# Roam Reader

- Roam Reader is a Chrome extension for reading on the web with Roam beside you: highlight, tag, and comment on an article, and your notes land in your graph.
- The article stays in its original layout. Most reader apps strip the page down; Roam Reader leaves it intact and puts your notes in a sidebar next to it.
- It also keeps reading lists, so articles you mean to read have somewhere to go.
- There's an in-depth video tutorial if you'd rather watch this page than read it.
  - {{[[video]]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stJ7SGo6J9w}}

### Setting it up

- Install [Roam Reader from the Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/roam-reader/kghmbkhikifcnkjoakokkhdkfdhieonb) and pin it to your address bar.
- On any article, click the astrolabe icon and sign in with your Roam account.
- Click it once more to choose which graph your reading lists and notes go to.

### Saving articles for later

- Click the astrolabe on an article, adjust the title and metadata, and add tags if you want them.
- Save it to **Inbox**, or straight to **Shortlist** or **Archive**.
- Reading lists can be filtered, and filters can be saved as views that sync to your graph. There's a query builder for more involved filters.

### Reading and taking notes

- Click the astrolabe and choose **Take Notes**. A sidebar opens beside the page, and your notes go under today's date.
- To highlight, select text in the article and click the highlighter icon that appears. You can pick a color.
- Highlights are added to the sidebar automatically, in the order they appear in the article.
- Indent the empty bullet beneath your latest highlight, and the highlights that follow will nest under it. An outline forms while you read.
- The tag and comment icons on a highlight add a tag or a nested comment, with the formatting handled for you.

### How it lands in your graph

- Saved articles first appear as single blocks on a **Reading List: Inbox** page, with their metadata nested underneath, so your graph doesn't fill up with pages you haven't read yet.
- An article expands into a page of its own only when you start taking notes on it.
- The entry template and the title format are configurable in Roam Reader's settings. A namespace-based title keeps reading material grouped as it grows.
- ![](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/firescript-577a2.appspot.com/o/imgs%2Fapp%2Fhelp%2FyaS6cu6ws7.png?alt=media&token=741acb39-f379-4bd8-a626-952266f5db58)
- ![](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/firescript-577a2.appspot.com/o/imgs%2Fapp%2Fhelp%2FHjwIk8Hytr.png?alt=media&token=8d1fc169-8fb9-4ef4-8ad8-4c04efcf7162)