Taming PDFs with PDFoo

The PDFoo app is meant to help you link into your collection of PDFs.

Each PDFoo URL is a link to a specific page (and position on the page) in a PDF. You can store these pdfoo URLs like any other rich text, such as in a note-taking app like TextEdit, Evernote, DevonThink, NoteShare, Mail.app etc. PDFoo URLs behave like http: URLs. When you have a http: URL in your notes, and you click it, then Safari app opens that URL. Similarly, when you click on a pdfoo: URL in your notes, the PDFoo app opens the correct PDF and scrolls to the correct page and location. In this analogy, every PDF is like a website, and every page in the PDF is like a page on that website.

Here is the workflow: Open the PDF you want to link into. Set the prefix for this PDF (which acts like a web server address). Next, you can create PDFoo URLs in following ways:

(1) select TOC items and drag into scratchpad, or copy-paste
(2) select any text on PDF page and drag into scratchpad, or copy-paste
(3) use the search toolbar button on top-right to search, and drag into scratchpad
(4) use the File > Export Annotations command to extract only the highlighted text and note annotations
(5) double-click anywhere on the page, a bullseye will appear, and keep mouse down & drag into scratchpad

The last technique allows you to link to a very precise location on the PDF page.

Use the above methods to build up your notes with links into the PDF.

Now, you have lots of text and pdfoo URLs in the scratchpad area. Copy-paste the entire notes into Evernote, TextEdit, DevonThink, NoteShare, Mail.app, your website or any other rich-text app on Mac OS X, for safe-keeping your notes. When you need it, find your note and click on the pdfoo: URLs to have the PDFoo pull up the precise page of the PDF.

For example, the following notes snippet has pdfoo URLs that point to 3 separate pages inside a "SEEP Framework Manual (1MB, 123 pages)", and allow me to quickly jump to the specific definition. I assigned the prefix "seep.manual" to this PDF. All the pdfoo URLs were generated automatically by PDFoo when I copy-paste text from the PDF.

Be careful to distinguish between “Impairment Losses on Loans” and “Provision for Loan Impairment” seep.manual/Sec1:124/ which are both from the income statement. They should be read in conjunction with the balance sheet item “Impairment Loss Allowance” seep.manual/Sec1:130/. The relationship with the “Value of Loans Written Off” is explained in Box 2.4. How Financial Statements Are Linked seep.manual/Sec1:148/

I build up these notes in the scratchpad area as I browse the PDF, and when done, I save it inside Evernote for long-term access. When I want to refer to this content next time round, I pull up the note in Evernote and click on these links inside Evernote, and PDFoo opens up the PDF and scrolls to the correct location for that link.

Moreover, the pdfoo URL feature can be used to build a TOC for the PDF outside the PDF. For example:

Conventions used in the manual seep.manual/Sec1:115/ 
Table 2.2. Income Statement Detail seep.manual/Sec1:123/ 
Table 2.4. Balance Sheet Detail seep.manual/Sec1:130/ 
Table 2.5. Classification of Cash Receipts and Payments seep.manual/Sec1:134/ 
Table 2.7. Direct Cash Flow Statement Detail seep.manual/Sec1:137/ 
Table 2.9. Indirect Cash Flow Statement Detail seep.manual/Sec1:141/ 
Table 2.11. Portfolio Report Detail seep.manual/Sec1:144/ 
Table 2.13. Non-Financial Data Report Detail seep.manual/Sec1:146/ 
Table 3.1. Summary of Adjustments seep.manual/Sec1:150/

Save these sort of links inside Evernote (or other note-taking fast-searching app) and you can quickly jump to any important location in your PDFs.