fixing it.