Tinderbox Meetup- Meetup 15OCT22 Parsing Highlights in SKIM

Tinderbox Meetup- Meetup 15OCT22 Parsing Highlights in SKIM

Level Intermediate
Published Date 10/15/22
Revision 1
Tags 5CKMEl, 5Cs of Knowledge Management and Exchange, BetterBibTex, Explode, Highlights, PDF, Skim, Stamp, Stream, Zotero
Video Length 01:33:53
Video URL Tinderbox Meetup- Meetup 15OCT22 Parsing Highlights in SKIM - YouTube
Example File TBX L - Meetup 15OCT22 Parsing Highlights in SKIM.tbx (1.1 MB)
TBX Version 9.3
Instructor Michael Becker

For this meetup, we set out to review Michael Becker’s method of parsing notes in Tinderbox that were exported from the SKIM PDF reader. We accomplished this and more.

We reviewed,

  1. Exporting notes , reviewed highlighting and exporting notes from Skim†
  2. Importuning notes , dragging and parsing the exported Skim notes into Tinderboxa. Exploding notes , explained the process to explode notes and the applications of RegEx (the optimal RegEx for the explode is ^# .b. Parsing notes , reviewed a parsing stamp produced by Becker. We discussed how to work with the sRGB colorspaces coming out of Skim and how to handle these colors so that TBX can understand them. Note: if you want to use this code in another TBX file you’ll need to add a $CitationKey, $ColorRGB, and $Type attributes to your file.
  3. Associating notes with reference , Becker explained his process for using a parse reference function to parse citations dragged into a TBX file from Zotero‡ (Learn more: see his two videos on this topic: Video 1, Video 2).
  4. Stamp Optimization , we then optimized Becker’s stamp. As you’ll see in the meetup video we optimized Becker’ original text to remove the need for $ColorRGB.
  5. Stream operator, we then took it even further and created a stream operator that automatically explodes and parses all the Skim notes with one stamp.

†You’ll want to use the Skim export template that Becker has processed. The code is in Skim Template. See the Skim Wiki to learn how to modify Skim templates. This template needs to be saved in the Skim Application Support folder in your macOS Library, e.g. e.g. /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Skim/Templates/TBXnotesTemplate.txt. ‡For Michael’s reference parser to work you must ensure your file has all the necessary attributes created, that your Zotero is using BetterBibTex and that your Zotero has Michael’s customized Zotero export parsers installed. Reach out to Michael via the forum if you need help with this.

Your Support will Be Most Appreciated

Support Michael Becker:

PayPal Donation, show your support by making a one-time or ongoing donation; or,
Become Becker’s Patron, Becker holds a monthly call for his Patrons and offers private Tinderbox support and consulting.

Support Mark Anderson:

Mark Anderson is the author of the Tinderbox reference file (aTbRef) and an avid supporter of the community. A donation to Mark via PayPal to help him continue to develop and maintain aTbRef would be most welcome.

1 Like

Thanks for this, Michael. I know this video was done a while ago, but that’s what they mean about the “long tail” of information, I guess.

I had a little trouble using the instructions with Bookends/Skim import (and was too lazy to go back and watch the video all over again). I put together a mini-TBX with just the Bookends/Skim bits and a step-by-step process in written form.

Key points:
* The Skim export file needs a blank line between the collection array tag and the custom note separator, otherwise the highlight notes run into the next note separator and explode does unintended things
* I modified the note title construction stamp to grab the first 6 words, rather than a given number of characters. Incomplete words in the title are like an itch I can’t scratch, LOL.

In hopes this will help some other newbie…

BookendsImportTest.tbx (425.2 KB)

1 Like

Sweet!!! Nicely done. :slight_smile: