When we make annotations in documents, we always carry the expectation that "this is important" — highlighting key paragraphs in PDFs, underlining core ideas in EPUBs, or writing down immediate thoughts in notes. But as documents accumulate, these once-valued annotations gradually get forgotten between the lines. Unless you specifically search through annotation lists, they remain dormant knowledge that never actively appears.

When designing DoCube, I kept pondering a question: Do the annotations we add to documents really just need to "lie there"? The answer is clearly no. Thus, DoCube's annotation system is built around a core goal — transforming annotations from "passive storage" to "active service," capable of not only recording current thoughts but also becoming the core of connecting knowledge and strengthening memory.

Annotations Aren't Just Marks, But "Searchable Memory Anchors"

The original intention of making annotations is to quickly retrieve key information later. But if annotations are hidden in massive documents, finding them becomes more troublesome than re-reading the documents, greatly diminishing their value.

DoCube gives every type of annotation "search weight": whether it's highlighting, underlining, or strikethrough, these basic annotations make the marked text rank higher in global searches. Even if you only remember a vague concept, when searching, all annotations related to that concept will automatically appear in the results list — no need to flip through documents, key information "jumps out" directly with the annotations.

Let Annotations "Find You" Actively: From Annotations to Memory Cards

Searching is "passively awakening" knowledge, while true internalization requires "active review." DoCube draws on the logic of the forgetting curve, turning annotations into "reviewable memory units" that let knowledge "remind" you itself.

You can associate colors and tags with each type of annotation: for example, green highlighting corresponds to "cases," blue underlining corresponds to "arguments." As long as you set "auto-generate memory cards from annotations," new corresponding annotations will immediately generate a memory card. Starting from the day after the annotation is made, this card enters a review plan, reminding you to review at optimal times according to the forgetting algorithm — no need to manually organize review lists, annotations themselves become "personal memory assistants."

Weave a Knowledge Web with Linking Annotations: Form "Thinking Chains" Between Documents

When documents accumulate to a certain amount, the value of knowledge often lies in "connections": an idea from one paper might echo a case in another e-book; a knowledge point from a webpage might supplement previous notes. But traditional annotations can only be trapped in single documents, making it difficult to break through these connections.

DoCube's "linking annotations" are designed to break document boundaries: they can associate any position in any two documents. Click the link, and you can jump directly from the current annotation to the corresponding content in the associated document, then shuttle back through history. Originally scattered documents are connected into "thinking chains" through these links, and fragmented knowledge transforms into a logical system.

Conclusion

In fact, every annotation is a brick for building a personal knowledge base. In DoCube, annotations are never isolated: they are "search clues" helping you quickly locate key points in massive documents; they are "review teachers" using memory cards to let knowledge take root repeatedly; they are "cross-document bridges" weaving scattered information into a web through links.

After all, a good knowledge management tool shouldn't just help you "store" annotations — it should let annotations help you "use" knowledge well.