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Q. I was having lunch with a friend and I told her I didn’t like the idea of Kindle books because I like to highlight passages when I read. She told me that you can highlight in Kindle books. In fact, she told me that not only could I highlight passages in Kindle books, I could also see which passages other Kindle readers have highlighted.
This idea intrigues me. I think this means I could have my books with me wherever I go, and have my highlights with me too. I could even get ideas for highlighting from others.
Can you explain how to highlight in Kindle books and see what other readers have highlighted too? Can you search highlighted passages?
Do I need to get a Kindle to highlight or can I highlight on the Kindle app on my iPhone and iPad too?
This news may just make me try Kindle books!
A. Your friend is correct. You can indeed highlight passages in Kindle books, both on Kindle ereaders and on the Kindle apps.
Highlighting is easy, you can do it in a few seconds, so you aren’t taken out of the moment while you’re reading. You also don’t have to worry about having a highlighter with you when you read!
Highlighting on the Kindle Ereader
You can highlight passages on the Kindle ereader by pressing on the screen where you want the highlight to start. Wait until the word is highlighted. Drag your finger to the end of the passage where you want the highlight to end.
The highlighted passage will have pointers at the beginning and end. You can drag these to adjust the highlight and cover the words you want to highlight.
When you lift your finger off the screen, a pop-up menu will appear. Choose Highlight and the passage will be highlighted.
If the passage you want to highlight extends to the next page, drag your finger to the bottom right corner of the screen to advance to the next page. The highlight will continue until the end of the sentence on the next page.
Highlighting on the Kindle App
Highlighting on the Kindle app is very similar to highlighting on a Kindle ereader. Press and hold the beginning of the passage you wish to highlight. Drag your finger to the end of the passage you wish to highlight.
You can also drag the cursors at the beginning and end of the passage to adjust the coverage of the highlight.
A pop-up menu bar will appear. Tap a dot to choose the color of the highlight.
[note]Don’t miss => How to Read a Kindle Book Without a Kindle[/note]
Syncing Your Highlights
Your highlights in a Kindle book will be saved in the Cloud. So if you highlight a passage in a book in your Kindle app on your phone, it will appear in the Kindle book on your Kindle ereader.
Seeing Others’ Highlights
Kindle also lets you see what popular passages other readers have highlighted, if you’d like. Amazon compiles the passages with the most highlights and underlines these. Passages many other readers have highlighted will be underlined and the number of readers who have highlighted the passage will appear next to the passage.
Turning Off Seeing Others’ Highlights
But maybe you don’t want to see others’ highlights on every book. Perhaps you don’t want to be distracted by seeing what other readers think is important.
Turning Off Popular Highlights on a Kindle Ereader
When a book is open, tap the top of the screen and the menu bar will appear. Tap the three stacked lines and a pop-up screen will appear. Tap Settings => Reading Options => Notes & About This Book => Popular Highlights => Off.
If you want to turn Popular Highlights on, do the same thing, but switch Popular Highlights to On.
Turning Off Popular Highlights on the Kindle App
On the Library page of the app, where all of your Kindle books are listed, tap the three stacked lines in the upper left corner of the screen. Scroll down to Settings. Tap it, then tap Other at the bottom of the screen. Turn Popular Highlights off.
Seeing Highlights (Yours and Popular)
You can see your highlights as well as popular highlights all in one place in Kindle books.
On the Web
You can see all of your highlights in Kindle books on the Web. Go to kindle.amazon.com and sign into your Amazon account. Click on Your Highlights at the top of the screen. There you will see all of the passages you have highlighted in Kindle books.
Seeing Highlights on the Kindle Ereader
You can see all of your highlights in a book using the Kindle Ereaders. With the book open, tap the top of the screen to have the menu bar appear. Tap the Go To tab. Tap the Notes tab. Choose Your/Popular/Public. If you have not highlighted any passages yet, you may not have a choice for Your.
Seeing Highlights in the Kindle App
While the Kindle book is open in the app, tap the top of the screen and the menu bar will appear. Tap the three stacked lines and a menu bar will appear. Scroll down to Popular Highlights. Tap it to see the popular passages that others have highlighted in the book.
Tap on a highlight to go to that location in the book. There isn’t an option to see all of your own highlights in the Kindle app.
Your Thoughts
Do you like to highlight passages in books? Would you enjoy seeing what passages others have highlighted? Would the ability to highlight passages make you more likely to read Kindle books?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
*Welcome to Amazon Kindle image (edited) courtesy of Isriya Paireepairit
**Kindle Popular Highlights image (edited) courtesy of Thomas Amberg vis Flickr and Creative Commons
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Hi Carolyn,
I don’t have kindle book, but I am planning to get one. So, knowing about some of its features is amazing.
Thanks for sharing.
have a great day.
Hi Robin, Yes, new owners of Kindle will be glad to learn of this handy tool. Even if you don’t highlight anything yourself, you might enjoy seeing what others have highlighted.
This is going to be one of the growth hacks for me on Kindle. I often used to think if I can highlight text on Kindle, finally it’s your tutorial which will be helping me.
Hi Ritasha, Yes, highlighting on Kindle is easy, if you know how to do it. Once you do it a couple of times, it will become second nature to you and you will be able to do it without thinking much about the process.