This Google Keep trick will make you a better reader

True book lovers know which side they're on in the print versus e-book debate. For the sake of our reading pleasure, let's just say that both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Digital books and e-readers have a distinct advantage:they make it easy to highlight and gather information with just a swipe. If you like to curate wisdom and remember what you read How to remember what you read with simple tools How to remember what you read with simple tools Read More It won't do you any good if you can't keep anything you read. Use these tips when it's hard to remember what you've read. Read More But how can you gather wisdom from a physical book?

Use Google Keep as an idea index

Google Keep is the powerful note-taking source that hides some wonderful possibilities behind its Post-It-like interface. It is available on the web and as an Android or iOS app.

Google Keep supports Optical Character Recognition (OCR) . This is the feature we will use to capture text from a book. Yes, you can write down the ideas or quotes from a book, but it's much easier (and faster) to use Google Keep's transcription feature. There are two ways to do it.

1. Use the phone's built-in camera app. Then use the share menu to export images to Google Keep. This method allows you to send images in bulk. Also, you can cut off the unnecessary part and keep the only part you want from the book.
2. Take a photo directly in the Google Keep app. Tap the Camera icon and create a picture note. The Google Keep camera does not have a cropping tool. This leaves you with the job of cleaning up all the extra transcribed text from the scanned photo manually.

Try both methods and see which one works for you. Adjust the text of the book in landscape view if the vertical position does not work. Take the picture. Now the image is in the note.

Capture the text from the image with the Google Keep OCR process:

1. Tap the note with the image you want to edit..
2. Tap the note image..
3. Tap More (the three vertical dots at the top right).
4. TapTake text from image .
5. Tap the back arrow to save and close the note.

You can delete the image later or keep it. Organize your Google Keep “idea index” with labels and colors. I usually color the last ones with red and then turn them green when I manage to retain the information.

Have you used Google Keep to become a better learner or reader? What is your favorite use for the humblest of all Google tools?