How to Get Your Kindle Highlights into Evernote

When I read anything, I mark it up. Margin notes, circles, and, most of all, highlights. In fact, I buy highlighters by the box. Or at least I did, until I started reading so much on my Kindle.

Amazon Kindle for Mac

Amazon Kindle for Mac, Displaying Do the Work by Steven Pressfield

Now I use the Highlighter feature of the Kindle to mark passages. I also occasionally use the Notes feature to record my thoughts about a passage. (This is actually pretty cumbersome on the Kindle itself. I usually only do this if I am reading on my Mac. Then I can use my keyboard.)

I only wish that I could store all these notes and highlights in Evernote, which has become my digital brain. Well, now you can! It’s easier than you think. Just follow these eight steps:

If you are just getting started with Evernote, I suggest that you buy Brett Kelly’s remarkably practical e-book, Evernote Essentials, Second Edition. It is worth setting aside a couple hours to work through this brief, 95-page book. It will save you DAYS of learning Evernote on your own.
  1. Create your highlights as usual. This feature is different on each device. I find it easiest on Kindle for Mac or my iPhone.
  2. Log into your unique Amazon Kindle page. Who knew you even had a unique Kindle page? It contains a list of all your books, with links to the notes and highlights. You can even record your progress then rate the book. Your main page will look similar to this:

    Amazon Kindle Login Page

  3. Click on Your Books. This is at the top of your Kindle page. Choose this option instead of Your Highlights. It will narrow the display to notes and highlights for a specific book, once you select one. You should now see a page similar to this:

    Amazon Kindle Book List

  4. Select the appropriate book. You can either search for it in the search bar at the top of the page or scroll down your list of books. Once you select a book, you will get a page that looks similar to this:

    Amazon Kindle Book Page

  5. Click on the Evernote Web Clipper icon on your browser’s toolbar. Note: if you haven’t done this previously—and you really should—you can find the appropriate one for your browser here. On Google Chrome, the web clipper looks like this:

    Kindle to evernote 05

  6. Select the appropriate notebook and tags. This is optional, of course. However, I store my Kindle notes and highlights in my Reference notebook. I use the booknotes tag. Keep in mind that Evernote automatically indexes every word in the note, so you don’t have to repeat key words as tags. Now select Clip full page.
  7. Go to Evernote and make sure the new note is there. You might need to sync first. You can now add additional notes or delete unwanted material. For example, I delete the section called “Posts from this Book.”

    Amazon Kindle Notes and Highlights Page in Evernote

  8. Copy and paste your highlights to other applications as needed. I often use highlighted passages in blog posts, Keynote slides, speaking notes, or manuscripts. Anything is possible.

If you are disciplined about this, you can have near-instant access to all your book notes and highlights in Evernote. It really takes very little effort once you get the hang of it.

Question: What will you do with your Kindle notes and highlights once you get them into Evernote? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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  • http://www.jackiebledsoe.com/ jbledsoejr

    This is AWESOME!! Thanks for posting. I have the Kindle app on my Android phone and the Kindle Cloud Reader. I have read a book or two using it, but just last night I decided I want to use it more and begin to highlight and take notes. Now with this info I can organize all my notes in my brain (uh I mean Evernote).

    It also leads me to believe I can do the same thing with my YouVersion Bible app for Android, which can also be accessed in my web browser. I can probably use the same technique. Have you tried this Michael? Or has anyone else?

  • http://www.facebook.com/dannymaldonado Danny Maldonado

    Thank you Michael! This opens a lot of material for me. Thanks again.

  • Catherine Cunningham

    Michael,

    You are AWESOME !!  This is just the help I need.  Thank you so  much for your work.

    Namaste….Cathy

  • web2write

    Thank you for your very very useful instructions!

    The connections between different FREE online-Tools is very important for open social networking and sharing for resources!
    another very intersting way of sharing kindle highlight is possible with readmill, you find the instrctions here:
    http://readmill.com/bookmarklet
    Heiko Idensen

  • http://www.wordandmouth.com/ Dave Thackeray

    This functionality is stellar. Yet once again it is not available in Europe.

    Still no Amazon Fire. The list goes on. And it’s for this reason I feel Amazon stinks.

  • Cate Mac

    This was extremely helpful and just what I needed.  Quick and Easy! Thank you.

  • http://twitter.com/ReidThis .Reid.

    I have one problem. When I click on my books in my Amazon Kindle Page, my highlights come up, but they are all incomplete, shortened versions. They have links to take me to the page the read the entire highlight, but when I export it into my Evernote account, all I get is partial highlights. Does anyone know how to fix this????

    • http://TillerFamily.org/ John Tiller

      Hey Reid,
      My highlights have a link to the passage in the book where I highlighted, but I don’t have incomplete, shortened versions of highlights on my page.

      I would call Amazon support at 1.866.321.8851 if you are still having the problem.

      I hope this helps!

  • Dani

    Thank you so very much, Michael! Now I can get the Kindle version of several books I need for research — I’m an AVID highlighter and researcher on hard copy and with all the techno gadgets I have and as tech savvy as I like to think I am, I’d rarely use my printer — this is an absolutely awesome bit of info — thank you!!!!!!!!

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      You’re welcome, Dani.

  • Mrkenspencer

    I’m storing files into dropbox and google drive such as word docs. Is it a good idea to store docs in Evernote? If so how as you don’t have folders. Would appreciate you reply to mrkenspencer@gmail.com as I found this site by pure chance. Thanks ken from the UK

  • Mark Barros

    Great tip Michael! 

    Love digitally highlighting things because it doesn’t mark-up the book but I hate having my notes and highlights locked-up on Amazon. :)

    For Android users, the Buzzworthy app lets you export your notes and highlights to email or Evernote as well, in addition to letting you share favorite quotes to facebook, Google+ or twitter.

    -Mark

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