How to copy the frontmost Skim PDF document to Dropbox and iCloud

For reading PDF files on my iPad I use most of the time the PDF Expert app combined with Dropbox. Moreover, I am experimenting with PDFpen apps for iOS and OS X which use iCloud in order to synchronize the PDF files and their annotations. Undoubtedly, the automatic and on the fly synchronization of my highlights and notes is quite impressive but I still consider Skim to be the best Mac application for reading PDF documents. As a result, I wanted an easy and fast way to send the PDF files, which I would like to read on my iPad, from Skim (more precisely from my DEVONthink databases) to my Dropbox and iCloud folders. This can happen with the following AppleScripts.

The first script sends the frontmost Skim PDF document to my Dropbox folder (:Users:MB:Dropbox:0 PDF files:) and the second to the iCloud folder for PDFpen (:Users:MB:Library:Mobile Documents:7PKJ6G4DXL~com~smileonmymac~PDFpen:Documents:). You should customize the variables which store the above paths in order for the scripts to function in your computer.

The Skim annotations are automatically embedded in the PDF document and you can see and edit them without any problem using either PDF Expert or PDFpen.


Click here to open the source code in AppleScript Editor


Click here to open the source code in AppleScript Editor
25
Nov 2012
COMMENTS 1 Comment

How to create hypermedia notes during your lectures!

There are some apps, which combine the features of a note taking and a voice recording app but in a very distinctive way. Specifically, they have the ability to continuously synchronize the recorded audio with your notes. As a result, each word acts as a link to the time point of the recorded audio at which it was written! Obviously this makes navigating a long lecture fast and easy and after a while you will start to appreciate the power of another kind of link!

Currently, I use “AudioNote” for taking my hypermedia notes mainly because there is a version of it both for iOS and Mac OS X. Consequently, I can read my notes and hear the synced audio in all my platforms. An other app with a somewhat more polished interface and richer organizational abilities is “Notability” but you can you use it only in your iPhone or your iPad.

09
Apr 2011
COMMENTS No Comments

Some tools of the trade

I use the following hardware:
  • a MacBook Pro 17in
  • a MacMini (as a server for my wikis and my ebooks library)
  • an iPad
  • a Time Capsule
  • an iPhone 3G
  • several external hard drives (for backup)
  • a 27in LG monitor

In my academic workflow I use the following programs:

  • Skim: for reading papers and books (in pdf format)
  • Calibre: for organizing all my ebooks (read and unread)
  • DevonThink: for organizing everything that I have read
  • BibDesk: for reference management and automated bibliography creation
  • MediaWIki: for notes management
  • TextMate and LaTex: for writing my papers
  • AppleScript: for automating my workflow