What Spotlight Does
Spotlight turns any page you read into a live map of your vocabulary. The extension scans the text and highlights every word based on your learning progress: unknown words stand out in blue, words you are studying fade from bright to invisible as you master them. One glance tells you how much of a page you actually understand.
Turning It On
Open the extension popup and switch on the Spotlight Mode toggle. You can also toggle it from the three-dot settings menu inside the translation popup. Spotlight requires you to be signed in, and it uses your current learning language — only words in that language are analyzed.
What the Colors Mean
| Highlight | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Blue | The word is in your learning language but not in your collections yet |
| Orange, bright | New — saved, learning just started |
| Orange, medium | Recognized |
| Orange, light | Familiar |
| Orange underline | Learned — almost there |
| No highlight | Know — fully mastered, or a regular word |
The idea is simple: the brighter the highlight, the more attention the word needs. As your knowledge grows, the page visually "clears up."
Rating Words on the Page
Click or select any highlighted word to open the translation popup. In Spotlight mode its footer shows a level panel: ✗ (ignore), levels 1–4, and ✓ (know). Pick a translation and set the level — the highlight on the page updates instantly.
The fastest way is the keyboard: 1–5 set the level, 0 or X ignores the word. Choosing Know or Ignore closes the popup automatically so you can move straight to the next word. See the Keyboard Shortcuts article for the full list.
The Ignore List
Not everything blue is worth learning — names, brands, code snippets. Press ✗ on such a word and it goes to your ignore list: the blue highlight disappears on every page, in every collection. If you ignore a word by mistake, open it again and press ✗ once more to bring it back.
Where Spotlight Works
Everywhere you read with the extension: regular websites, YouTube subtitles, and the built-in PDF viewer. New content that appears as you scroll is highlighted automatically.
Tips
- Turn Spotlight on while reading news or blogs in your target language — saving three or four blue words per article builds a vocabulary rooted in real context.
- Don't chase a perfectly "clean" page. Blue words you don't need right now are exactly what the ignore list is for.