In one of his recent pieces, “Purple Text, Orange Highlights,” Gigi (npub1der…xzpc) points out: note14ar…lug5
This is exactly what the Highlighter tool by PABLOF7z (npub1l2v…ajft) helps nostriches achieve: curate and transmit information. It allows users to share, zap, and comment on the quotes they find valuable. These quotes are then discoverable on https://highlighter.com/ and interoperable with a plethora of Nostr apps. Also, Highlighter is on its way to be a top-tier productivity tool, helping users categorize their insights and thoughts, plan efficiently for the future, and achieve stellar results, regardless of their objectives.
As Pablo puts it, Highlighter is:
a way of keeping the words you find valuable running on Nostr
Highlighter offers two approaches to curating information:
- via web interface (console)
- using a browser extension
Web
The web interface is quite self explanatory and provides the best functionality. All you need to do is:
- Visit https://highlighter.com/web and enter the URL to the article that has a piece you’d like to highlight
- Enter the author’s
npub(optional) - that way they will receive a share of zaps, collected by the highlight - Click Load
You can now highlight the bits of the desired article:
- Highlight desired text
- Add tags if you like. You can separate tags by hitting Enter
- Add your thoughts if you desire
- Hit Save
- See your highlight appear.
It is now a Nostr event, which you, or any other nostrich can (1) zap, (2) repost and (3) comment on. The highlight also provides a link (4) to itself and to the (5) the full article.
As I said, Highlights are Nostr (kind 9802) events, meaning they will be displayed by Nostr clients:
Productivity
Highlights are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Highlighter’s capabilities. There’s a grander vision for this app. With an aim to become your ultimate productivity companion, Highlighter already outperforms many traditional alternatives, even in its early days. It empowers you to create and manage lists that simplify your workflows. To tap into this power, visit highlighter.com/my. Here on your personal dashboard, you’ll have full control over your highlights, lists, and private notes.
Highlights
The very first tab you’ll see is Highlights. It is quite self-explanatory: here you will see all the highlights you’ve ever created. As I already mentioned, you’ll be able to interact with them just like with any other Nostr note.
Lists
Highlighter’s Lists feature is a productivity powerhouse. It’s a tool that could supercharge your productivity.
Generic
You can set up Generic Lists to keep your plans in check and document noteworthy occurrences that you don’t want to forget. Because Highlighter is part of the Nostr family, it lets you tag Nostr users and events. Once you’ve penned a note, you get to decide its broadcast method on Nostr:
Public. Choosing this option will broadcast you note under your main account, meaning that all of your followers will see it in their feed. This is like posting a regular note from your favorite client like Damus, or Amethyst, that will also be saved in your Highlighter dashboard.
Public (as a note published under your child account). Here’s one of my favorite features: each generic list you create generates a child account, enabling you to broadcast notes under its name. This approach allows for public notes that don’t clutter your feed but remain easily accessible. These notes can be quoted or referred to on Nostr later. For instance, I’m in the process of open-sourcing my educational website, 21ideas.org. I want to share this journey with the community, encouraging feedback and suggestions. Highlighter enables me to do this without flooding my followers’ feeds with project-related posts. Interested parties can follow this sub-account. I can quote especially important notes or share them as I wish.
- Secret. If you do not want a note to be publicly available, you should go for this option. Choosing the Secret option will have Highlighter encrypt the note and send it to youe as a direct message via Nostr. When you’re done, simply hit “Save” and see the note get displayed in the Secret tab and appear in your DMs.
Note that as such notes within lists are essentially Nostr events, you can tag people, notes and other Nostr-native stuff right there. Just like on the screenshot below. You can find out more about embedding nostr events in my guide here: naddr1qq…u4pq
Using Nostr syntax, you can generate a note as seen in the example below 👇
Profile Lists
Highlighter also lets you create Profile Lists, allowing you to categorize Nostr users and keep track of their activity. You can have a list of Nostr developers, meme masters, news guys and so on. Lists are being implemented by a growing number of Nostr-based apps. Here’s an example:
Yet, the original Listr app by JeffG (npub1zuu…c2uc) remains my preferred lists app. Kudos to Jeff for the exceptional work in expanding Listr’s features. The app’s open-source nature means that his input directly enriches the Nostr experience for all users - the beauty of open-source development in action 😍. Hence, I often use Listr for my profile lists while employing Highlighter for my generic lists.
Relays Lists
Relay Lists are also worth mentioning. They allow you to… you guessed it: create lists of relays. This may come in handy for power users as they strive to optimize their relays setup and keeping track of different relays is important in this case. I won’t bore you with this techy stuff, but you are welcome to check out my guide on relays here: naddr1qq…na75
Private Notes
Private Notes are another powerful feature of Highlighter. I’ve touched on this in my naddr1qq…gga0 post before, and you are welcome to dive deeper into the topic.
Basically what it allows you to do is compose long-form notes and choose between making them public or keeping private (encrypted and only being available for you to view). In the first case these notes get broadcasted and displayed on the platforms supporting 30023 events, like Habla.
Extension
Pablo has recently rolled out the Highlighter extension. Stay tuned to find out more about its functionality as this guide will be constantly updated.
Perspectives
There’s so much that can be added to this initiative - just like most other things on Nostr, Highlighter is open source, hence it’s development is only limited to the imagination, skill and determination of the Nostr community. We are yet to see what this potential leap in adoption of Value-4-Value movement may bring us, meanwhile let’s start highlighting the most brilliant ideas by the greatest minds we can find to help our loved ones find signal in the ocean of noise.
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