A lot of readers like to make notes in a book for personal reading, and researchers need to keep track of important book passages. An ebook reader is the perfect device to keep track of all these different notes, but the different features work differently per device. How do the most popular ereaders, the Kindle, the Nook, and the Sony Reader, compare against one another for annotation features?
Amazon Kindle Annotations
The Kindle 3 uses a 5-way controller to move between words and sections. Highlighting is simple, and users can take notes on the mini-keyboard at the bottom of the ereader. Notes and highlights are collected in a .txt file, so they can be imported into a Microsoft Word document. They are also saved in "My Notes and Marks." Students can quickly pull up all of their notes and highlights for their ebooks.
The Kindle highlights would be wonderful for book club members who like to focus and discuss sections of books, and Kindle annotations can be shared on Facebook and Twitter through Amazon's social networking features for Kindle.
Barnes and Noble Nook Annotations
The Nook has a touch screen keyboard, so taking notes starts with locating the "Highlights and Notes" menu. After using a touch menu to select a word or phrase, there is an option to use the touch screen to write notes. Highlights appear in gray on the screen, so they are easy to see. To view notes, turn on the option to "view notes per page."
The Nook highlights are so easy to see that they are like looking at notes highlighted on a real page. As Barnes and Noble moves into e-textbooks, the annotation feature will be especially helpful for college students who use e-readers and NOOKstudy.
Sony Reader Touch Annotations
Because it uses a touch screen, the Sony Reader Touch is has a paper-like notes and highlighting feature. Using the stylus, readers can circle sections and scribble on the screen. Reader Touch users can also tap a word and highlight sections with a dragging highlighter tool. All of the notes are collected in one screen on the "Home" menu.
The Sony Reader Touch has the easiest way to take notes and highlight passages. The Kindle is a close second because of how easily the notes download and become part of Word documents. The Kindle annotations are great for people who want to look at all of their collected notes at once, such as a researcher who is looking at a group of book notes on the same topic.
The annotation feature is not something that people generally consider when choosing an ebook reader, because nothing seems as easy as jotting down ideas in a notebook or writing in the margins of books. Ereaders make notetaking and annotations simple because these highlights and notes can be collected while you are reading, and you do not need anything except your ereader. Your notes are always with you on an ereader, so start highlighting your favorite passages and know they are waiting for you in the future!
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
