Papers3 For Mac Export Library

Hey there, everyone.
I'm currently upgrading from my old computer to a new one I put together and I have already backed up almost everything on the old machine, including my music collection, which includes my own ripped CD's and purchased music.
My problem: I use iTunes as my music player and organizer of choice and I don't know how to export or transfer my library, including all my playlists, to the new machine. I tried asking this question at the Apple site, but curiously enough Apple removed my thread from the forums. They just censored it, out of the blue. Since it's not en vogue to criticize Apple (only Microsoft), I'm just going to leave it at that and go ahead and ask my question:
After I copy my music collection onto the new hard drive, what do I need to do to restore my old library. I have a bunch of playlists that I do not want to lose. It took me a long time and years of discipline to organize and maintain my library and now I want to transfer it to another computer and don't know how to do it. Please note that I do not want to have it in 2 computers AT THE SAME TIME. The old computer will be deauthorized and formatted. All I want is to have my music in the new computer exactly as it was in the old one.
For your information, here are the details of my system:
OS: Windows XP Home
Processor: AMD 64 Athlon X2 6000+
Memory: 3GB RAM
Video Card: Radeon X1800
iTunes Version: 7.6.1
And if you guys don't mind.. a related question: I know Apple lets people authorize 5 computers for their purchased music, but I formatted one computer without deauthorizing it first and now I have no idea how to free up that spot. Simply put, the computer no longer exists but is still being counted as one of my authorized computers, as far as Apple is concerned.
I really appreciate all answers, tips, and suggestions.
Thank you all in advance and a great weekend to everyone!
Fred Armando
Miami, FL

Exports all publications selected in your Papers 3 library (incl. its primary PDFs) to Bookends.

Besides the common publication metadata (supported by the RIS format), this export script will also transfer the following publication properties (if not disabled within the script):

  • rating
  • color label
  • flagged status
  • language
  • edition
  • citekey
  • 'papers://…' link

For the color label and flagged status, the script will add special keywords to the corresponding Bookends publication (these keywords can be customized within the script). For journal articles, the script will also transfer the publication's PMID and PMCID (if defined).

Known Issues

Nov 22, 2017 So far, I've installed the trial version of the EndNote X8 software, which seems to be set up OK. To export my library, I choose a subset of my entire library, using EndNote 8 or higher as the version, using Full Title as the Source Format. This seems to work successfully and I get a full XML file that seems to work just fine. Oct 18, 2014  I know it's possible to export a PDF from Papers as PDF with annotations, and open that PDF in Preview on a Mac. All of the highlights and notes show up. I can then import that PDF into Zotero and the highlights and notes show up there too. Granted, the highlights don't show up nicely in a sidebar as they do in Papers 2, but they still show up.

Due to a Papers scripting bug, the PDFs exported via this script won't include any annotations that you've added in Papers. However, the below workaround allows you to also include your annotations when exporting publications from your Papers library to Bookends:

Unable to open photo library mac. Mar 18, 2020  Get help with the Photos app on your Mac - If you're having other issues with Photos Make sure that you backed up your main Photos library. Quit Photos if it's open. Press and hold the Option and Command keys as you open Photos again. The Repair Library dialog appears. Mar 18, 2020  Follow these steps to use the Photos library repair tool: Hold down the Option and Command keys while you open Photos on your Mac.

To include annotations from your Papers library inside the exported PDFs, do this once (before you run this script):

  1. Make sure that the default Bookends attachments folder exists: This is the Attachments folder inside the Bookends folder within your Documents folder. Alternatively, you can specify a different folder in the attachmentsFolderPath property (inside the script).

  2. Select all publications in your Papers library that you want to export, then choose the 'File > Export… > PDF Files and Media' menu command, and make sure that the 'Include annotations' checkbox is checked (in the save dialog, you may have to click the 'Options' button to see this option).

  3. In the save dialog, choose the attachments folder from step 1, and click the 'Export' button.

This will export all primary PDFs of all selected publications into your attachments folder. When you then run this script, the PDFs in your attachments folder will be used for import into Bookends.

Installation

The precompiled & signed .app version of this script already includes the required scripting library and is ready to go. Just download the zipped .app package, then double click it to unzip.

Usage

Before executing the app, make sure that your Papers and Bookends apps are running, and that you've selected all publications in your Papers library that you'd like to export to Bookends. Then double click the script app to start the export process.

Upon completion, Bookends will display a modal dialog reporting how many publications (and PDFs) were imported. If the reported number of imported publications is less than the number of publications selected in your Papers library, you may want to open Console.app and checkout your system's console log for any errors reported by the script.

Requirements

This script requires macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) or greater, the KeypointsScriptingLib v1.2 or greater, Papers 3.4.2 or greater, and Bookends 12.5.5 or greater.

Credits

by Matthias Steffens, keypointsapp.net, mat(at)extracts(dot)de

License

This script is licensed under the MIT license. In short, you can do whatever you want with this script as long as you include the original copyright and license notice in any copy of the script/source.

For more info, please see MIT license.

Release Notes

v1.4

Mac Export Contacts

  • Now gracefully handles papers whose primary PDF is missing from your Papers library: Instead of throwing an error, the script now ignores the missing PDF and just imports the publication metadata into Bookends.

v1.3

  • Now requires the KeypointsScriptingLib v1.2 (or greater) which works around an AppleScriptObjC bug in macOS 10.13.0 (High Sierra) where current application's NSNotFound is returning the wrong value.

v1.2

  • Worked around a Papers issue where getting the json string property of a publication can cause a -10000 error. Instead of aborting the import process, the script now logs an error message to the system's console log and proceeds with the import.

v1.1

  • For the RIS type BOOK, the script now converts the BT tag in the RIS record to TI so that Bookends 12.8.3 and earlier correctly recognizes the book's title.
  • Import errors are now logged to the system's console log.
  • The script now also transfers the publication's edition (if defined).

v1.0

Papers For Mac Export Library In Photoshop

Initial release.