Text Highlighter — Word by Word Reader

What it does

Text Highlighter helps you follow along with text word by word. It places a visible highlight box around the current word and lets you step through text at your own pace using keyboard shortcuts.

Supported sites

• Google Slides — works in both edit and presentation mode
• AbbaSelama.org — prayer texts with automatic content change detection, psalm jump by number
• GeezExperience.com — Tigrinya/English Bible with two-column support, verse jump by number
• Any website — click "Activate on this page" in the popup. Chrome will ask for permission once, then the extension stays active on that site even after refreshing.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Option+H (Alt+H on Windows) — toggle highlighter on/off
• . — next word/line (→ also works on AbbaSelama & GeezExperience)
• , — previous word/line (← also works on AbbaSelama & GeezExperience)
• S — pick mode (click any word to jump there)
• R — restart from first word
• W — cycle word group size (1 → 2 → ... → 10 → Line → 1)
• B — show/hide status badge
• 0–9 — jump to verse/psalm number (type multi-digit quickly, e.g. 8 then 4 → Psalm 84)
• Esc — cancel pick mode or turn off highlighter

Settings

Click the extension icon in the toolbar to customize:

• Highlight color — 10 presets or pick a custom color
• Highlight style — Outline, Underline, or Fill
• Word group size — 1 to 10 words, or full Line mode (default)

Resume reading

Text Highlighter remembers where you left off. If you refresh the page or close and reopen it, the highlighter will resume from your last position (within 24 hours). Press R to restart from the beginning.

On supported sites (GeezExperience, AbbaSelama), navigating to a new chapter automatically keeps the highlighter active — no need to press Option+H again.

Verse & Psalm Jump

On GeezExperience and AbbaSelama, press number keys to jump directly to a verse or psalm:

• GeezExperience — type a verse number (e.g. 3 for verse 3, 1 then 5 for verse 15). Jumps within the column you're currently reading (Tigrinya or English).
• AbbaSelama — type a psalm number (e.g. 5 then 1 for Psalm 51). Numbers are parsed from the section headings.

How to use

1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store Coming soon
2. Go to a supported site (Google Slides, AbbaSelama.org) or any page
3. For Google Slides and AbbaSelama.org, press Option+H (Alt+H on Windows) to start
4. For any other site, click the extension icon and press "Activate on this page". Chrome will ask for permission the first time — after that, the extension will auto-activate on that site even after refreshing
5. Use . to move to the next word, , to go back
6. Click the extension icon in the toolbar to change the highlight color, style, or word group size