# The in-app Reader

> Read web pages, PDFs, books and text files, and watch videos and recordings, inside CogniPage, with or without tracking your other apps.

Source: https://cognipage.io/docs/reader

The Reader is a reading window inside CogniPage. Open a web page, a PDF, an EPUB book or a text file in it, and what you read there is captured into the same flashcards, assessments, recall schedule and knowledge map as everything else. Videos and recordings work too: what is said in them is captured. It works alongside tracking, or instead of it.

**Where** Home → Read something · tray → Open Reader… · a material → Read in CogniPage

## Reader, tracking, or both

During setup CogniPage asks how it should capture your reading. You can change your answer at any time in **Settings → Tracking**.

**Both**

CogniPage reads along in the apps you already use, and you can open anything in the Reader whenever you choose.

**Reader only**

CogniPage never looks at your other apps, and needs no Accessibility or Screen Recording permission. Only what you open in the Reader is captured. On a Mac, listening along to a video with no captions asks once for audio permission; see [Videos and recordings](#videos).

**Tracking only**

CogniPage reads along in your other apps, and the Reader is hidden.

## Opening something

1. **Open the Reader**
   Press *Read something* on Home, choose *Open Reader…* from the tray, or press *Read in CogniPage* on a saved material.
2. **Type an address or open a file**
   Type or paste a web address into the bar at the top (`⌘L` or `Ctrl+L` takes you there). Use the folder button to open a PDF, an EPUB, or a text or Markdown file, or drop one onto the Reader window.
3. **Say whether to capture it**
   The first time you open a site or a file, a bar above it asks *Capture* or *Just read*. Your answer is remembered, and it is the same list tracking uses, so a site you have already allowed is captured without asking. You can change your mind from the status line at any time.
4. **Read**
   Capture starts once you have settled on the page for a few seconds. The status line under the address bar always says what is happening, and how many passages have been saved.

## PDFs, books and text files

Files you open are kept in CogniPage, so a PDF or book you read on your computer and on your phone is the same material in your library, and each passage is stored once.

**PDFs**

Pages are shown just as they are in the file. Scanned pages with no text in them are read with text recognition; the page says so while it does.

**Books**

Move between chapters with the bar under the toolbar. The Reader remembers which chapter you were in.

**Text and Markdown**

Shown as plain paragraphs: exactly the passages CogniPage keeps.

**What it cannot open yet**

Password-protected PDFs, and books protected by DRM.

## Videos and recordings

Open a lecture video, from YouTube, a course site or a link to an audio or video file, or a recording on your computer, and CogniPage captures what is said, not the page around it. The first time, a bar above it asks *Capture* or *Just watch*.

**Captions first**

When the video has published captions, CogniPage uses them. They arrive at once and need nothing from you.

**Listen along**

When there are none, press *Listen along*: CogniPage transcribes the video on your computer as it plays. The first time, it downloads a 57 MB speech model. Nothing is uploaded.

**Recordings on your computer**

Open one with the folder button or drop it on the window. It plays in the Reader and is transcribed in full from the file, faster than it plays, including the parts you skip. It is never copied.

**Permission**

On a Mac, listening along asks once for macOS's audio-recording permission. It lets CogniPage hear only the video in its own Reader, never another app and never your microphone. Captions and recordings on your computer need no permission, and Windows needs none at all.

Looking away to take notes doesn't stop it. It ends when you press **Finish watching**, go to another page, or close the Reader. An advert in the middle is left out. Listening along needs macOS 14.2 or later; on older Macs, videos with captions are still captured.

## Notes and cards from a passage

Select any passage and press **Save as note** or **Make card** in the status line. `⌘⇧H` saves the selection as a note, as it does in your other apps. A card made this way remembers exactly which passage it came from and how long you spent on it.

## Finishing

Press **Finish reading** when you are done. The Reader tells you what it kept and offers *Make flashcards*, which takes you to the dashboard with the reading ready. Nothing more is captured until you choose *Keep reading*, open something else, or follow a link. Switching to another app for a minute or two does not end a reading; staying away longer does.

## Privacy

Pages in the Reader run in their own sandbox, with their own cookies, and cannot reach the rest of CogniPage. That also means a site you are signed in to in your browser asks you to sign in again inside the Reader.