[Skim-app-users] Questions about Skim Notes

[Mark Roberts]

First, Skim looks like a great app — kudos to the dev team!

Next, some questions, if you don't mind:

1) I gather that my notes are saved both as extended attributes on the PDF
file, and in .skim files. Question: is there a way to turn off storage of
notes in the x-attributes, and only save to the .skim files?

2) I am using Skim mainly to highlight passages of a PDF, and add my own
comments to these notes. Question: what would you think of very basic
markdown support in the notes? I.e., when a setting is enabled in the
Preferences, the notes could understand "#" (atx-style headers), ">" to
indicate the note text from the PDF, and "*" or "**" for emphasis
(bold/italic). Would it be technically feasible to display this kind of
simple formatting in the Notes pane?

3) The notes I create often include words broken by hyphenation at the end
of a line. This is an artifact of how PDF represents lines of text in a
paragraph. Question: any opinions on a feature to clean up the notes by
removing these hyphens when the note is first created? Again, it could be
something optional, enabled by a setting in the Preferences.

4) Where can I find details on the format of the .skim files? I.e., let's
say I want to read them with another app. I have looked at the source code
for Skim, but there are so many different files, I feel kind of lost.

Thanks in advance!

[Christiaan Hofman]

Post by Mark Roberts
First, Skim looks like a great app — kudos to the dev team!
1) I gather that my notes are saved both as extended attributes on the PDF file, and in .skim files. Question: is there a way to turn off storage of notes in the x-attributes, and only save to the .skim files?

No. They are not even saved in .skim files by default. You can only have this done as a means to create a backup, that’s its function. A CAR file like this is a fragile concept, and there are various safeguards for saving that are not in place for such setups. That’s OK for backups, but not for primary storage.

Post by Mark Roberts
2) I am using Skim mainly to highlight passages of a PDF, and add my own comments to these notes. Question: what would you think of very basic markdown support in the notes? I.e., when a setting is enabled in the Preferences, the notes could understand "#" (atx-style headers), ">" to indicate the note text from the PDF, and "*" or "**" for emphasis (bold/italic). Would it be technically feasible to display this kind of simple formatting in the Notes pane?

The notes are still represented as standard PDF notes, and they don’t have such a concept. It would also not be compatible with editing support in the table.

Post by Mark Roberts
3) The notes I create often include words broken by hyphenation at the end of a line. This is an artifact of how PDF represents lines of text in a paragraph. Question: any opinions on a feature to clean up the notes by removing these hyphens when the note is first created? Again, it could be something optional, enabled by a setting in the Preferences.

We already do that, as well as we can. But how that works really depend on how the text is presented to us by the PDF. But as you indicate, the PDF format is really bad when it comes to text support, it really is more a graphics format than a text format. So if we don’t do that already, we simply won’t be able to that.

Post by Mark Roberts
4) Where can I find details on the format of the .skim files? I.e., let's say I want to read them with another app. I have looked at the source code for Skim, but there are so many different files, I feel kind of lost.
Thanks in advance!

There are some details on the Wiki. We have also separated out the specific code to support this format into a separate framework (and tools) that’s available for third party apps.

Christiaan

[Mark Roberts]

Thanks for addressing my questions.

Post by Mark Roberts
First, Skim looks like a great app — kudos to the dev team!
1) I gather that my notes are saved both as extended attributes on the PDF
file, and in .skim files. Question: is there a way to turn off storage of
notes in the x-attributes, and only save to the .skim files?
No. They are not even saved in .skim files by default. You can only have
this done as a means to create a backup, that’s its function. A CAR file
like this is a fragile concept, and there are various safeguards for saving
that are not in place for such setups. That’s OK for backups, but not for
primary storage.
2) I am using Skim mainly to highlight passages of a PDF, and add my own
comments to these notes. Question: what would you think of very basic
markdown support in the notes? I.e., when a setting is enabled in the
Preferences, the notes could understand "#" (atx-style headers), ">" to
indicate the note text from the PDF, and "*" or "**" for emphasis
(bold/italic). Would it be technically feasible to display this kind of
simple formatting in the Notes pane?
The notes are still represented as standard PDF notes, and they don’t have
such a concept. It would also not be compatible with editing support in the
table.
3) The notes I create often include words broken by hyphenation at the end
of a line. This is an artifact of how PDF represents lines of text in a
paragraph. Question: any opinions on a feature to clean up the notes by
removing these hyphens when the note is first created? Again, it could be
something optional, enabled by a setting in the Preferences.
We already do that, as well as we can. But how that works really depend on
how the text is presented to us by the PDF. But as you indicate, the PDF
format is really bad when it comes to text support, it really is more a
graphics format than a text format. So if we don’t do that already, we
simply won’t be able to that.
4) Where can I find details on the format of the .skim files? I.e., let's
say I want to read them with another app. I have looked at the source code
for Skim, but there are so many different files, I feel kind of lost.
Thanks in advance!
There are some details on the Wiki. We have also separated out the
specific code to support this format into a separate framework (and tools)
that’s available for third party apps.
Christiaan
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[Alan Harper (lists)]

There are lots of clipboard managers for Macintosh that you can use to
massage the clipboard to do things like remove hyphens (if you are copying
text out of a pdf and pasting into a note). I use Keyboard Maestro.

Post by Mark Roberts
First, Skim looks like a great app — kudos to the dev team!
1) I gather that my notes are saved both as extended attributes on the PDF
file, and in .skim files. Question: is there a way to turn off storage of
notes in the x-attributes, and only save to the .skim files?
2) I am using Skim mainly to highlight passages of a PDF, and add my own
comments to these notes. Question: what would you think of very basic
markdown support in the notes? I.e., when a setting is enabled in the
Preferences, the notes could understand "#" (atx-style headers), ">" to
indicate the note text from the PDF, and "*" or "**" for emphasis
(bold/italic). Would it be technically feasible to display this kind of
simple formatting in the Notes pane?
3) The notes I create often include words broken by hyphenation at the end
of a line. This is an artifact of how PDF represents lines of text in a
paragraph. Question: any opinions on a feature to clean up the notes by
removing these hyphens when the note is first created? Again, it could be
something optional, enabled by a setting in the Preferences.
4) Where can I find details on the format of the .skim files? I.e., let's
say I want to read them with another app. I have looked at the source code
for Skim, but there are so many different files, I feel kind of lost.
Thanks in advance!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Find and fix application performance issues faster with Applications
Manager
Applications Manager provides deep performance insights into multiple
tiers of
your business applications. It resolves application problems quickly and
reduces your MTTR. Get your free trial!
https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/302982198;130105516;z
_______________________________________________
Skim-app-users mailing list
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/skim-app-users