What's New? Release Notes & Updates for Web Highlights

New features, releases, and current improvements for our PDF & Web Highlighter Chrome Extension.

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Release 9.3.1: Privacy Enhancements for Shared Links 🔓

At Web Highlights, safeguarding your privacy and data integrity is our top priority.

Anything you highlight using Web Highlights was and will always remain private and accessible only to you. However, you can also decide to create a shareable link.

Previously, when generating a shareable link, it automatically appeared on the Discover Page. We've made improvements to this process:

🔒 Privacy Enhanced: By default, your page isn't shared on the discover page, giving you more control over your content's visibility.

✨ Discover Feed Integration: Easily share your page to the discover feed with a simple checkbox next to the shared link.

📢 Dialog Prompt: Whenever you check the checkbox, a dialog pops up explaining that your highlights have been publicly shared, ensuring transparency in your sharing process.

Release 9.3.0: Sort Highlights with Drag & Drop ↑↓

While highlights typically follow the order they appear on the page, there are occasions when this sequence may not align with your preferences or workflow.

Now, you can simply navigate to the sidebar where your highlights are listed. Simply drag and drop your highlights to rearrange the order effortlessly.

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Drag & Drop sorting

Release 9.2.4: Fullscreen image viewer 📷

We've enhanced our latest image highlighting feature by including a fullscreen image viewer. You'll notice an expand icon in the top-left corner of every image in the sidebar and on the web app.

Just click it to view the current image in full screen mode, ensuring you always see images in their original size.

Expand images to see them in its original size

Release 9.2.3: Learning session improvements 🧠

Previously, during learning sessions, only one highlight would appear at a time. This sometimes made it difficult to fully grasp individual highlights without additional context.

That's why we've redesigned our learning recap to enhance your learning experience. Now, you can see displayed cards alongside other highlights, making it easier to integrate your research into your long-term memory.

Here is how learning cards now look like:

Learning highlights to be learned are now shown in context.

Release 9.2.1 + 9.2.2: Improvements for image highlighting

Small fixes to make highlighting images smoother and more reliable.

Release 9.2.0: Highlighting images is now available 📷 😯

I am very excited to share this awesome addition making highlighting much more enjoyable and powerful.

Right click any image to save it. Find them in your sidebar or as a collection in the web app.

ℹ️ All users with an active Ultimate subscription can enjoy highlighting images. Upgrade now to start highlighting images.

Read more about image highlighting here:

Release 9.1.11: Improved Highlight Order in Exported Formats

We have addressed an issue where the order of highlights in exported formats did not consistently match their appearance on the page. With Release 9.1.11, you can expect enhanced consistency in the exported PDF, HTML, and Markdown versions, ensuring that the order of highlights accurately reflects their arrangement on the page.

In these releases, we focused on resolving a bug that affected the synchronization of deleted highlights between the sidebar and the main page. Previously, deleted highlights in the sidebar were not always reflected on the page as intended. With these updates, we've implemented a fix to ensure seamless deletion synchronization, providing a more reliable and accurate user experience.

Release 9.1.8: Backup prompt before creating an account 💾

Now, if you have over 100 unsynchronized offline highlights or bookmarks, you'll get a heads-up to save a local backup file before making an account.

This extra step ensures your data stays safe in case anything goes wrong during synchronization. So, even if there are server hiccups, you can easily restore your research by importing the local backup file later on.

Release 9.1.7: Resolved Extension Error

We've addressed a minor bug in the extension where the console was throwing an error. It's a small hiccup that didn't impact the user experience, but we've fixed it for a smoother operation.

Release 9.1.5 - 9.1.6: New discover page 🔭

We've given our discover page a fresh look, and you can check it out at web-highlights.com/discover. We've also updated the extension, so when you share URLs, they'll lead to the revamped discover page. Don't worry if you have old links—they'll automatically take you to the new page.

Release 9.1.3: Addressing a problem with PDF links 🔧

Tackled a problem with identifying PDF links. Before, when trying to open file URLs from local computers, there was a hiccup – the URL wouldn't be recognized accurately, causing a mix-up with the correct page. Good news: we've resolved this issue, and now, PDF highlighting should be back on track and working smoothly

Release 9.1.2: PDF export fix 🔨

Fixing a problem where Ultimate users couldn't save their research as a PDF due to an unexpected upgrade.

Release 9.1.1: Markdown export now free for everyone 🎉

I'm thrilled to let you know that the 'Copy Markdown' and 'Copy HTML' feature, once exclusive to Ultimate users, is now accessible to everyone for free.

ℹ️ The markdown export is especially useful to export your research to external tools like Notion, Obsidian, and more.

Learn more about it in those articles:

Release 9.1.0: Faster, better, and brand-new app 🔥

In the last months we have spent a lot of time on rebuilding the web app to make the navigation through highlights, pages, notes, and more much easier and nicer. Here's what's new and improved:

Easily filter and sort pages ↕
Group pages and highlights 🧱
Access content offline 🛜
Enhanced and quicker search 🔎
Significant performance boost ⏱️
Change colors in the app 🎨

Just a heads up: Your research only syncs with the app when you have a Premium or Ultimate subscription with cloud sync enabled.

Release 9.0.11: Fixing color glitch

Previously, when you changed the color of a highlight and quickly hovered over it without closing the color picker, the color wouldn't update properly—it kept jumping back to the old color. This release takes care of that small hiccup, so your colors will stay as they should.

Release 9.0.10: Open highlights in app

Now, with the extension, you can effortlessly open your highlights in the app. Just give a click to "Open in app" and enjoy the seamless transition.

Release 9.0.9: Fixing bug where pages where not deleted

If a page is not bookmarked and there were are highlights, it was supposed to be automatically deleted. However, an edge case prevented proper deletion. This release addresses that issue, ensuring pages are now deleted as intended.

We've made changes to how highlights are arranged in the sidebar to match their appearance on the website. Previously, this sorting feature didn't always function correctly, especially when highlighting headlines. Now, we've enhanced the sorting algorithm, ensuring that highlighted text shows up in the sidebar just like it does on the website. This fixed sorting order will also apply to exported markdown, html, or PDF files.

Release 9.0.7 - Code & Design Improvements

Made some improvements to the code to set up the foundation for the new web app. Also, some smaller design changes were made, like toning down the animation of dialogs and modals to make them less distracting.

Release 9.0.5 - Resolving Color Glitches

Modify the CSS variable identifier to be more distinct and prevent interference with certain pages. This resolves an issue where users reported unexpected color changes on specific pages, such as discord.com.

Release 9.0.4 - New Authorization Page

Enhance the login page and pop-up for Web Highlights. Not only does this update make the sign-in and sign-up sections more appealing, but it also brings improvements in accessibility and usability. Moreover, the revamped authorization page is designed to function more reliably now.

Release 9.0.1 -> 9.0.3 - Small Fixes

CSS and design fixes for smaller issues regarding the new design.

Release 9.0.0 - New Web Highlights 🔥

This update is just for you 💪 I have been working hard to bring this update to life. In this article, I'll walk you through all the changes and show you how to make the most of the new features.

Here is an overview of the key improvements:

The sidebar now has a beautiful cover image 📷
You can switch between light ☀️ and dark 🔦 mode.
You can edit titles and descriptions 📝
Your highlighted websites are neatly organized in a history list ⏱️
You can open highlighted websites in a popover 📖

Find out more about all the new features in this article:

ℹ️ The latest update will be released gradually to users. If you don't have the newest version yet, please be patient.

I understand that change can be challenging, but I hope you'll come to love the new design as much as I do. Your feedback is invaluable to me, so please take a moment to fill out this form and help me enhance the app even more. I truly appreciate it!

Release 8.7.1 - Improving Tags 🏷️

🏷️ Tags editing has a better appearance now. We've introduced a more efficient method for adding and removing tags, featuring a robust autocompletion system. This new component is now part of the highlighter popup, the sidebar, and the web app.

Editing tags in the popup toolbox and sidebar looks much better now

✨ Up until now, the extension was the only place where you could create and edit tags. This functionality hadn't been integrated into the web app. However, you can now manage your tags directly from the web app at web-highlights.com.

Tags can now be created and edited from the web app

Release 8.7.1

↔️ You can now align the sidebar to the right and to the left side of the page.

✨Until now, the sidebar pushed the current website to the side. Now, you're in control now! Choose whether the sidebar should stick as it is or choose an overlay style.

Release 8.7.0

We've put in a lot of effort to create a cool new sidebar that gives you a clearer view of highlights, notes, tags, and website info.
Although the sidebar isn't fully done, you can give it a spin by turning on Web Highlights' hidden experimental mode.
Just shoot me an email, and I'll fill you in on how to activate the experimental mode. 👉🏻 hallo@marius-bongarts.de

Release 8.6.6

We fixed an issue where highlights & notes wouldn't update properly when changing website links!
Your pages will load faster and smoother, as highlights now appear after most browser tasks, making your browsing experience snappier.
We've made editing notes easier by preventing accidental triggers of keyboard shortcuts on some pages.

Release 8.6.5

Hide scrollbars on pricing container for Windows devices
Modernize font types

Release 8.6.3

Fix jumping of highlights when adding notes or tags: In the past, on same pages, highlighted text broke out of the current text when adding tags and notes.

Release 8.6.2

Allow changing the folder for local PDF files: A few users noted that after moving a local PDF to another folder on their computer, Web Highlights couldn't reapply highlights & notes. Now, our highlighter just needs the PDF's filename to guarantee that highlights can be reapplied anytime.

Release 8.6.1

Fix: Update user plan correctly when user subscription got renewed in Chrome Extension and in Web App

Release 8.6.0

Improve PDF viewer: Web Highlights sidebar is now integrated inside the PDF viewer's sidebar
Fix: Enable PDF highlighting for PDFs on URLs that do not end with *.pdf
Show recent testimonials as a Wall of Love on the Landing Page: web-highlights.com
Show Wall Of Love with all Chrome Web Store reviews on: web-highlights.com/testimonials

The new Web Highlights PDF Viewer: The sidebar is now integrated into the PDF viewer

Release 8.5.7

Fix issue of editing tags of highlight, when a tag is selected in the extension sidebar

Release 8.5.6

Fix endless update loop for some users with low network speed
New prompt to ask users for feedback in the Chrome Web Store
Improve SEO meta titles and description for web app

Release 8.5.5

Integrate Paddle as a new payment and subscription provider to handle subscriptions for Premium and Ultimate plan
Use latest Firebase Sign Up to make Google-Authentication more robust and less error-prone
Remove Firebase dependencies completely from Chrome extension built to make it compliant with the Chrome Web Store Remote Hosted Code policy.

Release 8.5.4

Small CSS and design fixes

Release 8.5.3

Performance improvements

Release 8.5.2

Fix smaller issues for Kindle import

Release 8.5.1

Show cover image for kindle bookmarks in learning & recap session

Release 8.5.0

Kindle Import feature:
- Now, you can quickly move all your Kindle highlights to Web Highlights with just a click of a button.
- Now, you can go between your Kindle books on the Kindle reader website and mark your highlights and notes again using our web-based highlighter tool.
Improve design of sidebar for creating tags and taking notes
improved sidebar elements with chip-list and rich editor to only show rich editor when being activated

Release 8.4.2

Include button in learning session to all highlights & notes of the current learning item
Improve performance for learning feature
Improve design of learning feature in web app

Release 8.4.1

Fix timezone issue to make learning session work correctly everywhere in the world

Release 8.4.0

Learning feature:
- Daily Highlights Recap & Learning: You can now regularly learn your selected highlights & notes. Every day, new highlights will be selected to be reviewed.
- Learning cards will be reviewed based on the spaced repetition principle to bring your learnings into long-term memory.
- The daily learning reminder can be enabled or disabled
- The learning session can be started within the Chrome Extension and also within the web app.

Release 8.3.0

Improved Highlight Formatting: Previously, the highlighted text in the sidebar didn't retain the original formatting from the websites. Now, the line breaks will be maintained in the highlighted section, reflecting the format found on the website.