roam-highlighter

Now you can officially install the Extension from the Chrome Web Store here: Roam-highlighter Extension

This Highlighter extension is meant for use with the Roam Research note taking application to help "clip" web pages by highlighting all the areas you want to save in Roam and then easily copying/pasting into Roam in a Roam friendly format. You also are able to Double Bracket words / phrases with the extension so that they create Page/Link references when pasted into Roam. See below for details on how to use!

How to Use the Highlighter

Note: I am a Windows guy. While I try to document MAC specific shortcuts below, if you have any issues please google the Windows command I list to look for the MAC alternative, and whether it works or not, please open an Issue in Github letting me know what you tried so I can update the instructions accordingly and/or make a fix to the code to include a good MAC alternative. Thanks!

Install Chrome Extension from the Chrome Web Store
Press the Highlighter icon in Chrome Extensions toolbar to activate it (only applies to the Tab you click it on)
Show/Hide Side Window: Ctrl + S or Click Extension Icon to Open and Close the side window view and Settings.
Make Highlights: Select text from any webpage and press Ctrl + X ("cut" command) to highlight.
- Updates/changes automatically copy to the clipboard anytime you make changes/additions.
- With the new Side Window you will see changes reflected Real Time to see what it will look like in Roam.
Copy Page Title & URL: For a quick way to grab a Link to a page in the [ Page title ] (URL) format for Roam without any highlights, simply use Ctrl + X without any Selection/Highlights and it will copy [ Page title ] (URL) to the clipboard.
Removing Highlights
- Single Highlight: To remove a highlight use Ctrl + Click (Windows) or Alt + Click (MAC or Windows). This will remove all "parts" (links, bullets, line breaks, etc.) of something you Highlighted.
- Part of a Highlight: If you just want to remove a "part" of a Highlight (e.g., single bullet in a list), you can select the text of that "part" and press Ctrl + X ("cut" command) to remove it, while preserving the rest of the Highlight.
- ALL Highlights: Pressing Ctrl + Q will ask for confirmation to remove all Highlights from the current page.
  - Press ENTER to confirm.
  - If you want to abort, press cancel or type 0 in the pop up prompt and press ENTER.
Adding [[Double Brackets]] for Page Linking/References in Roam
- For text that is already highlighted in Yellow, you can have [[Double Brackets]] added for Page Linking in Roam.
- Anything you choose to have [[Double Brackets]] added to will be highlighted in Blue. See the following:
  - Single Word: Double-Click a single word to add to Roam like: [[DoubleClickedWord]]
  - Multiple Words: Select multiple words from previously highlighted (Yellow) text and press Ctrl + Click (Windows) or Alt + Click (MAC or Windows) to add to Roam like: [[Multiple Words]]
  - Removing Linked References: Ctrl + Click (Windows) or Alt + Click (MAC or Windows) any of the Blue highlights (page references) to turn it back to Yellow. [[Double Brackets]] will no longer be added.
Change Settings: Open the Side Window with Ctrl + S and click the Settings button.
- Highlighter Link #Tag: #[[Roam-Highlights]] is the Default which is added to the Parent Block as [ Page title ] (URL) #[[Roam-Highlights]]
- Page Title for Alias Link: The Browser Page Title is the Default which is used in the Parent Block as [ Page Title ] (URL)
- How to handle Line Breaks within each Highlight
  - Options for handling Line Breaks (e.g., paragraphs, bullets, new line characters, etc.) within a single Highlight (see Demo #3 below)
  - If you don't like the way Line Breaks are handled by default, here are the options you can switch between:
    1. New bullets same level: This is the DEFAULT Setting. Line breaks will create new bullets at the same hierarchy/level.
    2. Nest under first Line Break: Line breaks will create new bullets, but nested underneath the first Line of each Highlight.
    3. Ctrl + Shift + V same bullet: Line breaks within a Highlight will stay in the same block/bullet but preserve each Line Break as if you added a soft line break with Ctrl + Enter like how pasting with Ctrl + Shift + V works in Chrome.
    4. Replace with single space: Line breaks are replaced with a single space (i.e., " ") for concatenation into a single block/bullet.
    5. Remove line breaks: Line breaks are completely removed and NOT replaced with any characters which concatenates the Highlight into a single block/bullet. Note: If there isn't already other "white space", this could cause the last word from the first line to be merged with the first word of the second line.

If you have any issues, questions or feedback for improving the instructions, please open a GitHub Issue and post your thoughts. Thanks and enjoy!

NOTE: Other than Demo #5, the following were before I implemented the "Side Window" (but still demonstrate the purpose of the Roam-highlighter tool)

Demo 1 (real quick/simple)

Demo 2

Demo 3 (showing options for handling line breaks)

Demo 4 (Select word(s) within a highlight to mark for [[page linking]])

Demo 5 (New "side window" showing Highlighter clipboard & Settings)

Getting Started

Install the extenstion from the Chrome Web Store at: Roam-highlighter Extension

Roam-highlighter Extension testing this link.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to @anthilemoon with +Roam bookmarklet
Thanks to @ryanguill with his modifications to +Roam mod
Thanks to Daniel Wirtz for his Demo on the highlighter he is working on https://twitter.com/wirtzdan/status/1251965560684007424?s=20

sai-prasanna / roam-highlighter