Features

Highlight and save quotes, save images
- Save quotes from pages or other documents (PDFs) open in the browser.
- Highlight the quotes on pages.
- Save images - either pictures direct from the webpage or screenshots from the page via a tool like the Snipping Tool or Paint.
Tag pages
- Categorize pages with tags like theory, review or product.
- Save page properties with tag values, for example author: (author of article) - or for product research tags like product: (maker and model), price: (€$£) or colour: white.
- List or compare saved pages, tags and tag values in a list or table format.
Add notes
- pages or PDFs opened in the browser,
- individual quotes or pasted images on the page,
- saved searches,
- whole research topics.
You can later search from all notes across all topics.
Manage your Google research
- Save your searches, see what search terms got great results.
- Bookmark, tag and add notes to search results.
- Filter out unuseful results.
- Works with regular Google and with Google Scholar search.

Latest releases

Version 1.0.7 - March 2024

This version delivers mostly wishlist items requested by a user (thanks for the ideas and feedback, A!).

Table view gets an additional topic column, useful for cases where multiple topics are selected.

The column can also be added/removed from columns configuration:

To explicitly choose only pages that have no tags, tags filter gets an "Untagged" option:
Pages in List and Grid views can now also be ordered by page title:
And finally, search box is centered to simply emphasize that you can use this search to find any topic, search or page by page title, note, quote or tag across all topics.

Version 1.0.6 - February 2024

For all users who have their data in multiple datasets (e.g. from multiple computers), there is now an option to merge datasets together. Just import the data from files on the all notes -page using the Load data from file option:

Next dialog prompts, whether the incoming dataset should overwrite current data or merge with it:

Earlier versions

Click here to see history of previous releases.

Wishes for future versions

There is a "Wishlist" functionality, with which users can record their wishes for making Research Notes (RN) better. Feel free to put your ideas to the wishlist or send us an e-mail (feedback@onlineresearchnotes.com).

Click here for an overview of what features our users have wished for in the past.

Install

Install the extension at the Chrome Web Store:

Help

FAQ - How do I use it?

Take notes and organize pages

You can add your thoughts and info about pages or PDF documents opened in Chrome.

Click the RN icon next to the address bar. A Research Notes popup window opens.
The page is now automatically saved under the active topic. You can change the topic from the drop-down list or create a new one – or click Undo or Delete page data button to remove page data from your records.
On this popup you can:
- bookmark the page and it will show up in the Research Notes bookmarks folder under chosen topic;
- cross the page to mark it as processed or deemed unuseful - this let's you hide the page also from Google search results and all notes -page;
- add free text notes;
- add tags - either create new or auto-complete previously used tags;
- paste an image from clipboard - e.g. an image or screenshot from the page.
Delete page data button erases any info you’ve added with Research Notes about this page.

Note: the popup window can also be opened by a keyboard combination - by default it is Ctrl+Shift+F or in Mac Command+Shift+F, but this can be changed in Chrome menu -> More tools -> Extensions -> click on the three layers up left -> Keyboard shortcuts.

By default the saved page is automatically also bookmarked. This can be changed in the extension Options menu:

Tag with value

In addition to regular tagging you can also assign values to page tags. Just use colon in the tag to indicate that it has a value attached to it.

For example, to record a page’s author, add a tag like Author: (author’s name).

Or, when searching for products and comparing good websites with alternative offerings, use tags such as product: (maker and model) or price: (price in some currency).

Having once entered the value tag (author in pictured case), it is displayed on its own so you can enter just the value part on next topic's pages.

Note: this is the default way of presenting the value tags and can be changed in the extension Options menu:

You can later view your pages with tags on an all notes -page as a list or table.

In table view the value tags appear as sortable columns, for example with authors:

Highlight and save quotes

Save quotes from pages and highlight these.

First, select text on the page. From here you have number of ways to save a quote:
- a) Use a keyboard shortcut - by default it is Ctrl+Shift+Q or in Mac Command+Shift+Q, but this can be changed in Chrome menu -> More tools -> Extensions -> click on the three layers up left -> Keyboard shortcuts.
- b) Right-click to open the context menu and choose Research Notes -> Save quote.
- c) Save with a click on the hovering popup that opens near the selected text.
  
  Note: this hovering popup is disabled by default, but can be enabled in extension Options menu.
The quote is highlighted on the page.
Quotes also appear in the page’s RN popup window, ready to be copied with the source address.

Here you can also add notes to each quote.

Save images

You can save images from webpages or add other images to page notes.

- a) From a webpage you can right-click on an image and select Save image.
- b) Copy an image to clipboard either directly from the webpage or via a tool like the Windows Snipping Tool or Paint. Then open the Research Notes popup window and select Paste an image.

Save searches

When studying a topic in-depth, save searches to remember what search terms you’ve used, which ones got great results and how far into the results you have looked.

On a tab, where Google or Google Scholar search page is open, click the RN icon next to the address bar. If needed, choose the right topic from the drop-down list or create a new one.

Press the Save searches button.
Research Notes search panel appears on top of the search page, detailing your topic’s saved searches. For each search term you can also add notes and view search statistics(Last - last time search term was used, F – furthest Google page seen, R – numeber of results retrieved, C – number of results clicked / opened, ★ – bookmarked pages, ⛝ - crossed pages, N - pages with notes, T – tagged pages, Q – pages with quotes).

Under each search result Research Notes adds buttons so you can bookmark, cross, add notes or tags to pages on the fly.
To stop saving searches, either close the Research Notes search panel from the button or click the RN icon next to the address bar and press the Stop saving searches button.

One place to see all your notes

After taking notes, see them all on the all notes -page.

Click the Open all notes -button (visible in the Research Notes popup window or RN search panel) or right-clicking the RN icon next to the address bar and select Open all notes.

Alternatively, open the page via keyboard shortcut: by default it's Ctrl+Shift+S or in Mac Command+Shift+S, but this can be changed in Chrome menu -> More tools -> Extensions -> click on the three layers up left -> Keyboard shortcuts.
The all notes -page is opened in a new tab, displaying all your saved topics, searches and pages. There you can filter pages by text, tags, notes or bookmarks.

You can view your saved pages either in a Grid view - a compact overview of pages:
...or List view - simpler, linear order of pages:
...or Table view - easier to list or compare different attributes (e.g. tags) between pages:

Edit all your pages data

On the all notes -page you can edit everything about your pages - tags, notes, quotes, bookmark or cross, page title or URL.

In Grid or List view:

Click on the pencil icon that appears when hovering on the page title.

All page fields are open to editing. Once done, click Save changes.
Table view:

First enable editing for all pages on the table view.

Click on any field to edit. Once done, click Save.

Privacy

The information that you save with the extension - page addresses, searches, notes, tags, etc - is stored exclusively in your browser and is not shared with anyone. We only collect anonymous analytics statistics to get an overview about how (which features) this product is used.

On installing the extension in Chrome Web Store, a notification informs about permissions granted to the extension. These permissions are needed for the extension to work properly:

Read and change all your data on the websites you visit - Research Notes is granted permission to access each page address to know what URL to save and later recognize; access to content so it could read quotes and highlight these, read search page results and add RN buttons when saving searches, etc. Note that we do not transmit this gathered data to our server, it stays in your browser.
Read and change your bookmarks - this permission is needed to create and manage bookmarks of pages saved with Research Notes. Note: the extension does not read or change any other bookmark, only bookmarks for pages it has saved.
Read data you copy and paste - this permission is needed for pasting images to saved pages in the RN popup window.

Contact

Questions or feedback? E-mail us: feedback(at)onlineresearchnotes.com.

Time for some serious Internet research