FAQ
How to Highlight and Annotate Articles in Chrome
Quick Answer
Highlight text in saved articles with 2 colors (free) or 5 colors (Pro). Pro also unlocks inline notes attached to highlights, smart tagging, and exporting highlights to Markdown, HTML, or CSV. A dedicated highlights panel aggregates everything across your library — searchable, filterable by color, and clickable straight back to the source article.
- Free tier: 2 highlight colors (yellow, blue). Pro tier: 5 colors plus inline notes attached to each highlight.
- Highlights panel aggregates every annotation across all saved articles — filterable by color, searchable by content, clickable back to source.
- Export highlights independently as JSON (free), Markdown (Pro — Obsidian/Notion-ready blockquotes), HTML (Pro), or CSV (Pro — one row per highlight).
- Color discipline turns highlights into a queryable knowledge base: e.g. green = data, pink = counterargument, purple = personal insight.
By PlugMonkey Team, Editorial
Why Highlight and Annotate
Passive reading is inefficient. Research consistently shows that active reading — marking important passages, writing reactions, and summarizing key points — leads to better comprehension and retention. ReadMonkey Pro brings this active reading workflow directly into Chrome. Instead of switching between a reader and a separate note-taking app, you highlight and annotate in place, then export your annotations to your knowledge management tool of choice.
5 Highlight Colors Available
ReadMonkey Pro offers 5 distinct highlight colors for organizing your annotations by meaning, topic, or priority. The free tier includes 2 colors (yellow and blue), while the Pro tier unlocks all 5.
- Yellow — Key facts, important statements, or definitions (Free)
- Blue — Questions, things to follow up on, or notable arguments (Free)
- Green — Evidence, data points, or supporting examples (Pro)
- Pink — Disagreements, counterarguments, or areas needing further research (Pro)
- Purple — Personal insights, connections to other work, or action items (Pro)
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ReadMonkey Pro highlight color picker
Screenshot showing: The ReadMonkey Pro reader with text selected and the 5-color highlight picker displayed, showing yellow, blue, green, pink, and purple options
Adding Inline Notes (Pro)
With the Pro tier, you can attach inline notes to any highlighted passage. After highlighting text, a small note icon appears next to the highlight. Click it to open a text field where you can write your thoughts, questions, or commentary. The note is stored alongside the highlight and appears when you hover over or click the highlighted text. Inline notes are especially valuable for researchers annotating papers, students adding study notes, and professionals documenting their analysis of industry reading.
Viewing All Highlights
ReadMonkey Pro includes a dedicated highlights panel in the side panel interface. This panel shows all your highlights across all saved articles in a single, scrollable view. You can filter highlights by color, search by text content, and click any highlight to jump directly to the source article at the exact passage you marked. This aggregated view makes it easy to review your annotations without opening each article individually — ideal for research review sessions or exam preparation.
Exporting Your Highlights
Highlights can be exported separately from full articles. ReadMonkey Pro supports exporting highlights in JSON (free), Markdown, HTML, and CSV (Pro). A highlight export includes the highlighted text, the color used, any attached notes, and a reference to the source article (title and URL). Markdown export formats highlights as blockquotes with color annotations, making them immediately usable in Obsidian, Notion, or any Markdown editor. CSV export creates a spreadsheet with one row per highlight, useful for building annotation databases or sharing with collaborators.
Using Highlights for Research
For researchers and students, highlighting is more than decoration — it is a structured data collection method. By consistently using the same color for the same type of annotation (e.g., green for data, pink for counterarguments), you build a queryable knowledge base across all your reading. You can then filter your highlights panel by color to see all the evidence you have collected, all the questions you have raised, or all the action items you have noted. When it is time to write, export your color-coded highlights to Markdown and use them as the raw material for your paper, report, or study guide.
Free vs Pro Highlighting
The free tier gives you 2 highlight colors (yellow and blue) — enough for basic active reading. The Pro tier unlocks all 5 colors plus inline notes, enabling a full color-coded annotation workflow. Both tiers support viewing highlights in the aggregated panel and exporting them (JSON for free, all formats for Pro). If you primarily use highlights for casual marking, the free tier works well. If you use highlights as a structured research tool with notes and multi-format export, Pro is the clear upgrade.
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Sources & Further Reading
- Future of Pocket — Mozilla's official Pocket sunset announcement (July 2025), context for the read-later migration — Mozilla Support (accessed May 22, 2026)
Try ReadMonkey Pro Free
Start highlighting with 2 colors free, or unlock all 5 colors plus inline notes with Pro. Install ReadMonkey Pro and turn passive reading into active learning.
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