You're all set. ZetaMarker highlights web pages and PDFs in your browser. Highlights save locally right away — no account required. Sign in later when you want cloud sync and the web dashboard.
Private by design: ZetaMarker only runs on pages where you turn it on. Your everyday browsing on email, banking, and healthcare sites stays private until you choose to activate there.
1. Pin the extension
Click the puzzle icon in your browser toolbar, find ZetaMarker, and click Pin so the icon stays visible. You'll use it on the pages you want to highlight — not on every site you visit.
Configure keyboard shortcuts at chrome://extensions/shortcuts (activate, toggle sidebar, cycle theme).
2. Activate, then highlight
ZetaMarker does not run until you turn it on for the current page.
- Open a page you want to read and annotate.
- Click the ZetaMarker icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+K / Cmd+Shift+K) to activate it on this tab.
- Select text — a color toolbar appears.
- Pick a color to save your highlight.
Other tabs and sites stay untouched until you activate ZetaMarker there too. That's intentional — it keeps sensitive pages private by default.
For step-by-step detail, see How to highlight text on web pages.
3. Open the sidebar
With ZetaMarker active on the page, click the extension icon again to open the sidebar. Browse every highlight on this page, jump to each one, edit the page title, and add page notes.
Tip: First click on a page activates ZetaMarker; later clicks on the same page toggle the sidebar open and closed.
See Open the sidebar for more.
4. Try a PDF (optional)
Open a PDF in your browser and activate ZetaMarker — it opens in the extension PDF viewer where you can highlight text the same way.
Local file:// PDFs need to be uploaded to your dashboard first. For legacy PDF highlights, see Migrate PDF highlights.
5. Cloud sync and dashboard (optional)
You can highlight locally without an account. To sync across devices, organize pages in a library, export highlights, and store PDFs in the cloud:
- Create an account — includes a 7-day Pro trial (no credit card required).
- Sign in from the extension sidebar.
- Your highlights sync to the web dashboard.
One account per browser profile: The extension links this Chrome profile to the first account that signs in. Use the same account here, or a separate browser profile for another account. Learn more.
Learn more in What is ZetaMarker? and pricing.
Explore the documentation
Use the guides when you want deeper help — editing highlights, sync conflicts, trash, exports, and troubleshooting.
Start here: Documentation home