Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the purpose of Yotes?

This Chrome extension is designed to enhance your web reading experience by providing several key features:

• Article Details: Gain insights like estimated reading time and word count, allowing you to make informed choices about the content you read.
• Integrated Note-Taking: A convenient pop-up box enables you to jot down notes while reading, minimizing the need to switch between different applications.
• Quick Quote Selection: Utilize the right-click context menu to swiftly select and save text snippets as notes without opening the main pop-up.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Convenient keyboard shortcuts streamline your workflow, allowing for a more focused and distraction-free reading experience.
• Effortless Note Export: A one-click copy mechanism lets you easily transfer your notes to your preferred note-taking application.
• Privacy-Focused Local Storage: Your notes are stored locally in your browser, ensuring your privacy and making them readily available whenever you revisit a page.

Q2: What kind of content can I read with Yotes?

Yotes works with web-based articles, but it cannot access content behind paywalls. When Yotes encounters a paywalled article, it will calculate reading details (like reading time and word count) based only on the freely visible text before the paywall. This means the statistics in the Yotes popup will reflect the preview content, not the complete article.

Q3: Why does my reading time/word count change?

Yotes displays essential reading information (such as the URL, estimated reading time, and word count) in a compact pop-up by parsing the web page content. Some websites load incremental content using JavaScript, as new content is loaded, reading time/word count is adjusted to reflect that change.

Q4: Can I take notes on PDF files with this extension?

Yes, you can take notes on PDF files opened within your browser, and these notes will be saved locally. However, please be aware of the following limitations:

• The extension currently cannot parse PDF content. This means features like quote copying and the display of article information (reading time, word count, etc.) will not function for PDFs. You might encounter an error message similar to this:

"Could not get info: Could not connect to the page. Could not establish connection. Receiving end does not exist. Please refresh the page to resolve the error."

• Notes on PDFs are linked to the file's name and its location when first accessed. If you rename the PDF or move it to a different folder on your computer, the extension may not be able to retrieve the associated notes, potentially leading to their loss.

Q5: Can I find all my notes in a central location?

We are actively developing a feature that will allow you to view all your notes from a single, centralized location. This will also enable you to navigate directly to the corresponding webpage with just one click. Stay tuned for updates on this enhancement!

Q6: What should I do if I encounter the error, "Could not get info: Could not connect to the page. Could not establish connection. Receiving end does not exist. Please refresh the page to resolve the error."?

This error typically indicates that the Chrome extension has updated in the background, but the webpage you are currently viewing is still interacting with an older version of the extension's code. The simplest solution is to refresh the webpage. This will load the page with the newest version of the extension, which should resolve the error.