Highlights (Desktop)

Highlights allow you to select portions of text in an EPUB file.

You can also style them, write a note, add tags and select a specific color to organize them.

This feature is not available in PDF files or audiobooks.

Adding a highlight

While reading an EPUB, select the text that you’d like to highlight and click on the Highlights action.

This will show up a new window where you can:

• write a note
• select a color
• edit the highlighting style
• and assign a tag

Notes support a simplified Markdown syntax, which means that you can include:

• headers
• bold
• italics
• strikethrough
• lists
• and links

The color and style options work in tandem:

• highlight with a solid background (default)
• underline
• strikethrough
• and outline

In the current version of Thorium Desktop, highlights can also be associated to a single tag.

Editing a highlight

While reading, you can click on any visible highlight.

This will open the list of highlights, where you can manage them.

Managing highlights

You can access the list of highlights at any time by clicking on the Navigation button in the upper right corner.

Click on Highlights to view your list of highlights and manage them.

In this list, each highlight is displayed with the following information:

• highlighted text
• color
• note
• tag
• date when the highlight was first created
• progression in the publication (using a percentage)

Clicking on the highlighted text, will dismiss the list and jump to the location of the highlight in the publication.

Each individual highlight can either be:

• edited (pencil icon)
• or deleted (trash icon)

The following actions are available to interact with the list of highlights:

• Sort
• Filter
• Import
• Export
• Delete all highlights

By default, highlights in this view are sorted based on their creation date but the following options are available for sorting:

• Progression (based on the progression in the publication)
• Last created
• Last modified

Highlights can also be assigned a specific color and/or tag.

If you’ve assigned any additional information to your highlights, you’ll be able to filter the list based on the following criteria:

• Tag
• Color
• Creator (person or organization who created the highlight)

Highlights can be deleted one at a time, but an additional actions is also available to delete all highlights at once:

• click on Delete all highlights (this is represented by a trash icon at the top of the list)
• this will show up a confirmation message
• click on the Yes button to confirm

If you’d like to customize how highlights are handled while reading, several options are also available under the settings menu:

• Instant mode will automatically open the dialog for a new highlight as soon as you select text
• Quick create will skip the dialog and create a new highlight
• Display in margins will replace highlighted text with a margin indicator (hovering over this element will show the highlight)
• Do not display will hide all highlights while reading

Exporting and importing highlights

Highlights can be exported or imported per publication. You can use this feature to:

• archive your highlights as a file

• or share them with someone else

  

Clicking on the Export button will open a file dialog where you can select:

• the name of the file
• and the location where the file will be generated

This will generate a .annotation file that contains all of your highlights for a given publication.

As an alternative, you can also export your highlights in HTML:

• click on the file extension (this will default to .annotation)
• select .html

Unlike .annotation files, HTML cannot be imported back into Thorium Desktop.

Clicking on the Import button will open the file explorer. Only .annotation files can be selected from this dialog, every other file type will be greyed out.

Keyboard shortcuts for highlights