PDF Import or Conversion

[garynotgary]

I use Storyist for Screenwriting and documentary filmmaking. One thing that I've found to be a big part of my process is printing research as a PDF. Websites, manuscripts, images, and then highlighting or annotating specific passages.

 

What I'd like to be able to do:

 

1.) Print

2.) Import a PDF and move it into research folders.

3.) If I pull up the PDF on the screen, be able to highlight important text and passages, and comment on them.

 

What I currently have to do:

 

1.) Copy text from the PDF or Website

2.) Paste it into a new text file.

3.) Go through the whole article reformatting the article: this includes removing the parts I didn't want to copy like comment sections/sidebar text/photo descriptions, unifying the text colors/size/font, and then making sure paragraphs are separated in the right places.

4.) Highlight text and add comments.

 

Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it can take 10 minutes per one article, and I'm usually dealing with tens or hundreds of sources.

 

Is this a likely feature to be implemented or one that people have already talked about? Am I missing an easier way to do this?

 

Does anyone know a workaround currently?

 

 

[marguerite]

If it's a single page or a couple of pages, as is typical with a web page, then open the PDF in Preview and export the pages one at a time to PNG or JPG. You can then drag those onto a Storyist note as if it were any other graphic. Note that doing so may dramatically increase the size of your file if you have hundreds of articles, but so would dragging in PDFs.

 

With text-heavy pages, I just copy the text and paste that into a Storyist note, then add the link for the page. You can go through the text once in Storyist to eliminate callouts for pictures, etc., if needed, but it doesn't capture every darned thing as the PDF does.

 

If you're worried that the page may disappear, you can save the PDF as backup, but you'll still have most of the information in Storyist with minimal effort.

 

People have asked for the feature before. It would be useful, but only Steve knows where or if it is on the schedule for implementation. There may be technical issues to solve—or just not enough interest compared to other requested features.

Best,

M