Templates and variables

The plugin uses Handlebars and Markdown to customize the output of your highlights the way you want.

Default template

Title:: 📕 {{{bookTitle}}}
Author:: {{{bookAuthor}}}
Link:: [Apple Books Link](ibooks://assetid/{{bookId}})

## Annotations

Number of annotations:: {{annotations.length}}

{{#each annotations}}
----

- 📖 Chapter:: {{#if chapter}}{{{chapter}}}{{else}}N/A{{/if}}
- 🔖 Context:: {{#if contextualText}}{{{contextualText}}}{{else}}N/A{{/if}}
- 🎯 Highlight:: {{{highlight}}}
- 📝 Note:: {{#if note}}{{{note}}}{{else}}N/A{{/if}}
- 📙 Highlight Link:: {{#if highlightLocation}}[Apple Books Highlight Link](ibooks://assetid/{{../bookId}}#{{highlightLocation}}){{else}}N/A{{/if}}

{{/each}}

Custom templates

Colored highlights

Title:: 📕 {{{bookTitle}}}
Author:: {{{bookAuthor}}}
Genre:: {{#if bookGenre}}{{{bookGenre}}}{{else}}N/A{{/if}}
Language:: {{#if bookLanguage}}{{bookLanguage}}{{else}}N/A{{/if}}
Last Read:: {{dateFormat bookLastOpenedDate "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss A Z"}}
Link:: [Apple Books Link](ibooks://assetid/{{bookId}})

{{#if bookCoverUrl}}![Book Cover]({{{bookCoverUrl}}}){{/if}}

## Annotations

Number of annotations:: {{annotations.length}}

{{#each annotations}}
----

{{#if (eq highlightStyle "0")}}- 🎯 Highlight:: <u>{{{highlight}}}</u>
{{else if (eq highlightStyle "1")}}- 🎯 Highlight:: <mark style="background:rgb(175,213,151); color:#000; padding:2px;">{{{highlight}}}</mark>
{{else if (eq highlightStyle "2")}}- 🎯 Highlight:: <mark style="background:rgb(181,205,238); color:#000; padding:2px;">{{{highlight}}}</mark>
{{else if (eq highlightStyle "3")}}- 🎯 Highlight:: <mark style="background:rgb(249,213,108); color:#000; padding:2px;">{{{highlight}}}</mark>
{{else if (eq highlightStyle "4")}}- 🎯 Highlight:: <mark style="background:rgb(242,178,188); color:#000; padding:2px;">{{{highlight}}}</mark>
{{else if (eq highlightStyle "5")}}- 🎯 Highlight:: <mark style="background:rgb(214,192,238); color:#000; padding:2px;">{{{highlight}}}</mark>
{{/if}}
- 📝 Note:: {{#if note}}{{{note}}}{{else}}N/A{{/if}}
- <small>📅 Highlight taken on:: {{dateFormat highlightCreationDate "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss A Z"}}</small>
- <small>📅 Highlight modified on:: {{dateFormat highlightModificationDate "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss A Z"}}</small>

{{/each}}

TIP

If you created a template you love and want to share it with others, you're welcome to do it in the corresponding topic. Your contribution will also help others to get inspired and create their own templates. Thank you!

Template variables

• {{{bookTitle}}} - The title of the book.
• {{bookId}} - A unique identifier of the book. It is used to create a link to the book in Apple Books: [Apple Books Link](ibooks://assetid/{{bookId}}).
• {{{bookAuthor}}} - The author of the book.
• {{{bookGenre}}} - The genre of the book.
• {{bookLanguage}} - The language of the book.
• {{bookLastOpenedDate}} - The date when you last opened the book. See the Date formatting section for more information.
• {{bookCoverUrl}} - The URL of the book cover.
• {{annotations}} - An array of all the annotations in the book. You can use {{annotations.length}} to get the total number of annotations you made in the book. Each annotation has the following properties:
  • {{{chapter}}} - The chapter of the highlight in the book. It may not be available for all highlights due to the initial formatting of the book.
  • {{{contextualText}}} - The text surrounding the highlight to give you more context. For example:
    • If you highlight a part of a sentence, the - contextualText will contain the whole sentence.
    • If you highlight parts of two adjacent sentences, the contextualText will contain both sentences.
  • {{{highlight}}} - The highlighted text.
  • {{{note}}} - A note you added for the highlight.
  • {{{highlightLocation}}} - A unique identifier of the highlighted text. It is used to create a link to the highlighted text in Apple Books. For example: [Apple Books Highlight Link](ibooks://assetid/{{bookId}}#{{highlightLocation}}).
  • {{highlightStyle}} - The style of the highlight. It can be one of the following values:
    • 0 (underline)
    • 1 (green)
    • 2 (blue)
    • 3 (yellow)
    • 4 (pink)
    • 5 (violet)
  • {{highlightCreationDate}} - The date when you created the highlight. See the Date formatting section for more information.
  • {{highlightModificationDate}} - The date when you last modified the highlight. See the Date formatting section for more information.

IMPORTANT

When customizing the template, make sure to wrap variables with triple curly braces ({{{variable}}}) to avoid escaping the HTML characters in Markdown files (default behavior).

If you want escaped output, use double curly braces: {{variable}}.

Date formatting

The plugin uses the dateFormat helper that takes a unix timestamp and the datajs-compatible string of tokens to format dates in the template. For example:

// Template
{{dateFormat dateVariable "date format"}}

// Example 1
{{dateFormat bookLastOpenedDate "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss A Z"}}
2024-03-04 05:50:28 PM +01:00

// Example 2
{{dateFormat bookLastOpenedDate "ddd, MMM DD YYYY, HH:mm:ss Z"}}
Mon, Mar 04 2024, 17:50:28 +02:00