If you use the Web for research and fact-finding, Wired-Marker is an add-on to explore. You’ll need to invest some time to learn how to use it, but your effort will be rewarded…

On the most basic level, Wired-Marker lets you highlight text on a website. Each time you return to that site, you’ll see the highlighted text. Here’s an example of what a page could look like if you use several different “markers” and highlight text in a few different ways:

After that, the “how-to” explanation gets a bit complicated. But like I said before, if you take the time to figure it out, the organization is great. Once Wired-Marker is installed, hit “Alt + X” or find “Wired-Marker” in your browser menu and select the first item: “Wired-Marker” to open the sidebar. Highlight text on any website and drag it into one of the “Marker” folders. After that the text shows up as highlighted whenever you visit the site:

Use different markers to highlight different information on the same, or different, websites. You can define the importance of markers, as well. Here I’ve circled and drawn arrows to show how highlighted text correlates with a Wired-Marker sidebar Marker folder:

Orange highlighting (circled in yellow) is “Marker7″. Orange underlining (circled in blue) is “Most Important”. One click on either folder shows all the content highlighted in that format, on this or any other Web page. It’s this feature that lets you use Wired-Marker as a bookmarking tool.

If my explanation is clear as mud, there’s good news. The developers do a great job of walking users through each and every step. But I still suggest putting some time aside to experiment with Wired-Marker and  make it work best for you.  That said, Wired-Marker can really keep you organized.

Post from Elise Allen, who looks forward to highlighting and organizing with even more efficiency. See all posts by Elise Allen.