MarginNote - an iOS PDF annotation / note taking / mind mapping application recently added support for exporting its mind maps in MindJet .mmap format, which can be "Open In" iThoughts on iOS. An interesting feature of the MarginNote app is the ability to arrange one's PDF highlights and annotations in a mind map format. When that mind map is exported to iThoughts (or MindManager) each node in the mind map has an embedded link that opens that PDF focused on that note in MarginNote.

(The links are in URI format -- marginnoteapp://note/[uuid]. I haven't found a way to copy these links directly from MarginNote.)

It's an oddly designed and buggy app in some respects -- yet it is an interesting departure from most PDF annotation products. The author (Sun Min) seems innovative -- is there another iOS PDF annotation app that offers direct links to individual notes/annotations? I don't know.

There is a free version and a paid version of MarginNote, though there doesn't seem to be any difference between the two. The author's website also has links, images, and icons implying that might be an OS X version, but that doesn't seem to be the case. (Yet?)

Hi,Paul, I'm founder of MarginNote app.
I just googled this article about the MarginNote.
Very interesting in your suggestion about the app. I want to improve the design of the app and fix issues/bugs, so I would very much like to hear your suggestions.
Fell free to contact me, forum or mail:support@marginnote.com

Best regards,
Min

Paul Korm wrote:

MarginNote - an iOS PDF annotation / note taking / mind mapping
application recently added support for exporting its mind maps in
MindJet .mmap format, which can be "Open In" iThoughts on iOS. An
interesting feature of the MarginNote app is the ability to arrange
one's PDF highlights and annotations in a mind map format. When that
mind map is exported to iThoughts (or MindManager) each node in the mind
map has an embedded link that opens that PDF focused on that note in
MarginNote.

(The links are in URI format -- marginnoteapp://note/[uuid]. I haven't
found a way to copy these links directly from MarginNote.)

It's an oddly designed and buggy app in some respects -- yet it is an
interesting departure from most PDF annotation products. The author
(Sun Min) seems innovative -- is there another iOS PDF annotation app
that offers direct links to individual notes/annotations? I don't know.


There is a free version and a paid version of MarginNote, though there
doesn't seem to be any difference between the two. The author's website
also has links, images, and icons implying that might be an OS X
version, but that doesn't seem to be the case. (Yet?)

MarginNote Pro has been making steady advances on the iOS side since I originally mentioned it here. Version 2 is excellent.

Now I understand on good authority that there will very soon be an OS X version of MarginNote.

The iOS version is featured here:

http://marginnote.com/#feedback

Thank you for this, Paul.

Thanks for posting, would be great if they make this for OSX. I'm not really sold on reading on the iPad, I just end up highlighting stuff (which doesn't help much) because it's much harder to type (compared to the mac).

Has anyone tried Liquid Text (http://liquidtext.net/ I haven't tried either one, but I'd be interested to see a comparison.

I've been looking for a solution for annotation and organizing annotations and notes in a graphical ("mind map") manner. I can do it with Curio but it's a lot of drag and drop and there's no link between the note and the source text. Tinderbox -- forget it; not an annotation solution. MarginNote iOS does this well, and so if MarginNote is cleanly ported to OS X, I think it will create a new niche.

LiquidText is nice, but it does not have the export features that I like in MarginNote -- export to .mmap or OmniOutliner or Evernote. I think getting notes of out LiquidText could use a rethink by the designer. On the other hand, LiquidText has some unusual methods of viewing the annotated document. In "HighlightView" one can squeeze the document down to show just the highlights -- the content between highlights disappears. For a quick review, this is a nice feature.

I understand that we'll be seeing LiquidText on OS X sometime in 2016.

critStock wrote:

Has anyone tried Liquid Text (http://liquidtext.net/ I haven't tried
either one, but I'd be interested to see a comparison.

perhaps even useclark for mac might be included? I know its more focused on comprehension, over noting, but it certainly helps with both!