Formats Kobo’s annotation text files into Markdown for use in Notion.

parser.py

# Designed for Kobo highlights and notes.

# Step 1: Copy Kobo annotations TXT file from the Kobo to your Mac
# Step 2: cd into this directory
# Step 3: Rename the TXT file to `input.txt`
# Step 4: Run `python3 parser.py`
# Step 5: See `output.txt` for the results

def parse_txt_file(input_file, output_file):
    with open(input_file, "r") as file:
        lines = file.readlines()

    with open(output_file, "w") as file:
        for i, line in enumerate(lines):
            line = line.strip()  # Remove leading and trailing whitespace

            # Ignore the first line
            if i == 0:
                continue

            # Skip empty lines
            if not line:
                continue

            if line.startswith("Note:"):
                line = line.replace("Note: ", "")
                line = line.replace("[]", "[ ]")  # Convert [] to [ ]
                file.write(line + "\n")
                file.write(
                    "\n"
                )  # Add a new blank line after each line starting with "Note:"
            else:
                line = line.replace("Note: ", "")
                file.write("> " + line + "\n")
                file.write("\n")  # Add a new blank line after each affected line

    print(f"Parsing completed. Result saved to '{output_file}'.")


# Usage
input_file_path = "input.txt"  # Optional: Replace with the path to your input file
output_file_path = "output.txt"  # Optional: Replace with the desired path for the output file

parse_txt_file(input_file_path, output_file_path)