Highlights and Notes: Annotate Everything You Save

Why Highlight and Take Notes?

Passively saving content is not enough. Research shows that active engagement — highlighting, annotating, questioning — dramatically improves retention and understanding.

Highlighting in BrainTube

In Video Transcripts

1. Open any saved video
2. Scroll through the transcript
3. Select any text passage
4. Click Highlight and choose a color

Example: While reading the transcript of a TED talk about creativity, you highlight: "Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating." — now that quote is saved, searchable, and can be added to collections.

Color Coding

BrainTube offers multiple highlight colors. A common system:

• 🟡 Yellow: Key insights
• 🟢 Green: Action items / things to try
• 🔵 Blue: Interesting but not urgent
• 🔴 Red: Disagree or need to verify

Adding Notes

Timestamped Video Notes

1. Open a saved video
2. Click Add Note at any point in the transcript
3. Write your thought
4. The note is linked to that exact timestamp

Example: At 14:32 in a coding tutorial, you note: "This approach won't work with TypeScript — need to use generics instead." Later, when you revisit the video, your note appears right at that timestamp.

General Item Notes

You can also add notes that are not tied to a timestamp — useful for overall thoughts, questions, or action items.

Organizing Highlights

All your highlights across all content are accessible from a central view. You can:

• Filter by color
• Search within highlights
• Add highlights to collections
• Link highlights to interests/topics

Pro Tips

• Highlight sparingly — if everything is highlighted, nothing is
• Use notes to capture your reaction to the content, not just restate what was said
• Link highlights to your interests so they contribute to your knowledge graph