On Feb 12, 2014, at 11:19, Eamon Ferrey wrote: > Hi, > I was wondering if there's any method for reading all the pdfs in a selected > folder and for files that have skim notes in the extended attributes, > exporting/converting/creating .skim files based on them. I think what I have > in mind is something like the skimalot script, except using some of the > functionality of the skimnotes command line tool. > > A few weeks ago, I copied my entire pdf library (a couple thousand) to a new > computer, using the wrong usb drive (one not formatted to keep EAs). I didnt > realize I had done this until after I completed an extremely time consuming > process involving restructuring my entire pdf library, linking it to > Bookends, manually inputting the reference info for hundreds of pdfs, > renaming them, and so on. So I'm in a bit of a tricky situation. I have all > of the pdfs with EAs still on the old computer. If I hadn't sunk weeks into > this setting up my new system, I'd just copy the files over properly and > start again, but I'm hoping there's something that will be slightly less time > consuming that could get me out of the mess. > > I had in mind something like this: > > 1) scan all the pdfs on the old computer, finding all the ones that have skim > annotations in the EA. (I have a couple thousand pdfs, but only a few hundred > are annotated with skim) > 2) Batch export .skim files from the EAs. > 3) Move those to the new computer and write them to the appropriate pdfs. > (I'm not sure any batch process will be possible with this since all the pdfs > on the new computer now have new file names so I'm guessing even in the best > case scenario I'd have to manually identify which .skim files and pdfs > belonged together.) > > Not sure if any tools exist for these steps, but crossing my fingers that at > least some of the process could be automated. Any thoughts? > > Also, can multiple .skim files be written into the same pdf? It seems that > for some period of time I had the auto backup skim notes prefernce checked, > and those files made the transfer to the new computer, but I'm not sure how > incomplete or outdated these are. Just to be safe, it'd be ideal if I could > write those to the pdfs as well as the .skim files I will hopefully generate > from the pdfs on the old computer. > > Any leads at all would be tremendously appreciated. i'm not optimistic, but > perhaps there's something I haven't thought of. Thanks again. > > All the best, > > Eamon
It should certainly be possible to write a script to automate this process, at least in part. It is easy to get .skim files from the PDFs that have notes. It is basically what the skimalot script does with the "bundle" option, but using the "get" option for skimnotes in stead of "convert". That would get you 1 & 2. How those should be exported and moved to the new computer in batch I am not sure, because it depends on your configuration and where you really want to get them. Are you saying all PDFs have been renamed? If they have the same name, but only have a different base location, you could just move them in batch by doing a simple replacement in the path. And you can't write multiple .skim files to the same PDF, I don't even see why you would want that (you'd probably get multiple copies of the same notes.) It would be better to check first in the script if the .skim file exists, and only convert when it doesn't, so you don't overwrite it. Christiaan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Android apps run on BlackBerry 10 Introducing the new BlackBerry 10.2.1 Runtime for Android apps. Now with support for Jelly Bean, Bluetooth, Mapview and more. Get your Android app in front of a whole new audience. Start now. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=124407151&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Skim-app-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/skim-app-users
