Exporting and Importing Hypothesis Annotations

When to Use?

You can export any notes that you have access to in Hypothesis. This includes any shared notes in Public, notes in private groups of which you’re a member, and your own private annotations and highlights. Exported JSON files can then be imported into other Hypothesis assignments, while the other file types can be saved for your own records.

Procedure

To export annotations from a particular web page, PDF, or LMS assignment, visit the document, activate Hypothesis, and select the group from which you wish to export annotations. 

Exporting Annotations

1. Press the Share button in the Hypothesis Sidebar.

2. Choose the “Export” tab.

NOTE: While the tool will default to exporting your annotations, you can select any user’s annotations by clicking the dropdown menu. The number of annotations appears after the user’s name.

3. Select the type of file you wish to export. Choose from JSON, plain text, CSV, and HTML file formats. If you plan to import the file back into Hypothesis select the JSON file type.

4. Click and edit the name of the file for saving, then select “Export” or “Copy to clipboard.” The “Export” button will save the information to a file for download, while the “Copy to clipboard” button copies the data to your computer’s clipboard.

Importing Annotations

1. To import annotations from a JSON file saved to your computer, select the “Import” tab under the Sharing menu.

2. Click on “Choose File” and select the JSON file you wish to import. You can select both your own and other users’ annotations for import by clicking the dropdown menu. The number of annotations you’ll import will appear next to the name of the user who created the annotations.

3. Click the “Import” button to import the annotations. A message with the number of annotations that were successfully imported will display.

4. If you attempt to import annotations that already exist, you’ll receive an error message that the duplicates have been skipped.

5. It’s important to note that any annotations that you import will appear as your annotations, even if a different user made them. In addition, while you can import top-level annotations and page notes (the notes at the very top of a thread of replies), exported replies will not import.

Additional information can be found on the Hypothesis Support web site.