How to Create a “Tab Key” When You Annotate on a Kindle

Illustration of a Kindle with the title page of You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Awaeke Emezi and an illustration of a Kindle Note.

Digital annotating is better with a Tab Key.

Picture this. You’re reading an e-book. You’ve been diligent. All your favorite things are highlighted. But you can’t easily access your hard work. All your favorite quotes, spicy scene highlights, and the complex metaphor you painstakingly tracked throughout the book? Well, it’s all blended together, indistinguishable in a word soup.

Here’s What to Do

You need a Digital Annotation Key, which is just like a tab key for a physical book. It’s a list of subjects, themes, and scenes you intend to highlight. You’re going to pick one key word, maybe two, to label each subject in your key.

Tip: Keep labels simple.

In the intro, I gave some examples: quotes, spice, and a metaphor. These are real annotations I made in How to Make a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Awaeke Emezi.

In my Digital Annotation Key for YMAFODWYB¹ my labels were:

Quote – for favorite quotes
Spice – for spicy scenes/tension
Mirror – for any imagery or scenes with mirrors and reflections

Put Your Key on the Title Page

I created a new note on the Title Page and titled it “Tab Key.” I listed out the labels from above and included details, notes, or ideas to explain what I planned to highlight. Your future self will thank you for this step!

Steps While Reading

Highlight the relevant line in the text.
Add a single word note to this highlight. This should be the word from your key.

Tip: The Kindle will pick up on what you type frequently, and will start giving your predictive text! This makes the digital annotations pretty easy.

Update The Key As You Read

As needed, I came back to my first note and updated the key, adding notes about how I was annotating a topic. When I decided to annotate something else, I updated my key with the new subject.

Use the Search Function to Find Your Specific Annotations

I use the search function on my kindle to find my annotations. Typing, “mirror” into my copy of You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty will bring up all the passages I highlighted and labeled with the key word “mirror”as a note.

YMAFODWYB is an acronym for You Made A Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Awaeke Emezi that is used widely on Bookstagram and BookTok. It’s also a hashtag! ↩︎

Annotate With Sara