How to Take Notes While Reading: 3 Effective SOPs to Follow

A chapter can feel vivid while the screen is open, then fade the moment the day moves on. This guide on how to take notes while reading shows a clear, repeatable system on Viwoods paper tablets, covering the three real ways users read today: inside Learning, inside third-party reading apps, and alongside a laptop or a paper book, with notes that stay anchored to the source and remain easy to review later.

 

Benefits of Taking Notes While Reading

• Hold attention longer when the text gets dense or repetitive
  
• Understand more on the first pass by putting ideas into your own words
  
• Catch confusion early and record questions before they disappear
  
• Remember what mattered with page-anchored cues, not vague highlights
  
• Review faster without rereading entire chapters
  
• Reuse insights immediately for study, writing, meetings, and decisions
  
• Build a personal reference trail across books, articles, and documents

 

Principles for Taking Notes While Reading

1. Anchor notes to the source

Include a page number, section title, or captured snippet. Clear context makes later review reliable.

2. Highlight with intention

Mark only definitions, claims, key evidence, and turning points. Add a short margin label that captures the takeaway or function.

3. Paraphrase to confirm meaning

Rewrite the core idea in plain language in one or two lines. Paraphrasing reveals gaps early and improves recall.

4. Extract reusable units

Convert the best passages into clean bullets, quotes with context, or prompts. Reusable units move smoothly into study, writing, and decisions.

5. Close each chunk with a mini summary

Record three to five takeaways plus one open question at natural breaks. A quick closeout keeps notes review ready.

How to Take Reading Notes on Viwoods Paper Tablet (Start Here)

Choose the path that matches where reading happens.

• Learning (PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW, AZW3) → SOP A: Learning
  
• Kindle, Libby, NYT, any third-party reading app → SOP B: Picking
  
• Laptop, paper books, textbooks → SOP C: Paper / Apps

 

SOP A — Reading in Learning: Annotate → Extract → Compile

It's for reading and annotating digital documents like PDFs and EPUBs in Learning. Here's how to take effective reading notes.

 

1. Import and open the file in Learning

To begin, import your reading file into Learning. You can upload it by scanning the QR code, using my.viwoods.com, or manually importing files through the File Manager into My Library. With automatic file scanning disabled, files must be manually imported into My Library, then opened in Learning to start reading.

 

2. Bookmark pages worth revisiting

Use Bookmarks to flag pages worth returning to, especially in long or dense documents where key definitions, examples, and conclusions need a second pass.

 

3. Annotate on the page (pen + highlighter)

Use the Pen and Highlighter tools to annotate directly on the page, adding quick margin notes, underlining key points, and marking important quotes, claims, and definitions. In Annotations (Pen), choose a pen style that fits the task, as Learning supports fountain pens, art pens, technical pens, and highlighters, then refine the feel in Pen Function Settings with options like stylus sensitivity, pressure sensitivity, and the anti-aliasing toggle for smoother strokes. When edits are needed, use Undo by stroke to remove a single mark, or choose an eraser mode that fits the fix: pixel eraser for small touch-ups, lasso eraser for clearing an area, and erase all for a full reset, with lasso set as the default.

 

4. Select text to turn passages into usable notes

Highlight key text and select it for further action. Use the AI Assistant to analyze the selected passage, providing concise summaries or insights. For example, try prompts like, "Summarize this paragraph in 3 key points" or "What's the main argument here?" to generate a quick, actionable note that captures the essence of the text.

 

You can also use Translation to convert text into another language or Dictionary to define unfamiliar words, both of which help deepen understanding without interrupting your reading flow. If you want to save specific text, use Copy to paste it into your notes for easy reference or Highlight to mark passages for later review in the Reading Notes. The combination of options makes it easy to turn raw information into organized, usable notes that are ready for later use.

 

5. Compile and share the Reading Notes packet

Once you've annotated and extracted key passages, compile everything into the Reading Notes. Select the annotated pages, compile them into a single PDF, and share it via email, QR code, ViTransfer, or Bluetooth.

SOP B — Reading in Third-Party Apps: Capture (Picking) → Annotate → Save

It's perfect for reading in third-party reading apps, where built-in annotation tools aren't available. Here's how to capture, annotate, and save information using Picking.

 

1. Invoke Picking over what’s being read

While reading in any app, tap the floating icon to open Picking as a global overlay, bringing a dedicated note workspace on top of the current screen with quick access to capture and save content into a note, then return to reading without switching apps.

 

2. Use Crop, Annotate, or Record based on the note task

Picking offers three separate tools, each built for a different kind of reading note. 

• Crop isolates a specific area on screen and opens an editing state for adjusting the capture box, expanding to full screen, and inserting the result into a note.
  
• Annotate toggles annotation mode on or off, locks the page for free writing when active, then saves the annotated page with an editable name.
  
• Record focuses on building a longer note, supporting page-by-page viewing and editing, semi-transparent mode, renaming, inserting images from screenshots, and selecting existing Memo documents.

 

3. OCR when you need editable text

Use Font recognition (OCR) to convert a captured image into editable text, then copy key lines into notes, reuse quotes with context, or clean up wording before saving.

 

4. Build a Picking note to review and share

Save reading notes into a Picking note, which supports inserting images from screenshots, renaming, and longer note building for later review. When it's ready to move out of the device, share via email, QR code, ViTransfer, or Bluetooth.

 

5. Take a full-screen screenshot (quick fallback)

If you need to quickly capture a full page or section, use the full-screen screenshot option by swiping down with four fingers. This allows you to save content for later annotation or reference, without interrupting your reading flow.

SOP C — Reading on Laptop, Paper Books, or Textbook: Use Viwoods AiPaper Series as the Smart Notebook

It suits reading done off device, with the AiPaper series serving as the home for reading notes, either handwritten in Paper or typed in third-party apps.

 

1. Paper: handwritten reading notes (templates supported)

• Create a template-based note: Open Paper, name the note, choose a template such as Cornell, then follow a consistent structure like page reference, key point, and a one-line takeaway.
  
• Organize notes with linked folders and tags: Use folders and subfolders for each book or course, and rely on template-linked folders when available to keep new notes filed automatically.
  
• Import PDFs for worksheet-style notes: Import PDF templates or documents and combine them with handwritten notes when a structured layout helps.
  
• Reorganize with lasso editing: Use the Lasso tool to select content, then copy and paste across notes, and adjust the selection with scale and rotation controls to rearrange blocks cleanly

 

2. Apps: notes in third-party tools (e.g., OneNote)

For a cross-device workflow, use a third-party note app in Apps and keep one notebook per book or course, adding short entries as reading progresses. Apps like OneNote support both typed notes and handwriting, which helps combine quotes with quick paraphrases, then sketch a diagram or add a margin-style comment in the same place.

How to Organize and Review Reading Notes

1. Name notes so you can retrieve them later

Treat titles as search queries, not diary entries. Use a consistent pattern that encodes the source and the idea at a glance, such as Book or Course + Chapter or Topic + takeaway, and keep the wording specific enough that it stays clear at a glance. Renaming is supported across notes and documents, making it easy to tighten titles after a reading session.

 

2. Use a small tag system (5–10 tags max)

Keep tags broad and stable, then reuse the same set instead of creating new labels every week. In Paper, the sidebar tag panel displays all tags and supports tag search, and long pressing a tag opens editing options such as delete or rename. Inside an individual note, use Add Tag to apply existing tags or create a new one when a category is truly needed.

 

3. Review by date (Daily) and by location (Files → My Note)

For a chronological review, use Daily → Others to view documents created in Paper, Meeting, Picking, and Learning by date. For a location-based review, open Viwoods Files APK → My Note to access native files from Paper, Daily, Meeting, Learning, Picking, and Memo, then export to cloud storage or local storage when archiving is needed.

 

Conclusion

Reading notes work best when they follow a steady loop: anchor the idea to the source, add a short layer of meaning, then distill the useful parts into a reviewable set. Whether notes are made in Learning, captured with Picking in other apps, or written in Paper alongside laptop or paper reading, the method stays the same. With clear titles, a small tag set, and a quick review habit, the method stays consistent from the first page to the final summary, and it becomes a reliable answer to how to take notes while reading.