I tend to link to pdfs rather than embed them in Agenda. This means I can search them with Spotlight.
I often also import them into Readwise Reader for highlighting.
Same here. I link to almost everything outside of Agenda rather than embed. About the only thing I embed are graphics that are needed within a note. Using a pdf editor allows me to deep link to a specific place using Hookmark; handy in long docs. I’ve started using hook also for Agenda internal linking. I like the ability to have a ‘link library’ which includes all items to any selected link.
For saving highlights I recommend always using Readwise. I’m currently working on a shortcut that fetches all highlights from sources in new notes, within a predefined project. Doing it using shortcuts is quite a challenge though, but I had some ideas.
I’m a huge supporter of OCR, Evernote had a pretty good one, apple notes has it too. Maybe with new AI updates for siri we might see this tool available for devs. It is also a great solution for those that want to take handwritten notes and easily search for their stuff.
1 Like
+1 for this
I’m currently playing with Apple Notes in iPadOS 18 and there I recognized again how helpful it is to be able to search through the standard search of the Notes-Tool.
Is this topic still on your agenda? 
Best,
Tobi
Note that if you open an attached PDF, you can then search in it using Apple’s standard tools. Is that what you want?
Or do you want Agenda to index the contents of the PDF, so you can search with Agenda search and know that there is a match inside the PDF?
I’d love to have the second option, Agenda to Index and show matches from my Agenda search inside a PDF / Picture etc., similar as it is in Apple Notes. I just find it really helpful, as I throw documents for research etc. in there and I know that a search looks through everything, including these documents.
Indexing and making handwritten notes searchable would be the cherry on top, but I get that this is a whole different thing to tackle, so for me personally thats only secondary
1 Like
We could definitely add indexing of PDF content, but we would likely just bring up the quicklook of the PDF and you would have to search inside to find the exact match. We don’t have any PDF viewing capability inside Agenda, so for now it would just show you the attachment.
We’ll take it along. Thanks for the feedback!
I don’t need PDF viewing capabilities. It’s just useful to know that if I’m searching, I can find my notes or any of the supporting documents with the specific keyword. In a perfect world if you could OCR PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and common image file types. I would never have to search outside of the Agenda app for anything meetings related.
1 Like
Thanks for the feedback! We’ll take it along and see what we can do.
1 Like
Indexing PDFs would be very helpful because it would help to find relevant attachements in the first place, regardless of which ways to view them do or don’t exist. Please add this feature soon. It would make this almost perfect not taking app perfect.
You can do that on Mac with the Hookmark app.
That would be a very good beginning, just add that for the time being. I have many many PDFs, I currently save in DevonThink and then link to Agenda. The only reason I use DevonThink is the searching capabilities. I would love to abolish it.
Hey guys, revisiting this post after a couple years. Does Agenda have OCR? Two major things, in my opinion, holding Agenda back:
- public sharing of notes, or, the possibility to create a weblink accessible to all, like a page
- OCR for PDF’s.
Not yet. You can open a PDF from Agenda in Preview to get the OCR if you need it.
How exactly do you want to use OCR? For search? Or to copy text?
The public sharing is also interesting. We’ll add it to the list. Thanks!
Public sharing is definitely interesting!
The idea is to have the same capability as the regular Apple Notes, which can search within PDFs. I prefer Agenda over Apple Notes for its presentation, but it’s missing PDF OCR. Not sure how hard it is to implement this; maybe with Apple Intelligence it will be easier. Devonthink, for example, uses an external OCR.
Hope you guys implement this anytime soon.
But what do you mean exactly by “search”. ATM you can open or preview the PDF from Agenda, and use the system search to find things in the PDF. That should already work.
I guess you mean you want to use the Agenda search field, and have notes match if the word is found in a PDF attached to the note. Is that it?
Yes, I mean, let’s say the PDF is a receipt from a Paper Company. If I search for Dundler-Muffin, it would appear, I could have all notes related with it. The way it is today, I would need to search all PDF’s, read through it.. that’s why it’s important to have OCR for PDF’s.
Yes, so for the search results. OK, that’s clear. Thanks!