What a great piece of software
Hypertext-infused philosophy personal database software
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I just wanted to say that hypernomicon looks like an amazing piece of software. I am looking at whether or not I might be able to use for research unrelated to philosophy. I was curious, is it possible to export to html?
I am also curious if it is possible to import highlighted text/ annotations from pdfs?
Hi Daaze,
There is no export to html feature currently, but I'm interested to know more about what you are envisioning and how the exported html would be used. Maybe it would be a good feature to add.
There is no way to import highlights or annotations from pdfs, but there is a handy feature in the PDF preview window. See attached; there are buttons to navigate to the previous/next pdf pages that have annotations. It is easy to copy/paste PDF text into Hypernomicon records from there. When pasting text, there are options to remove formatting and line-breaks.
Jason
I have a general concern about having data locked in a database. Now my understanding is that hypernomicon saves things in xml files, which are accessible. But, being able to export to html, where I was able to browse connections made within hypernomicon could be a way of preserving the connections. It would be similar to an exported wiki and with that I could imagine a number of other applications could use it. It also could be viewed someplace that does not have the software installed.
Thanks for the information about pdfs. There is an extension for zotero called zotfile, that can pull annotations from PDFs. are you familiar with it?
I have thought about doing something like zotfile; I don't like the idea of having it simply copy the annotation text into the record description. However, thinking about it again, I just had an idea. Maybe in the record description, there could be an option to display the annotations in the PDF file with links that go to the PDF page where the annotation is. This would display the annotations dynamically instead of copying them statically into the note text. I'll have to think about this further.
WRT your concern about having data locked in the database, do you have a workflow where you are often using other computers with different software installed? Also, how do you envision other applications using the generated wiki?
Also to clarify, the reason I don't like the idea of copying annotation text into the record is because it would be a form of data duplication; avoiding duplication of information is a big part of the design philosophy.
My research workflow primarily consists of a Windows PC and a Linux desktop, and then a laptop or portable windows PC that has significantly limiting hardware/specs. The power/hardware often dictates what I have installed on it. I have had to abandon several very useful applications, because the software stopped or OS stopped being supported. I have also found myself in a situation where information processed and organized for a specific project became siloed within the tools and needed be reprocessed in order to utilize it for another (new) project later on. I accept that is the nature of things, but I am always on the look out for ways I can export so that the information can be used elsewhere. Also, If I want to share something with someone who does not have the same application or does not want to install it. But many bloggers and writers are interested in being able to create visuals like mind maps, concept maps etc or being able to directly create for their blogs, wikis and "digital" gardens. I suggested html, because of the hyperlinks.
What I am most excited about hypernomicon is using it as a thinking tool. In your video on Hypernomicon, you mention how utilizing the system creates an environment where you can discover new connections that might not have occurred to you. The discovery is a result of the way the program helps you first capture and understand theories/concepts and then how it enables you to create connections and links between items and then browse those connections. Taking one’s hypernomicon directory/database or segments of it based on specific concepts or arguments or authors, and then being able to present it in a different way and/or further manipulate and develop it, is attractive. Here is an example of a mind mapping application processing a wikipedia article. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2VAoOPhHqg
I also do not like the idea of simply having it copy all the annotation text into Hypernomicon either. “Maybe in the record description, there could be an option to display the annotations in the PDF file with links that go to the PDF page where the annotation is. This would display the annotations dynamically instead of copying them statically into the note text. I'll have to think about this further.”
I like how you are thinking about this. It might be nice to be able to right click on an annotation and pull it into hypernomicon from the pdf. but I suppose you could copy and paste. The benefit, in my mind of getting it into the relevant Hypernomicon record, is that then if it has any concepts or terms or names in it annotation, hypernomicon will automatically create links between that and other records with that term or name. I am not sure if you have heard of Docear? While it is no longer being updated and is somewhat unstable, the way it handled pdf annotations was pretty unique. Making an annotation is helpful in and of itself, but being able to have that annotation ingested into the software you use to understand and think with, and the software you utilize to create, is nice.
https://docear.org/
The video explainer does a pretty good job of describing what it does. It is opensource.
Another vector that comes to mind with Hypernomicon is Anki . Being able to import cards you have created or export to ANKI could be something people would make use of.
Last edit: Daaze 2021-04-08
I can see how it would be useful to generate wiki pages or mind maps for others' consumption. The good thing is it wouldn't be that hard anyone who has any programming skills to use the XML files to create those kinds of things. I would do something like that if there were popular demand for it.
If I were going to add a way to dynamically display the annotations in the PDF it would definitely include the auto-generated hyperlinks without having to copy/paste the text to the work description field first, like you say. I don't think I like how Docear lets you edit the PDF annotation and sync the edit back to the PDF file; its better for your notes to ultimately live in one place (this might partly be a prejudice formed when I used to develop medical record software, where it was extremely important for data to live in just one place so doctors don't overlook information). When I annotate PDFs I sort of treat that as my initial take, and once I have edited records and written notes in Hypernomicon about the work in question, those notes are more "mature" than the PDF annotations; I don't go back and change PDF annotations after the initial reading is done.
Check out the FAQ document where I further discuss how I see Hypernomicon as relating to other software like Docear. Even though I'm pretty much the only developer who has worked on this project, I would say there is very little danger of it being abandoned any time soon. I'm probably at least as personally invested as a user in Hypernomicon as anyone will ever be :) I'll never stop doing philosophy as a hobby at the very least and can't imagine ceasing to use Hypernomicon to do philosophy.