Ipad Reading+Extracting+Searching highlights

[aviator007]

Hello

I plan to do alot of reading on an ipad, mainly PDF files and I am looking for 1 app to do all my PDF reading in but I need to be able to extract my annotations WITH formatting. Meaning if I have a 10 page document, and I highlight a sentence in thr color green on page 2, and on page 4 I highlight another sentence green and a sentence blue, and on page 8 I underline a sentence with a red color... that can let me export a PDF summary page showing one green sentence from page 2, one green and one blue sentence from page 4 and one sentence with red underline from page 8, and all this on one single PDF for later review. This would be very helpful for me because I need to quickly review 100s of large documents but I neee to be able to only be able to read my own 1-2 page annotation highlight summaries on each document but with the formatting intact. AND if Santa Clause exists... later let me search for, lets say only Blue colored highlights across documents forexample. So if I search the word 'Aero' in blue color, it will show me all documents containing blue highlighted Aero. I would appreciate your thoughts and the best possible steps to achieve these things from your knowledge. Preferably from 1 app or maybe 2 so that I can stay organized and on top of all those large documents. It would also be great to search a document, filtered by the whole PDF or only my own annotated highlights/notes or only highlights of one specifc color. I tried to find these answers on my own by searching this forum and other places but have not found something that matches my needs exactly... so Im hoping you guys know more to help me. Thanks again!!

 

[giradman]

Hello Aviator007 - welcome to the forum! I have Adobe Acrobat Reader and Foxit on my iPad Pro but have used for only reading and storing PDF files - do virtually no annotation or editing (and some of the more advance features may come at a price, so assess closely) - this recent Article reviews 15 'PDF editors' and may help you decide which ones to review that might fit your needs. Also, there are a few members here that use PDF apps more extensively that I do and hopefully several will 'chime in' with advice. Good luck - Dave

 

[aviator007]

Hey Giradman/Dave, thank you for your reply and that article. Before writing my post, I had tried to research this on my own as much as I could without actually having the apps to try them... Liquidtext, Goodreader, Goodnotes and iAnnotate are the closest I had come. I had seen for example many reporting Adobe did not have a good pen input, incase of writing on documents with the apple pen so thats why that one fell lower on my list... but then again, I dont know which apps can do the things I mentioned in my original post and was hoping that users that have used such functions could give me some insight and recomendations as I think my need seem very specific and not vague so that a person with information regarding aoo having such functions could possibly help. Thanks again though!

 

[twerppoet]

I have Documents by Readdle, and it appears to do what you want. PDF Express by the same company is the PDF annotation only version. Documents has some other functionality you may or may not want.

It's not really meant for note taking, so keep that in mind. I normally use Notability for note taking on top of a PDF.

Apple's Books app can also read PDF files, and will allow some note taking, thought it seems to be more limited on PDFs than it is with eBups. But it's free.

For manuals and references I tend to put them in Documents. If it's more of a book, i put it in Books. If it's something I want to take notes on, especially during a class or presentation, I use Notabilty. Mostly because it allows you to record audio in sync with you note taking.,

 

[aviator007]

Hi twerppoet! Thank you so much for taking the time to not only reply, but being kind enough to show me with screenshots you made yourself! That print version does look exactly what I need! I have a few questions if I may:
1. By PDF Express, I assume you mean PDF Expert. In that case, and in the case of Documents by the same company, do you know if that print version style is something offered in the Free version of the apps or not? I personally don't mind paying for apps as that is more than fair but I just dont support subscription based options for different reasons. So I want to pay once and avoid a subscription. The reason I had crossed out PDF Expert a while ago was because of being subscription based and that I didnt know or find anyone showing that it could achieve saving of highlights/annotations WITH formatting like your print version from Documents. I dont know if the Free would be enough to achieve that.
2. Can you save that print version to PDF, TXT and MarkDown for local storage? I am also trying to avoid Cloud-based options as much as I can. Which is my purpose for keeping local summary files for review and privacy.

I could be grateful if others have some more input. Especially anyone with experience with Liquidtext, Goodreader, Goodnotes and iAnnotate as those are the most likely paid apps that maybe could do this and be useful for me! Thanks again!

 

[aviator007]

I also must add and say... it's mind-boggling to me that what I need seems so rare or difficult to achieve when the term "annotation summary" is so common with so many apps. Because, why would anyone, spend the time to color something with a specific color and something else with a different specific color and then just have it in black and white for the summary? How does that make sense for an app developer or the need of any user? It really makes no sense to me no matter how many time I run it through my head. Highlight format is specifically chosen at the time it is made for a reason, and to what that format in a summary should be obvious, no? Or am I missing something here? Maybe its difficult for app creators to achieve? I dont know.

 

[aviator007]

and one last thing I want to add to my original post, in hopes that it will make it easier for someone helping me. It is very important for me to also be able to export based on a specific highlight. Forexample, lets say there is a 500 page document, and I highlight all NAMES in the document with the color RED and all sentences related to TOPIC1 highlighted with the color BLUE. I really need to be able to (when needed) to print/export a separate summary containing only NAMES with RED highlights as a PDF document and another summery related only TOPIC1 with BLUE highlights as another separate PDF document. This would supercharge productivity as is the name of this subforum That way a large document can be dissected and later placed in other locations for further work. I really hope someone will be able to guide me regarding this as it would really be important to me. Thank you.

 

[twerppoet]

1. Yes. I meant PDF Expert. Sorry about that.

2. As far as I know, the file is out put as a PDF. There is no Markdown or RTF. While you can probably get the text back out of the PDF by various means, most of the formatting will be lost.

3. Liquidtext does look more like what you want. I have it, from long long ago, so I took a look. Most of the power features are locked behind in-app payments, but even with the basic features I could export to a Word document. It can also export to a reference manager (locked behind in-app payment), which sounds more like what you want to do. I've never used a reference manager, nor do I have any idea if there are good ones available for the iPad. There is quite a bit of information on their site. Might be worth visiting. LiquidText - "PDF Editor with Superpowers" FastCompany

That's about all I can offer. What you are asking for is far beyond any level of research or documentation I've even considered.

 

[aviator007]

Thanks again for your reply twerppoet!
I am really not worried about any in-app payments as long as I can get what I need. As øong as its not subscription based I think its good to support developers if one finds what one needs. I know my profile on here is NOOB but I am well aware of researching things before posting and using search functions in general to respect the members of this forum but since I physically dont own an Ipad yet, it is limited what I can find out without asking for help. I had looked into Liquid Text alot before making this Thread and most claim "notes taken in Liquid Text are best served to be accessed within Liquid Text" and I can see why as the "Workspace" on there is continuous and "infinite", the app would never be able to print A4 printouts correctly as the user have not given it anything to go on, by using an infinite canvas.

I think the most spesific I can be is to state that Im basically looking for a PDF reader which has some spesific export functions. I prefer to have my work and research offline and not Cloudbased, not only for privacy but also flexibility.

The functions are as I stated in my previous post for others to hopefully see:
"It is very important for me to also be able to export based on a specific highlight. Forexample, lets say there is a 500 page document, and I highlight all NAMES in the document with the color RED and all sentences related to TOPIC1 highlighted with the color BLUE. I really need to be able to (when needed) to print/export a separate summary containing only NAMES with RED highlights as a PDF document and another summery related only TOPIC1 with BLUE highlights as another separate PDF document."

I am also unsure if one can avoid the subscription of lets say Documents/PDF Expert, by using their free version to atleast achieve the printout as you posted in your first reply. I think for me.... that would be the next best thing. Of course if a paid app could do it, that would be great too.

So, best case scenario: export based on a spesific highlight color. Next best thing: export by keeping color formatting of highlights

Thanks again to you and Dave and also those who checked out this thread, to see if they can help.