Copying from Apple Books

TidBITS Talk
1

Why can’t I simply copy from Apple’s application Books? Or can I?

I found the following circuitous solution: make a screenshot of the page that contains the text I am interested in, save the screenshot as a Quick Note, copy the relevant text, and delete the screenshot and the Quick Note.

2

Without getting TOO snarky, the Apple Books app needs serious work. You can’t modify the Get Info on uploaded books, and lord help you if you put the book files on anything other than ~/user/

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3

Sadly, Kindle has gone down the same path (although even more restrictive by blocking other actions). I presume it’s something the publishers have demanded.

4

You can access Kindle highlights and notes online at https://read.amazon.com/notebook - so, from there, you can copy text and paste it into other content.

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  1. Highligt the passage you want to quote/copy.
  2. Got to the View menu and choose Show Highlights & Notes.
  3. A narrow window appearw with your highlifgts.
  4. Select the passage/highlight (s) you want to Copy.
  5. Copy and the Paste the highlight in a new text document. Each pass age is accompanied by a citaion.
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6

I didn’t need to do anything so complex:

I opened the book and highlighted the passage I wanted to copy. I right-clicked and selected ‘Copy’. I then pasted the item into the target app. It appeared with a citation and a copyright protection note:

From a frontpiece:

“No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.”

Excerpt From
Title
Author
https://books.apple.com/us/book/…
This material may be protected by copyright.

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7

TextSniper will copy any text on your screen, no matter what app is displaying it. If you have a lot of text to copy, you can turn on an additive clipboard. You can choose to retain or to ignore line breaks. One-time license at the App Store for $10 (no subscription) or as part of Setapp. Indispensable!

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An alternative to TextSniper would «Text Lens» (https://sindresorhus.com/text-lens by Sindre Sorhus. He is the maker of other clever and useful tools, and no, I do not know him personally. I do not know what I paid for it, but it was not very much.

Regards – Walter

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