Branch Press

Branch Press · docs

Reading, and marking what you read

Reading mode and its preferences, highlights and margin notes, translating a passage, and what you can do at the end of an essay: save it, rate it, share it, talk about it.

Where the reading is

Two kinds of page

  • Articles, at /articles. The press's own essays, each on its own page, with saving, rating and comments at the end.
  • Published notes, from writers' Branchspaces. Each has its own page, reached from a writer's Articles on their profile or a shared link, with the same saving, rating and comments at the end.

Both open the same way, and everything below works on both unless it says otherwise.

ESSAY · PSYCHOLOGYThe Architecture of ThoughtOn the rooms we build to think in
Contents I · Paths   II · Rooms   III · Doors
★★★★☆
Comments
1
An essay, listed at /articles. Masthead, contents, the text, then saving, rating, sharing and comments.
Habit24 September 2026 · A. Writer
psychologymemory
Local graph
Published from a Branchspace · Branch Press
2
A published note, at /s. The writer's own page: the note, its tags, its small graph.
Two kinds of page, one way of reading. On either, the title is the door to reading mode.

Reading mode

Click the title

Click an essay's or a note's title and the page gives way to the text alone. The button at the top closes it again. The preferences button beside it sets the page up the way you read best:

12

A mind is less a store than a set of paths worn by use. What we return to deepens; what we leave grows over.

The rooms we build to think in shape the thoughts we have in them.

3
Reading Preferences×
THEME
PaperIvorySepiaNightIndigo
FONT
GaramondBaskervilleCharter…
SIZE
SmallMediumLargeXL
LINE SPACING
CompactComfortLoose
COLUMN WIDTH
NarrowStandardWide
PARAGRAPHS
IndentedSpaced
  1. 1
    Close. Back to the page as it was.
  2. 2
    Preferences. Opens the panel beside the text.
  3. 3
    Reading Preferences. Every choice shows at once on the page behind it. The one in colour is the current one.
Reading mode, with its preferences open: Sepia, Baskerville, indented paragraphs.
Theme
Paper, Ivory, Sepia, Night or Indigo.
Font
Garamond, Georgia, Baskerville, Palatino, Charter, Times; two handwritten faces, Nothing You Could Do and Homemade Apple; three typewriter faces, 1942 Report, Courier Prime and Courier New; or plain System and Sans.
Size
Small, Medium, Large or XL.
Line spacing
Compact, Comfort or Loose.
Column width
Narrow, Standard or Wide.
Paragraphs
Indented, as in a book, or spaced, as on a screen.
Narrow, Compact. Short lines, close together: fast, for a phone.
Standard, Comfort. Where it starts.
Wide, Loose. Long lines with air between: for a large screen.
Width and spacing, the two choices that change the shape of the column rather than the letters.
One passage, three readers. The writing is the same; the page is each reader's own.

Your choices follow you. Set Sepia and Baskerville on one essay and the next thing you open reads the same way, whether it is an essay or someone's note.

Highlights and margin notes

Select, then right-click

In reading mode, select a passage and right-click it. Nothing appears just from selecting, so reading stays undisturbed. The menu offers:

Six colours
Gold, green, blue, pink, purple or terracotta, to highlight in.
Add note…
A note in the margin, attached to that passage.
Copy
The passage, to paste elsewhere.
Translate via…
See below.
  1. 1
    A colour. Six, from gold to terracotta. The passage is marked at once.
  2. 2
    A note. Kept in the margin, and shown by a thin line under the passage.
  3. 3
    The handles. Tap a highlight and drag either end to change what it covers.
Marking a passage. Select, then right-click. Everything here is yours alone.

Tap a highlight later and a handle appears at each end. Drag either one to lengthen or shorten it. Right-click a highlight to change its colour, add a note, or delete it.

Highlights and notes are yours alone. Saving them needs an account, and nobody sees them, including the writer. They stay with the piece they were made on, and come back when you return to it, even after its writer rewrites the passage (see Earlier versions, below).

Translating a passage

On your own device

Translate via… asks which language you want once, remembers it, and puts the translation in a panel beside the text, so you never leave the page. Another language… in that panel changes it for the passage in front of you.

A mind is less a store than a set of paths worn by use.
CopyTranslate via…
1
Select, right-click, Translate via…
Translate intoArabicSign in to save this across devices — or continue and it'll be remembered on this browser only.
Save and continueCancel
2
Once only: which language. After this the menu says Translate into Arabic.
Translation — Arabic×
A mind is less a store than a set of paths worn by use. العقل ليس مخزنًا بقدر ما هو مجموعة من الدروب التي حفرها الاستعمال. Another language…
3
Beside the text. The original above, the translation below; you never leave the page.
Translating a passage, in three steps, all of them on your own device.

The translating is done by your browser itself, on your computer. The passage is never sent anywhere. That needs a recent Chrome or Edge. In browsers without it (Firefox, Safari), the option simply is not there.

At the end of an essay

The press's essays and every published note

1
Save to…To be readShelvedReadMind and memory+ Add a new category
2
★★★★★
4.3 · 12 ratingsClear
  1. 1
    Save, share, post. The bookmark fills once saved. Save puts the essay on as many shelves as you like, yours included. Share copies the link, and turns to a tick when it has; X, LinkedIn and YouTube Community open with the post already written.
  2. 2
    Rate. One to five stars; Clear takes yours back. Everyone sees the average and the count; nobody sees who gave what.
The end of an essay, with Save to… open.
Save
Put the essay on one or more shelves: To be read, Shelved, Read, or shelves of your own. Manage them in Settings ▸ Reading. The essays list can be filtered by shelf.
Rate
One to five stars, changeable or clearable. Everyone sees the average; nobody sees who gave what.
Share
Copy the link, or post to X, LinkedIn or YouTube Community with the post already written.

Comments

Signed in, and kept civil by design

Sign in to comment on an essay or a published note. You can reply to a comment, like one, and sort them by newest, oldest or most liked. A comment cannot be edited once posted, so read it before you press Post. You can remove your own at any time.

CommentsSort Newest first
Add a comment…
Post
M. Poet · 2 hours agoThe second section is where it turns. Paths, not stores: yes.
4Reply
A. Writer · 1 hour agoAgreed, and the doors in part III answer it.
1Reply
Someone · yesterdayYou hid this person's comments.
Hide this user's comments for meBlock this user
Block M. Poet? Block this user from me — they become invisible to you. Prevent this user from seeing you — your comments, contributions and account become invisible to them while they are signed in. They are never told. You can undo this in Settings.
BlockCancel
Comments: a thread with a reply, a hidden person's placeholder, the More menu (⋯) and the Block dialog it leads to.

Beside every comment, More offers two ways to stop seeing someone:

Hide this user's comments for me
Their comments become a placeholder for you. Nothing changes for them, and they are never told.
Block this user
The same, and you can also hide yourself from them in return.
Hide this user's comments for meBlock, with Prevent this user from seeing you ticked
Their comments, to you“You hid this person's comments.”“You hid this person's comments.”
You, to themUnchanged: they still see your commentsInvisible while they are signed in: your comments, contributions and account
Are they told?NeverNever
UndoSettings ▸ Reading ▸ People you have hidden, one list for both
Hide, or block. The first changes only what you see. The second can also take you out of their sight.

Either can be undone in Settings ▸ Reading ▸ People you have hidden. A writer can close comments on what they published, and the press on any essay; the page then says so where the comments would be.

Earlier versions

Writers revise; nothing you read is lost

When a published note has changed since it was first read, the line under its title says so, as in "14 October 2026 · edited 22 October · 2 earlier versions", and its last part opens the list: today's, then each earlier day. Only what readers could read is there: the versions from while the note was public, never its writer's drafts.

  1. 1
    The versions. In the line under the title. Today's first, then each earlier day; one its writer withdrew is a dated line, without words.
  2. 2
    An earlier day. The page as it was then, under a band that says so. Read today’s comes back.
  3. 3
    What changed since. A switch in the band marks it: taken out, struck through; put in, underlined. Your choice is remembered on your device.
  4. 4
    Your marks. A passage you marked that its writer has since rewritten: reading mode says so at the top, and leads you to the version where it stands.
Earlier versions. A published note remembers what it said, and so do your marks on it.

An earlier version is for reading. Its page has no comments, stars or highlighting of its own, since those belong to the note as it is now. It has its own link, so you can cite exactly what you read, and search engines are asked not to list it.

Your highlights stay with the note. If its writer rewrites a passage you marked, reading mode says so at the top ("1 of your marks is on an earlier version of this note") and opens to the passage, your note on it, and the version where it still stands. A comment written before the note last changed says, beside its date, which version it answers.

Your reading record. Highlights & Notes keeps every passage you marked, with your own note and where it came from: the note's title and its writer, and which version it stands in. If the writer takes the note down or deletes it, that record stays yours; the note itself does not.

Where to go next

The other guides

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Last checked against the site on 25 September 2026