Annotating a physical book marking important passages, highlighting special words, writing notes in the margins, is a good way to tarnish it forever. Fortunately, annotations aren't nearly as destructive when reading digitally or on the web.
The right kind of notes in the right place can help you remember more and be more productive. On the web, annotations are also valuable when collaborating on documents with a team.
But how do annotations help you? And how can you start writing down what you read in a way that isn't difficult or inconvenient? Here's everything you need to know about annotating in the digital age.
Annotation is a fancy word for "marking a sentence, paragraph, page, or anything else." There are several markup tools you can use to annotate what you're reading:underline a sentence, use a bookmark, add a comment with an arrow, mark with a symbol, draw a shape around it, label a Post-It note on it , etc.
The concept of annotation stays the same no matter what medium you're using, but the tools available to make those annotations may be different. More on this later in this article.
When you mark up text, you're actually conversing with what you're reading. Therefore, an annotation is important for five main reasons:
Think of it this way: Reading is a passive activity. How to understand and remember information How to remember what you read with simple tools How to remember what you read with simple tools Reading more will not do you any good if you cannot keep anything you read. Use these tips when it's hard to remember what you've read. Read More You also have to mark the parts you don't understand so you can come back to them later. In short:you have to become an active reader.
Your brain has to process information. The act of scoring is one of the most important yet rudimentary skills that can help anyone from kindergarten to Ph.D.
But remember one caveat:annotations are most effective when done sparingly and with purpose. Don't underline or highlight too much.
Annotating an ebook is easy. All e-readers have built-in annotation tools. They also support other note-taking features. Let's see how the process works on three popular ereaders:
We've already shown you how to set up and use your Kindle Paperwhite How to set up and use your Kindle Paperwhite How to set up and use your Kindle Paperwhite Just got a new Kindle Paperwhite? If so, here's our guide to setting up, using, and adjusting your Kindle's settings. You'll be a master in no time! Read more . Annotating a block of text is a simple matter of dragging your finger over the text to highlight it. Kindle apps on Android and iOS also follow the same method.
All notes and highlights can be viewed in the app and also on your Amazon Kindle account page.
Apple's default eBook reader gives you one of the cleanest reading experiences on your devices. The method for annotating text is similar to the Kindle apps with one minor difference. You can choose a different color for highlights and add notes. But it also allows you to underline text .
Tipping: Use the different colors to color code your annotations. For example, a pink highlight can be used to show a question or query, while a green highlight can be for an idea that you connect to.
You can highlight and add notes to a book using your computer or the Play Books Google Play Books app. The method, again, is similar to the iBooks app.
The good news is that most of the attention is focused on annotating PDF documents because it is the most shared format. Annotation is also a set of default features of common tools found in both Windows and macOS. Let's take a look at what it's built into.
Microsoft Edge became the first browser to natively support PDF annotations. The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update brought PDF annotation with highlights and notes. the Inking It also has another key tool that allows you to annotate PDFs, websites, and even EPUBs. However, ink works better on touch screens.
Annotation capability is just one more reason to use the Edge browser 10 Reasons You Should Be Using Microsoft Edge Now 10 Reasons You Should Be Using Microsoft Edge Now Microsoft Edge marks a complete break from Internet Explorer branding, removing a 20 year old family tree in the process. Here's why you should use it. Read More
The Preview app on your macOS is one of the underrated tools. The markup menu in Preview is one of its most useful features. You can use it to leave information for yourself or suggest changes to a PDF document while collaborating.
The preview app has all the bells and whistles. You can even create, merge, and split PDF documents How to Create, Merge, Split, and Markup PDF Documents on a Mac How to Create, Merge, Split, and Markup PDF Documents on a Mac Don't Pay For PDF Software! Convert documents, merge or split PDF files, and annotate and sign forms for free on your Mac. Read More with it.
Image annotation tools are dime a dozen on the web. Therefore, we will not cover them in great detail here. Any good screenshot tool would allow you to annotate the image. You can go back to Apple Preview on macOS and Paint in Windows .
Here are some other things you can see:
And let's not forget two of the best all-in-one free tools that allow us to annotate images and documents with ease:Google Drive How to Collaborate Easily on Google Drive with Online Annotation How to Collaborate Easily on Google Drive with Online Annotation There are Specialized Annotation Web Apps available that integrate with Google Drive and make it easy to communicate with others about your document. We look at the best annotation tools for Google Drive. Read more and Evernote.
Most of our reading is on the web. An annotation tool helps you add context to what you're reading. Again, Microsoft Edge and its markup toolkit let you write notes, draw, and highlight on web pages as well. But it is very likely that you do most of your browsing in Google Chrome. The browser lacks native annotation capability, but there are enough extensions to fill the gap.
These are some of the best extensions to annotate websites.
Tipping: If you're using Firefox, then take a look at Mozilla's Firefox screenshots which have basic annotation built in with their screenshots.
It's not enough to start annotating everything, you have to do it the right way to get the best results.
Science strongly recommends that you avoid taking notes on the computer. Use long hand instead. Even then, annotation can do the initial legwork for you as you collect the information. Then deliver them to your own analytical and processing brain cells.
For example, I use annotation tools to slow down my own forgetting How to easily organize and remember all the life hacking tips you've read How to easily organize and remember all the life hacking tips you read We forget things if we don't repeat they. That's bad news for the endless words of wisdom we read every day. The good news is that forgetfulness can be defeated. Read more . The web can inundate us with information, but it also gives us the tools to manage it intelligently.
