Reader Mode and read aloud: a quieter way through your reading

Two small features turn Barside into a calm place to read. Reader Mode hides the tools you do not need while you read, so the sidebar shows Reading, your notes, bookmarks, On my desktop, the note map, Library, agents and the assistant, and Barside opens on Reading. Listen reads any saved article or newsletter aloud with the voices built into your computer, marks the paragraph it is on, and plays at the speed you choose. Together they make the read-it-later inbox feel like a reading app rather than a corner of a bigger one.

Both are free and both stay on your computer. This guide shows how to switch modes, what Reader Mode keeps, how read aloud works, and a routine that puts them together.

What Reader Mode keeps, and what waits

Barside's sidebar can list 15 tools. Reader Mode keeps the eight that a second brain needs:

The other seven, Tasks, Calendar, Meetings, Recordings, Clips, Drawings and Spaces, wait on the More tab in the sidebar. Open any of them from there, or press Show everything to go back to Default Mode. The Create button follows the mode too: in Reader Mode it offers New note, New drawing and New recording, because those are saved in notes. Reminders still ring and hotkeys still work in every app; a mode changes what you see, not what runs. If eight tools are still too many, Custom Mode lets you pick any set, and the modes guide compares all six.

How to switch to Reader Mode

1. Click the mode name at the top of the sidebar (it says Default Mode until you change it) and choose Reader Mode. The desktop bar's mode button switches modes too.
2. Or press Alt+Shift+Space in any app, or Ctrl+K in Barside, type reader and choose Switch to Reader Mode.

Barside opens on Reading, and it opens in Reader Mode next time too. The mode is a setting of this computer: it travels in a ZIP backup, but cloud sync leaves settings alone, so another computer keeps its own mode.

Read aloud with Listen

Open any item in Reading. The reader shows the title, the source, the author when the page names one, the date, the reading time and your tags, then the article in calm typography. In its toolbar, choose Listen, the headphones button.

• Barside reads one paragraph at a time, marks the paragraph it is reading and scrolls it into view, so you can follow along or look away.
• The Pause button replaces Listen while it reads; Continue picks up where it paused, and Stop ends it.
• The speed menu next to it offers 0.8×, 1×, 1.2×, 1.5×, 1.8× and 2×. Barside remembers your choice. Change it while listening, and the current paragraph starts again at the new speed.
• Leaving the article, or opening another one, stops the reading.

Listen uses the speech voices your system provides. Windows 10 and 11 come with several, and Barside prefers a natural-sounding voice in your language when one is installed. On Linux, the voices depend on what your system has installed. Nothing is downloaded for this, and nothing leaves your computer: the article is read where it is stored. Newsletters use the same reader, so a long weekly letter can play while you make coffee.

Highlight, keep and finish

The reader's other tools work while you read or listen:

• Highlight. Select a passage, and a small bubble appears above it with Highlight and a comment button. Add a comment first if you like, and it is saved with the passage. Click a highlight later to see Remove highlight. Escape closes the bubble. The Highlights list collects every highlight from every item with its comment, and a search there finds words in the passages and in the comments.
• Tags. The tag button opens a field for tags separated by commas, with Save tags. The tag menu above the list then filters any list to one tag.
• Favorites and Archive. The star adds the item to Favorites. Archive marks it done and moves it out of the Inbox; Move back to Inbox undoes that.
• Keep as a note. Moves the item out of Reading and into your notes, and opens it as a note. Barside says "Moved to your notes." An article that became part of your thinking then sits next to your own notes and links.
• Open the original page opens the web address in your browser. Delete asks for a second click.

An item you opened is marked read, and Barside remembers how far you scrolled. Pages that could only be saved as a link have a Get article text button that tries the download again.

A reading routine that uses both

1. Switch to Reader Mode in the morning. Barside opens on the Inbox, with unread items marked and the count in the sidebar.
2. Save what came in overnight: paste a link and choose Save, or choose Save the page open in your browser. In any app, save or later in the search bar does the same. Pages are downloaded once, with their pictures, so they open offline later.
3. Open the newsletter you want to hear and press Listen at 1.2× or 1.5×. Highlight the lines you want to keep as they go by.
4. Archive what you finished, star what you will come back to, and keep the one article that changed your mind as a note.
5. Ask Library & briefing, which stays in Reader Mode, "What have I highlighted about pricing this month?" to pull the marked passages together, with the AI you connected.

Your reading library from Pocket, Matter, Readwise, Instapaper, Raindrop.io or Omnivore comes in through Settings → Import notes, with highlights and tags, so old saves can be read aloud too. See how to import your notes and reading.

Details and limits

• Reader Mode is one of six modes: Default, Writer, Reader, Team, Creator and Custom. Writer Mode also includes Reading, next to tasks and your calendar, if you want to write while you read.
• Read aloud works on articles saved in Reading and on newsletters, not on ordinary notes or on saved webpages inside notes.
• Listen reads the article's text, not the text inside its pictures.
• The speed is kept on this computer; each computer remembers its own.
• Reader Mode and Listen are the same in Barside for Mac, with the Mac's own voices.

Privacy

Reading items and their highlights live in your library on your computer, and in your backups, like other notes. Read aloud happens with the voices on your computer and sends nothing anywhere. A newsletter's tracking pixels are removed and never loaded. Saving a page downloads it once, without your browser's cookies. Read Reading and your data.

Works well with