This article has taken me a long time to write because every time I go into LiquidText I end up reading for way too long. That's a sign of a great reading app, if you ask me. But, LiquidText isn't a reading app, it's an annotation app, and it's the best annotation app I've ever used.

1. Liquid Text For Macbook Pro
2. Liquid Text For Windows
3. Liquid Text For Mac
4. Liquid Text App
5. Liquid Text For Mac Pro

5 Alternatives to LiquidText for MacOS. The new sticky note. Productivity + 4. When inspiration happens, put it on Paper. Paper is the best way to capture and connect your notes, photos, and sketches. Create checklists, spotlight details in photos, and sketch diagrams with unbeatable. Alternatives to MarginNote for iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android and more. Filter by license to discover only free or Open Source alternatives. This list contains a total of 9 apps similar to MarginNote. List updated: 6/10/2020 3:25:00 PM.

Apology

This is a big review. Well, it's a big download. The images total around 14MB. For an app like LiquidText, I think the screenshots are just as important as what I have to say about it.

Let's get the bad things out of the way first. This will be quick.

LiquidText is iPad only. There's no direct sync between devices but it does work with iCloud Drive and iCloud file providers like DEVONthink To Go. It's a clever implementation even if it's not ideal. Because of this, I don't think LiquidText is a good place to archive documents even though it has some great features for storing related research.

That's it. Now let's start the long road of amazing features in LiquidText.

Let's Annotate

Sources

In this review I'm referencing two pretty awesome books. The first is Creating Flow with OmniFocus. You can find my review here. The second is one of the many excellent books from Manning Press about AWS engineering, Serverless Architecture on AWS.

The most basic capability of LiquidText is extracting and highlighting PDFs. Highlights aren't that novel but the way LiquidText extracts annotations is marvelously unique. With an Apple Pencil, or a finger, I can select text in the PDF and instantly extract a linked note. LiquidText preserves the connection to the original document. Tapping the annotation in the sidebar immediately scrolls the main document and shows where it is linked.

I also really enjoy the interactions with LiquidText. Using an Apple Pencil I can quickly circle text or images and drag them out to my annotation sidebar. These will live on as if they were a separate document, but tapping on the connection arrow scrolls the document back to the source to show the context. Tap and hold on an excerpt and then tap more excerpts to multi-select. These can all then be moved around the annotation canvas together. While organization of the excerpts and notes happens automatically at creation, I can re-organize them anytime to fit the way I think or how I want the ideas to flow. It's better than a highlighter and a paper book. Try moving the order of your highlight around on a printed page. You'll need some scissors.

Pinching on a page in LiquidText is a joy for long, wordy, passages. The paragraphs collapse immediately, which allows me to compare two different paragraphs more easily. Every detail has been thought of and the gestures in LiquidText make it feel like the iPad was custom designed for annotating PDFs.

Marking up a PDF with the Apple Pencil feels natural. It feels down-right incredible when you can simply circle some text or an image and start dragging it out to the side bar. While dragging out annotations, they can be immediately linked to existing annotations. In this way I can condense a large amount of information into a series of small annotations linked in a related context.

The Pencil isn't just a gimmick in LiquidText. It's an organic part of the tool-kit. LiquidText added meaningful support for double-tap on the Apple Pencil 2 within weeks of its release. With the default setting, it's a marvel to circle and then double-tap to excerpt text or sections of documents.

I generally like the different modes for creating annotations in LiquidText. With the Pencil I usually want a more free-form selection. When I'm using my finger, I have less granular control. LiquidText does the right thing and uses the finger input as a traditional text selector in iOS. Drag across a block of text to select or highlight with your finger.

Want to extract an entire image in a PDF? Just drag your finger across the area and hit 'AutoExcerpt' to add it to the side-bar.

One of the strengths of LiquidText is that it doesn't treat text and images as objectively different. Each can be selected and highlighted or excerpted. Images can be dragged out and attached to a text excerpt or note.

Markup formatting is quickly adjusted by using the slide up tool-bar. Or each individual annotation can be manually selected and formatted later. Every aspect of the annotation markup is customizable in LiquidText. The line thickness and color can all be tweaked. I don't tweak very much and usually default to one of the built-in formats.

I like to organize my notes in the side-bar with a combination of annotation formatting and free-text boxes. For example, I add section headers or just title a collection of excerpts. This is really helpful when scanning a large collection of notes.

Even the text of annotations can be adjusted. I find the default text to be very small and hard to read when I'm scanning down a long list. By adjusting the text of a key section, I can call it out and make it much more obvious against a sea of ants.

Once I have a pile of annotations and excerpts, LiquidText makes it easy to navigate. On the left there is a vertical strip that denotes sections with markup. On the right there's a long organized list of annotations. Tapping on any one of the annotations scrolls the PDF view to the exact spot and highlights the link between the source and the excerpt.

If you thought this was the end of LiquidText's magic formula, you're in for a surprise. It's a research powerhouse that works in split-screen with multiple documents as easily as it does with a single PDF.

Multi-Source Support

LiquidText works perfectly in split screen mode on iPad. A very powerful setup is to have Drafts open for typing notes while annotating in LiquidText on the left. Text can be dragged between the apps. Dragging text from Drafts into LiquidText creates a text annotation anywhere it is dropped.

If I already have notes in another app like GoodNotes, I can go split screen and drag those right into LiquidText. I love how LiquidText works with other apps as if they are equals. Text and images are exchangeable, which means LiquidText doesn't hoard my ideas.

Liquid Text For Macbook Pro

LiquidText treats a PDF as just part of a larger research project. LiquidText files are organized into folders, but each file can contain multiple PDFs, images, and Microsoft Word documents.

The document importer isn't some half-baked solution either. Image imports can be re-titled. Multiple images can be added at once and imported into the LiquidText project.

PDFs can be added and then rearranged or inserted right into the middle of another PDF. Files can be added from iCloud Drive or sent to LiquidText through iOS sharing extensions.

Liquid Text For Windows

Entire webpages can be imported directly into LiquidText, which converts them into PDFs. As with most iOS apps, LiquidText struggles to convert large webpages into PDFs so it's easier to use iOS' built-in print to PDF functionality and then send to LiquidText through iOS sharing.

But, for a quick Wikipedia reference, this is really useful for adding static references.

Once documents are added to a LiquidText project, they can be turned on and off in the document viewing pane.

The real multi-document happens when two different PDFs are displayed at once. Annotations from all of the documents are intermingled. The annotations belong to the LiquidText project, not the PDF. Tapping on any of the annotations brings up the referenced PDF section, regardless of which document is currently open.

External Data

If you thought that LiquidText was a typical silo protected by a copyright and a user account, you'd be wrong. Even though LiquidText is iPad-only, a lot of effort was put into exporting the data in a neutral format.

First, LiquidText handles large PDFs just fine. The Creating Flow with OmniFocus PDF is huge. Adding my own annotations and highlights makes for an even bigger PDF export. LiquidText handles it like a champ.

So, what kind of exports can we make? You name it. LiquidText is clearly made by nerds like me that love to mark-up documents but then want to actually use that information as part of the learning and ideation process. LiquidText provides a a long list of export options to create PDF and Microsoft Word exports of the annotations I create.

With all of the multi-document support I describe above, you might think that exporting would be a mess. You'd be wrong again, like I was. The team (or person) behind LiquidText has really considered a lot of the problems that are created by over-laying multiple sources with annotations. The export options simplify the entire thing. Exporting a PDF with annotations creating a new PDF with the original content linked to the excerpts as it is within LiquidText. Send these exports to anywhere else and the links still work.

Exporting annotations to Microsoft Word creates a more streamlined but equally useful document. Every note, highlight, and image extract is preserved in the note export.

Conclusion

LiquidText is not cheap. It's free to download on the AppStore but $30 for all of the features I've described. If the iPad Pro only allowed me to use LiquidText, I think it would still be worth it. This is the kind of app that justifies the iPad and the expense of the incredibly powerful hardware Apple is developing.

I've spent my entire career working with PDFs as reference material. I have thousands of documents and many, many notes. I feel like I spent my life doing it all wrong. LiquidText is an indispensable tool for any researcher or student. It's $30 well spent and one of the apps that keeps me coming back to my iPad.

LiquidText iPad Only $30 for All Features

Jul 01,2020 • Filed to: Mac Tutorials

'Is there a reliable PDF reader for Mac (macOS 10.15 Catalina)?'

Mac users have a number of PDF reader programs to choose from, including Adobe Reader for Mac and Preview. But if you want a better PDF reading experience, you might want to use a more robust and powerful PDF program. In this article, we’ve compiled the top 5 PDF reader for Mac tools including PDFelement Pro, which offers more features than a simple PDF reader.

Part 1: Top 5 Best PDF Reader for Mac

1. PDFelement Pro - The Best Alternative Free PDF Reader Pro for Mac to Adobe Acrobat.

Liquid Text For Mac

As high-quality as Adobe Reader is due to its constant updates and improvements, you can also look into alternative programs that can perform many of the same tasks. PDFelement Pro for Mac, as the best alternative PDF Reader to Adobe Acrobat for Mac, acts as both a PDF editor and reader that provides you full functions for PDF editing and a better experience reading PDF on Mac. This tool lets you add text, images, bookmarks, and more to your PDF. In addition, a user can also highlight text, underline, use strike-through features on the text and crop PDF pages on Mac. Watermarks can also be used to protect your PDF files on Mac. You can even edit and convert scanned PDF files with PDFelement Pro.

Key Features of this PDF Reader for Mac:

• Add, delete or edit text, images, graphics, links, watermarks, and more.
• Convert PDF to Word and other formats, or create PDFs from Webpages, images, and text files.
• Quickly mark up and annotate PDFs with various annotation tools.
• Combine or split PDFs, organize pages, and easily fill out PDF forms.
• Edit and convert scanned or image-based PDFs using the OCR feature.
• Easily add watermarks, passwords, and signature to PDF documents.

2. Skim - A Popular and Well-developed Macbook PDF reader

Skim is a popular PDF Reader on Mac that is tailored towards scientific purposes, although it can also be used to view other types of documents as well. This free PDF reader software is designed to be customizable for individual use, and is handy for notes and previews. The reason why Skim is one of the most popular options is because it includes easy-to-use and visually impressive reading modes.

Key Features:

• Single swipe highlight mode for easy use
• AppleScript support
• Ability to preview internal links

3. Adobe Reader for Mac - A Widely Used Free Mac os PDF reader

You can download PDF reader for mac-Adobe Reader for free and set it as your default PDF reader. Adobe Reader for Mac is considered the industry standard. Adobe is still a very well respected product on the market, as they are constantly making improvements and upgrades to the program, but there are other options that offer many of the same features at a lower price and without without complicated licensing agreements.

Key Features:

• Fast and easy to use
• Established platform worldwide
• Considered industry standard
• Well developed and supported

4. Haihaisoft Reader for Mac - A Small Size Free PDF Reader for Macos

A prominent feature of Haihaisoft Reader for Mac is its small size at only 3MB ; this compact PDF Reader for Mac takes up much less space than other programs like Adobe Reader (see below). The package covers a wide range of languages and is designed for ease of use, while it is also well supported and has been developed for use on a number of platforms. Interesting features include:

Key Features:

• Instant launch time
• No background net connection for added security
• Opens all PDF documents
• Protection with DRM-X

5. PDFSam - A New Free PDF Reader for Macbook Pro or other Macs

PDFSam is a relatively new release that has been met with mixed reviews. This free PDF reader for Mac is designed for splitting and merging documents, hence why it is called 'SAM'. Some users report problems while using the application, though generally it is reported to be user-friendly and quick for the average user.

Key Features:

• Split and Merge - (SAM)
• Extract sections as separate PDFs
• Reorder pages when needed
• Compose documents by dragging and dropping

Part 2: Troubleshooting on Opening and Reading PDFs in macOS

Many people experience problems when trying to open or read PDFs on Mac. This is due to a variety of reasons, but luckily this problem is usually quite an easy one to solve in just a matter of minutes. Here are the three main reasons why you may have a problem reading a PDF on Mac, and what you can do to solve the problem.

Question 1. Your Web Browser needs Updating

Solution: This is one of the most common problemsthat can prevent you from being able to read a PDF. Not all not all browsers update automatically, and it could be that yours needs a manual update. You can usually run a regular software update, but other times you may be required to update manually through the menu. An outdated browser may be the issue, in which case you may need to update your browser to resolve the issue. You can then make annotations and markups within your document.

Question 2. Your Browser is not Compatible

Solution: This issue depends on your operating system. If you are running OS 10.5 x, as many are, you will find that the later versions of Safari, for example, are non-compatible with your operating system. This will lead to you being unable to open PDFs, as well as a number of other problems. It is recommended that users with this operating system try using Firefox instead, as that may solve the problem.

Question 3. Check the Adobe Reader Plug-in

Solution: This problem also affects many users. If you are opening your PDF with Adobe Reader, the Adobe Reader Plug-in can be problematic, especially if it is an automatic launch when you enter your browser. The trick is to delete the plug-in (just the plug in, not Adobe Reader itself). Try using Adobe Reader as a stand-alone program rather than having it run within your browser, and the problem should be solved. You can also re-install the plug-in if necessary.

Part 3: Best Recommendation

Liquid Text App

With so many options of PDF reader for Mac, sometimes it is hard to make a choice. But taking all the possible troubles into consideration, PDFelement can be regarded as the best PDF reader for Mac because it can provide you with a cozy reading experience without those troubles. Besides, do you think PDFelement is only a PDF reader? The answer is no, it is a PDF editor and PDF converter as well

Liquid Text For Mac Pro