Frequently Asked Questions

Web Highlights is a browser extension I built to make it super easy to highlight and add notes to any website or PDF. It's perfect for reading, research, or just saving stuff you don't want to forget. It's one of the top Chrome extensions for productivity, and you don't even need to sign up to use it. Just install it and start highlighting. You can use different colors, add tags, and send your notes to second brain apps like Notion, Obsidian, or Capacities.

It's simple: Install the extension, or use one of our free online tools, select any text on a webpage or PDF, and you'll see a popup to highlight it. You can also right-click or use keyboard shortcuts if you prefer. Add notes, create tags, and everything is saved automatically. When you come back to the page, your highlights are still there. It's like having a digital marker for the whole web.

Yes! Web Highlights works with both online and local PDFs. Here's how:

• For online PDFs: Simply open them in your browser and click the "Highlight this PDF" popup or click the extension icon.
• For local PDFs:
  1. Open the PDF in Chrome (right-click > Open with > Chrome)
  2. Allow Web Highlights to access file URLs (one-time setup)
  3. Click the extension icon or "Highlight this PDF" popup

Once loaded in the Web Highlights viewer, you can highlight text, add notes, and organize with tags just like on websites. The PDF viewer makes it easy to read and annotate your documents and to take notes on the go. Read our complete guide to PDF highlighting →

Yep, most of the features are free! The main highlighter application is totally free. You can make as many highlights, notes, tags, and bookmarks as you want. Some extra features, like syncing to the cloud and using the web app, are part of the paid plans (with a 7-day free trial if you want to check them out). But you never need to pay to use the basics.

I built Web Highlights to be simple but powerful. Unlike most highlighter applications, you get things like cloud sync, formatted highlights, and easy export to second brain apps. Lots of users say it helps them keep their research and notes organized, whether they're reading for fun, studying, or working. It's all about making it easy to save and find what matters to you—without any fuss.

Web Highlights tries its best to recreate your highlights on any website — but unfortunately, that doesn't always work. You can click "Try again" to have the extension try reapplying them. However, sometimes it's just technically impossible due to how websites work. Common reasons include:

• Dynamic content: Some websites (like social media) have content that changes constantly. If you highlight a post that gets deleted or moved, the highlight won't show up again
• Lazy loaded content: Some sites only load content as you scroll. Try scrolling to load the content before the extension can highlight it
• Website redesigns: Changes in a website's layout can make it hard to locate the original highlight
• URL changes: If the website's URL has changed, your highlight might not be found
• Technical conflicts: Some websites have code that prevents the extension from working properly

Even if highlights aren't visible on the page, they're always safe in your sidebar and web app. For more details, check out our detailed guide on highlight visibility.

Highlights should not disappear, but sometimes they may not show up due to URL changes or sync issues. Try the following:

• Open the sidebar and check the overview tab for your highlights
• Visit the web app at app.web-highlights.com to see if your highlights are synced there
• If you were using offline mode, your highlights are stored locally and should still be available
• If you created a backup file, you can restore it via Settings → Backup → Import.

Note: Always create a local backup file for safety

There are two main reasons you might see the "off" icon:

• Website Compatibility: Some websites aren't compatible with our highlighter, so Web Highlights turns off automatically to prevent any issues
• Excluded Websites: You might have added the site to your excluded domains list in the settings. See our documentation on excluded domains.

Tip: You can always toggle the extension on/off for any site by clicking the power icon in the sidebar.

Go to Settings → Backup → Import, then select your backup JSON file. This will restore your highlights.
Note: importing a backup will replace your current highlights.

Currently, importing a backup file replaces all existing highlights. There is no feature yet to merge multiple backup files. This is a requested feature and may be added in the future.

If you did not enable cloud sync, highlights are only stored locally in your browser's IndexedDB. If you created a backup (prompted every 100 highlights), you can restore it via Settings → Backup → Import. Without a backup or cloud sync, recovery is not possible. Regularly back up your data or enable cloud sync to prevent data loss.

Web Highlights works best on standard web pages. Some sites may not support reliable highlighting due to technical limitations:

• Dynamic URLs: Some websites use URL fragments (like # or !) to load content dynamically. The extension often ignores these fragments, which can cause highlights not to be recreated. This is a technical limitation, as many sites use these fragments differently
• Google Drive: Documents in Google Drive (convert to PDF and open locally instead)
• Complex layouts: Pages with special formatting, tables, or dynamic content loading

If you use a specific site frequently, let support know—sometimes exceptions can be added for particular sites, but it may take time to release changes.

Color inconsistencies can occur on complex layouts (like tables or lists) due to technical limitations in rendering highlights. The original color information is preserved and can be seen in the sidebar. Refer to the sidebar for the most accurate highlight list and categories.

This can happen due to changes in the website's content or structure, or if the highlighted text appears multiple times on the page. The extension tries to match the text, but it may not always be perfect. You can manually reorder highlights in the sidebar using:

• Drag and drop: Click and hold any highlight to drag it to a new position
• Arrow keys: Select a highlight and use arrow-up/down to move it
• Shift-click: Hold Shift while clicking to move a highlight to the top or bottom

For more details, see our documentation on manual reordering.

Currently, highlights are saved per page based on the URL. If a book or document is split across multiple URLs, highlights will appear separately. This can happen if the extension cannot uniquely identify the page, especially on sites with dynamic URLs or single-page applications. Sometimes, highlights may be grouped under a generic folder or the wrong page. If this is a recurring issue on a site you use often, send me an email at marius@web-highlights.com and I can implement a special rule for this website to make it work for you.

Currently, highlighting directly in Google Drive's PDF viewer is not supported due to technical restrictions. For best results, download the PDF and open it locally in your browser. Then click the Web Highlights icon in your toolbar and start annotating your PDF.

Web Highlights supports highlighting text in most languages. However, when exporting to PDF or using certain features, some languages (like Korean) might not display correctly. This is a known limitation we're working to improve. Your highlights are still saved correctly and visible in the sidebar.

If you find the automatic popup distracting, you can disable it:

1. Click the Web Highlights extension icon in your browser toolbar
2. Go to "Settings"
3. Toggle off the "Automatic Popup" option

For more customization options, check our settings guide.

Yes! There are two ways to disable the extension for specific sites: 1. Using the power icon:

• Open the sidebar
• Click the power icon in the bottom-right corner
• The page will reload with the extension disabled

2. Using the Excluded Domains list:

• Open Settings
• Go to "Excluded Domains"
• Add the URLs you want to disable
• Use wildcards (like example.com/*) to exclude entire domains

For detailed instructions and examples, see our guide on website exclusions.
Tip: To re-enable the extension on a disabled site, just open the sidebar and click the power icon again.

Highlighting works best with standard text. For images, you can right-click and select "Highlight image." For code or LaTeX (e.g., on Wikipedia or LeetCode), highlighting may not work as expected. You can try highlighting text before and after the image or code, and highlight the image separately if needed.

By default, all your highlights are private. When you want to share, you have two options:

• Share with colleagues: Generate a private shareable link that only people with the link can access
• Share with community: When sharing, check the checkbox next to the share button to also post your highlights to the discover feed where other users can find them

Note: When someone views your shared highlights, they will not appear on the page itself. They can only see the highlights in the sidebar.

Warning: Only share content on the Discover feed that you’re okay with making public and have permission to share. Everyone can see those highlights, so don’t include anything sensitive or copyrighted. Web Highlights isn’t responsible for what gets shared there.

The default highlight color is applied when you click the popup marker directly, use keyboard shortcuts, or right-click to highlight. There are two ways to change it:

• From Highlighter Popup:
  1. Highlight some text
  2. Hover over your desired default color
  3. Click the star icon that appears
• From Settings:
  1. Open the sidebar
  2. Go to "Settings"
  3. Click the color palette icon under Default Highlight Color

For more information about customizing your highlight colors, check out our guide on multiple color highlighting.

You can add an infinite number of colors to your highlight palette. Here's how:

1. Highlight some text
2. Hover over the marker icon
3. Click the plus icon in the color selector
4. Choose a color from the color wheel
5. Close the color picker by clicking anywhere outside it

For more information about customizing your highlight colors, check out our guide on multiple color highlighting.

With the Ultimate plan, you can highlight and save images from any website. Here's how:

1. Right-click any image on the web
2. Select "Save image" from the context menu
3. Use the dot indicator in the top-left corner to add notes and tags

Your saved images will appear in both the sidebar and web app. For more details, check out our image highlighting guide. Note: This is an Ultimate plan feature. You can try it free for 7 days.

Currently, you can save entire images but not highlight specific parts of them. When you right-click and select "Save image", it saves the whole image. You can add notes and tags to organize your saved images, but selecting specific portions within an image is not yet supported.

Reader Mode transforms webpages into a clean, distraction-free format that's perfect for focused reading. Here's what you can do:

• Save pages for offline access
• Remove ads, popups, and other distractions
• Access your saved pages from any device
• Customize your reading experience with different fonts, colors, and layouts
• Keep permanent copies of important pages

To use Reader Mode:

1. Click "Open in Reader" in the sidebar for pages without highlights
2. Or click "Save Document" for pages with highlights

For complete details, check out our Reader Mode documentation.

Yes! Using the top-right toolbar, you can customize:

• Font Size: Adjust text size for comfortable reading
• Line Height: Modify spacing between lines
• Article Width: Change the content area width
• Color Modes:
  • Auto: Adjusts based on device settings
  • Light: Bright background with dark text
  • Dark: Dark background with light text
  • Sepia: Eye-friendly warm background
  • Contrast: High contrast dark mode

You can manage your saved documents in two places:

• Settings > Saved documents:
  • View your storage usage
  • Delete unnecessary documents
  • See your storage limit
• Web app > Sidebar > Saved documents:
  • Browse your saved documents
  • Access saved pages
  • View documents in reader mode

Note: Deleting a saved document only removes the reader-mode version. Your highlights will remain intact - you just won't have offline access to that specific page.

Web Highlights includes a web clipper feature that lets you save pages as bookmarks. There are three ways to do this:

• Click the bookmark icon in the sidebar
• Right-click anywhere and select "Save page as bookmark"
• Use keyboard shortcuts:
  • Windows: Alt + B
  • Mac: Option + B

For complete details, check out our web clipper guide. Tip: You can customize keyboard shortcuts by visiting chrome://extensions/shortcuts or clicking the shortcut icon at the bottom of the sidebar.

Yes! When you save a bookmark, it automatically uses the page's title and description, but you can customize these:

1. First, make sure you've either:
   • Created highlights on the page, or
   • Saved it as a bookmark
2. Then simply click the title or description in:
   • The sidebar, or
   • The web app at app.web-highlights.com

Your bookmarks will include the title, description, and a thumbnail image for easy reference.

Yes! Web Highlights includes a powerful web clipper that helps you:

• Save entire web pages for later reference
• Automatically capture page titles and descriptions
• Include thumbnail images with your bookmarks
• Access your saved pages from any device

You can save pages in several ways:

• Click the bookmark icon in the sidebar
• Right-click and select "Save page as bookmark"
• Use keyboard shortcuts (Alt + B on Windows, Option + B on Mac)

For complete details about the web clipper feature, check out our web clipper documentation.

Yes! You can export your highlights as HTML or Markdown and then copy-paste them into any PKM tool or second brain app. For direct integrations, check out our guides for Notion, Capacities, and Obsidian.

Yes! You can import your research from other tools. For example, here's how to import from Weava Highlighter. You can also bring in your Kindle highlights.

Web Highlights is primarily designed for desktop devices. However, there are a few ways to use it on mobile: View & Access:

• View your highlights on mobile through the web app
• Save bookmarks from your phone (see our mobile bookmarking guide ).
• Access your research from any device

Limited Highlighting: While not officially supported, you can theoretically highlight on mobile by:

• Opening a document in Reader Mode
• Using the highlighter within the reader view

Note: This method is not mobile-optimized and may be difficult to use. For the best experience, we recommend installing our browser extension.

Some company or school laptops have restrictions that may block the extension or its features. If you encounter issues, check with your IT department or try using the extension on a personal device.