Highlights that live inside the text

When we rebuilt ReaderPulse, one of the first things we tore down and redid was how reader feedback appears on the page. We’ve put comments beside the text since the early days — but now the highlights and notes don’t sit on top of your story, they live inside it.

Highlights drawn into the prose

A reader highlights any passage that strikes them, and the highlight is now drawn directly into the text — rendered as part of the prose itself, not a separate layer floating over the page. The old approach painted highlights as overlays positioned on top of the words, which drifted as the page reflowed and never quite lined up. Now the color is part of the sentence, so it stays put as readers scroll, resize, or switch devices.

From there a reader picks a reaction and, if they want to say more, adds a comment tied to that exact selection — no forms, no “please reference the paragraph number.” The feedback lives exactly where it belongs.

Comments inline, not in a sidebar

Reader comments used to collect in a separate feedback sidebar. Now they appear inline alongside the passage they refer to, in the familiar shape every writer knows from commenting on a shared document. When you open your manuscript, you see the story in the center and your readers’ reactions and notes in the margin, each one anchored to the words that sparked it.

Click a comment and it takes you to its highlight; read a passage and you can see at a glance what every reader felt there. The connection between text and feedback is never lost.

Why it matters

Feedback detached from its context is hard to act on — you spend your energy hunting for the line someone meant instead of deciding what to do about it. Keeping the reaction and the writing physically together turns revising into a conversation with the page rather than a puzzle.

Create a free account, share a draft, and watch your readers’ thoughts appear right next to the lines that moved them.