EF search does not see Skim notes anymore

Hi,

Since 1.4.2, I noticed that an “Anywhere” search seems to be unable to find pdf files based on text in Skim notes. I tried this both with .pdf+.skim and .pdfd files:

  1. add distinctive word in a skim note
  2. search “Anywhere” for that word

I recall that this has worked previously (as this feature was added in 1.3). Is this bug similar to http://c-command.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1372 ?

Kind regards,

Bram Adams

Hi,

Forgot to mention this: typically my notes are stored in extended attributes and in an additional/backup .skim file.

Kind regards,

Bram Adams

Both types of Skim notes are working for me in 1.4.2 and 1.4.3. Perhaps your library’s search index is damaged and needs to be rebuilt.

Hi,

I tried out the link you sent me, but after re-indexing the problem still occurs.

To rule out problems with my library, I’ve created a new one, imported an English pdf with Skim notes containing Dutch words, closed the library and rebuilt the index. Still no luck.

I’ve also re-downloaded EagleFiler to replace my old (but updated) copy, but that doesn’t change anything either. This is really a weird problem.

Kind regards,

Bram Adams

Please create an encrypted (sparse image) test library, e-mail it to me, and I’ll take a look.

Hi,

I found out that it depends on the pdfs. The ones generated from postscript using ESP/Aladdin/… GhostScript yield this problem, such as e.g. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.32.7008.

When trying it on “normal” pdfs, everything is OK.

Kind regards,

Bram Adams

Hi,

Apparently, Skim is not able to store the notes in the extended attributes of these Postscript-pdfs (verified using commandline Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/skimnotes tool). They can only be found in the backup .skim file (if this is enabled).

Hence, it looks like for some pdf files extended attributes can be used, whereas for others only the .skim file contains the right information.

Kind regards,

Bram Adams

Sounds like something to report to the Skim developers. It’s not clear to me why a different PDF structure should affect the extended attributes.

Hi,

OK, will keep you posted.

Kind regards,

Bram Adams

Hi,

It turns out to be a PDFKit problem with encodings. For certain pdfs, notes are attached, but contains weird symbols because of the way PDFKit handles text encodings. So, it’s neither a Skim nor an EagleFiler problem.

Kind regards,

Bram Adams