Import Highlights from CSV

Overview

Import Highlights from CSV reads a CSV file and creates a highlight annotation on this PDF for each row. It is the other half of Export Highlights to CSV: highlights can be exported from one document, edited or reviewed in a spreadsheet, and applied to another.

How to use

  1. Open the PDF the highlights should be applied to.
  2. Go to Plug-Ins > Highlights > Import Highlights from CSV.
  3. Choose the CSV file and click Open.
  4. A message reports how many highlights were created.

What the CSV must contain

The first line is a header row naming the columns. Three columns are required; any others are ignored, so a file produced by Export Highlights to CSV can be imported unchanged.

ColumnDescription
Page The 1-based page number. Rows naming a page this document does not have are skipped.
Text The highlighted text. Carried for reference.
Rect The rectangle to highlight, as four numbers — left, top, right, bottom in PDF points — separated by semicolons or tabs.

Column names are matched without regard to case. Comma-separated and tab-separated files are both accepted, and a UTF-8 byte order mark at the start of the file is ignored.

Warning

A row whose page number or rectangle cannot be read is skipped silently, so a lower count than expected means some rows were malformed. Check that the Rect column still holds four numbers if the file has been through a spreadsheet.

See also