Save your first highlight and start reviewing in minutes.

This guide walks through the fastest path from a blank Acorny account to a real review session. You will install the browser extension, save a passage from a page you are reading, confirm it appears in your library, create a recall card, and begin a spaced repetition review habit.

Install the browser extension

Start by adding Acorny to your browser from the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, or Microsoft Edge Add-ons. Pin the extension to your toolbar if your browser hides new extensions by default. Signing in before or after installation both work, but signing in first makes the first save easier because the extension can connect to your existing Acorny session.

After installation, open any article, documentation page, blog post, or essay that contains text you may want to remember. Acorny is built for web pages first, so the quickest test is a normal page with selectable text rather than a PDF viewer or an embedded document.

Read the browser extension guide

Highlight your first passage

Select a sentence or paragraph that contains an idea you want to retrieve later. Click the Acorny extension icon and choose Save. Acorny stores the highlight text together with source context such as title and URL, so your library can show where the passage came from without requiring you to paste metadata by hand.

A good first highlight is specific enough to become a question. Instead of saving a whole section, try saving the sentence that names the concept, tradeoff, quote, formula, or decision you want to remember. Shorter highlights usually make better active recall cards because there is a clearer answer to retrieve.

Find it in your highlight library

Open the Acorny web app and go to Highlights. Your saved passage should appear with its source, note, tags, and captured timestamp. Use this page to confirm the save worked before moving into review. If you are importing from another tool later, this same library becomes the place where web highlights, Readwise imports, Instapaper highlights, Cubox exports, and Diigo exports live together.

You do not need to organize everything on day one. The useful habit is simple: save the material while reading, then let review pull important ideas back into memory. Tags and search become more valuable after you have a real collection.

Start your first review

Go to Review when you are ready to practice. Acorny turns highlights into recall prompts so you actively retrieve the idea instead of rereading it passively. Answer from memory first, reveal the passage, then rate how well you remembered. That rating feeds the spaced repetition schedule and decides when the card should return.

The first session can be tiny. One or two cards are enough to prove the loop: capture, convert, recall, schedule. Consistency matters more than volume, especially while you are learning which passages make useful prompts.

Learn how Acorny review works

Bring in your existing highlights

When you are ready to move older material into Acorny, open the Import page. Upload a file — Readwise CSV, Kindle My Clippings, Diigo, WeRead, Cubox, Moon+ Reader, or PDF — or pull directly from an API such as Readwise. Acorny previews what will be added, folds duplicates inside the file, and skips highlights already in your library, so re-importing the same source is safe.

Imported highlights follow the same review path as new web captures. Migration is optional for the quick start, and it is better to understand the review loop with one fresh highlight before importing hundreds of old passages.

Compare import and sync options

Acorny import page with file upload and API tabs

Turn on automatic sync

For sources that keep producing new highlights, connect an automatic sync in Extensions & Apps instead of importing by hand. Acorny currently syncs two services on a schedule — Inoreader and Instapaper.

Connect an account once and new highlights flow into your library automatically, ready for review without another manual upload. You can trigger a manual sync or disconnect at any time from the same page.

Troubleshoot imports and sync

Integrations page showing Inoreader and Instapaper connected for automatic sync

Troubleshooting

If the extension does not show up, check the browser toolbar menu and pin it. If saving fails, make sure you are signed in to the same Acorny account in the web app and extension. If a page blocks text selection, try a normal article page first to confirm the extension is installed correctly. If a highlight appears without the source you expected, open the saved item in Highlights and add a note so the context is still searchable.

The quickest healthy setup is simple: a signed-in browser extension, one saved passage visible in Highlights, and one completed review rating. Once those three things work, you can safely expand into imports, tags, longer review sessions, and daily recall.

After the first review, return the next day and save one more passage from something you are already reading. A tiny repeated loop gives better feedback than a large one-time import because you learn which highlights become useful prompts and which ones are only interesting in the moment.

If you get stuck, keep the goal narrow: prove capture works, prove the library stores context, and prove one prompt can be reviewed. Everything else can wait until that path is reliable.