How to highlight text on a webpage and save it

A link to highlighted text opens the original page at that passage. A saved highlight keeps a copy of the selected words with the source.

For a quick reference in desktop Chrome, select the text, right-click, and choose Copy link to highlight. Paste that link into your notes or a message. Chrome’s text-link instructions explain the feature and note that it isn’t available for every selection.

The link still depends on the original page. Save the passage itself when you want to collect quotes from several sources, search their wording, or export them together.

FavLock saves web highlights in Readspace. You need its Chrome extension or Firefox extension to capture a new passage from a webpage. Connect the extension to your account and unlock it before starting.

1. 1

   Select the words you want to keep

   On a regular webpage, drag across the passage. Include enough of the sentence to make its meaning clear outside the page.

2. 2

   Choose Save highlight

   Right-click the selection and use FavLock’s Save highlight action. Wait for confirmation that it was saved to Readspace.

3. 3

   Check the saved passage

   Open Readspace in the dashboard and switch to Highlights. Find the quote under its source page and check that the selection contains the words you intended to keep.

A colored mark alone does not confirm the save. If no confirmation appears, look in Readspace. Browser restrictions and page structure can prevent capture, and text inside an image cannot be selected this way.

FavLock encrypts protected highlight content in your browser before storage or sync. That includes the selected quote, its matching information, and any annotation, along with protected source details. Account and operational metadata remain outside that content encryption.

Suppose a report says a change improved completion rates, but only for first-time users. Saving “improved completion rates” drops the condition that makes the finding meaningful.

Include the subject, result, and condition. If the meaning depends on the previous paragraph, include it or save the whole article.

If you are selecting most of the page, save the whole article instead. Highlights work best for passages you expect to use on their own.

In Readspace’s Highlights view, search for a distinctive word from the quote or something you remember about the source. Highlights are grouped by source page, so related passages stay together even when you saved them at different points in your reading.

Start with a distinctive phrase rather than a common word. If several results match, use the source title or domain. Open the original page when you need the surrounding explanation.

FavLock offers four colors. You might use one for evidence and another for claims you still need to verify. Leave the others alone until you have a reason for them.

Keeping a quote in Readspace and showing it again on the original website are separate features. In the extension’s settings, Show my highlights on webpages controls whether FavLock restores marks on sites you approve. Chrome also needs to grant FavLock access to the relevant site.

If the quote is in Readspace but no mark appears, check the setting and site permission. Saving can succeed without permission to restore marks. Turning the setting off removes the optional website permissions used for that display.

An edited sentence or redesigned page can stop a highlight from matching its old position. The saved quote remains in your library, but the restored mark is not proof that the source is unchanged or still current.

In Readspace you can export one highlight, a selection, or all highlights. Markdown works well for text-based notes, HTML for reading in a browser, and JSON for tools that process structured data. Check what your destination tool accepts before choosing a format.

Open the exported file and check the quotes and source references. Keep your own interpretation visibly separate from the source’s words. That makes the notes easier to revisit and reduces the chance of attributing your conclusion to the original author.

Try the workflow with one passage first: save it, find it, and export it. If that works the way you expect, start building a larger set.