MoonReader: How to transfer an Epub to PC, incl. highlightings?

[Converto]

MoonReader:
I know how to export the highlighted passages from my Epub into a file and to transfer this txt-File to my PC. But this file only contains the highlighted passages. Is there a possibility to transfer the whole edited Epub to PC? Just copying the Epub does not keep the highlightings. (This works for highlighted PDFs, but not for highlighted Epubs.)

[stumped]

not possible.
how it works is- the app adds back the highlights from a separate file as it renders the book. they are not within the epub.

no matter how many highlights or annotations you make via the app, the actual .epub file is not altered

[Converto]

Yes, I assumed that it works this way. But I hoped that there could be a method to re-integrate the highlightings into the epub, after it is transfered to PC. But there is the problem that it is not possible to use MoonReader within Windows. So I cannot import the highlightings in Windows.
Anyway, thanks for reply.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Converto

Yes, I assumed that it works this way. But I hoped that there could be a method to re-integrate the highlightings into the epub, after it is transfered to PC. But there is the problem that it is not possible to use MoonReader within Windows. So I cannot import the highlightings in Windows.
Anyway, thanks for reply.

Unless you run moon reader in an android emulator like blue stacks on a pc.
But I suspect you will End up frustrated and disappointed

Probably faster to have the book open both in moon and in a pc app and manually reproduce your highlights in the pc app, then save
Moon can show a list of highlights, I think. or take lost of screenshots

[Converto]

Originally Posted by stumped

Unless you run moon reader in an android emulator like blue stacks on a pc.

That would be only a transfer of the problem. How to get the epub out of the android emulator? I would like to have the epub including the highlightings in a permanent archive within windows. Not: to have to open the emulator before.

Probably faster to have the book open both in moon and in a pc app and manually reproduce your highlights in the pc app, then save Moon can show a list of highlights, I think. or take lost of screenshots

Sure, but that would be a cumbersome solution. The fastest way is to convert the epub to pdf, that is holding the highlightings within the file (Acrobat Reader). Unfortunately not every epub can be converted without destroying fonts, paragraphs etc. (Yes, I know, how to convert correctly, but that would even be more cumbersome than manual highlighting again.)

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Converto

That would be only a transfer of the problem. .. agreed


..The fastest way is to convert the epub to pdf, that is holding the highlightings within the file

well there's the coding solution. Start and end pointers for the highlights are stored by moon in a supplementary file, one per book. { 2 per book to be pedantic )
e.g. a have moon auto-backing up to dropbox so for a sample title, I have these two files already on ,my PC , synced into my local dropbox folder
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne.epub.an
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne.epub.po
the .an file probably that has the highlights data. the .po file is book marks, last page read... stuff, not relevent here.
I have the matching epub on the same PC in calibre
all I'd need to do is reverse engineer the .an format , then write an app - maybe just a plug-in for Sigil or Calibre could do it - that reads the highlights info from the file, applies it to the matching opened-for-editing epub using the PC to do it

dunno what happens if you ask moon+ author for his file formats documentation,
[edit - google tells me to look here - someone tried that in 2015 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=260925


looks like you will have to put some effort in, whatever you go for

e.g. its possible that the colour of the highlights is stored as a preference within moon+ and applied dynamically when you tweak a rendering preference. thats a short test, using a book or two, but it ought to be done

[Converto]

Originally Posted by stumped

all I'd need to do is reverse engineer the .an format , then write an app - maybe just a plug-in for Sigil or Calibre could do it - that reads the highlights info from the file, applies it to the matching opened-for-editing epub using the PC to do it

Yeah, that's fine in theory, but I have no hope that the author will write that or that he will give us a file format documentation.

[stumped]

Well how hard can it be to decipher a format? Especially as you can control what information is written to an .an file because you control what annotation is added..

[DaySleeper]

I have been looking for exactly the same functionality. My use-case is study & research: I like to read & annotate in Moon on my tablet, but if I'm then preparing notes from multiple sources on something I'm studying, I would want to do that from my PC. Having all my annotations available there & integrated with the document would be ideal.

I haven't tried Blue stacks, but maybe that would work. I went to their site, and it seems to be all about gaming. Does it work for android apps in general?