How to Take Notes from YouTube Videos in Three Workable Ways

How to Take Notes from YouTube Videos Online & via App

• Benefits of Using Transcription & Summarization Tools for Note-Taking
• 3 Best Tools to Take Notes from YouTube Videos with High Accuracy

Benefits of Using Transcription & Summarization Tools for Note-Taking

Before exploring three easy ways to take notes from YouTube videos, it’s important to understand the benefits of using transcription and summarization tools for capturing key information. Here are some benefits of using these tools:

• Accurate Transcriptions: With the use of transcription tools, you can convert spoken words from YouTube videos into written text. This ensures you don’t miss any important details or misunderstand the content, which can happen when taking notes manually.

• Saves Time: Instead of constantly pausing, rewinding, or rewatching the YouTube video to catch every word, transcription or summarization tools provide a full-text version. This allows you to focus on understanding the content rather than struggling to keep up.

• Concise Summaries: Summarization tools take the transcript and break it down into key points. This is helpful for quickly reviewing long YouTube videos or focusing on the most important information.

• Better Learning and Retention: Having a written transcript or summary allows you to highlight and annotate the material in a way that suits you best. This active engagement helps improve understanding and retention of information.

• Efficient Review Process: With transcripts and summaries, you can quickly scan the content to find specific information. This is a huge time-saver, especially when preparing for exams, quizzes, presentations, and meetings.

• Boosts Productivity: By automating the note-taking process from a YouTube video, these tools reduce the time and effort usually spent writing notes. This leaves you more time to focus on other tasks or delve deeper into the subject to further expand your knowledge.

• Accessibility: Compared to YouTube videos, transcripts and summaries are easier to access, especially for those who prefer reading over watching or have hearing difficulties.

3 Best Tools to Take Notes from YouTube Videos with High Accuracy

Now that you have explored the benefits of using transcription and summarization tools to take notes from YouTube videos, it is time to get those hands busy in using this post’s 3 best tools! So, start diving below and choose the one that suits your preferences and needs. 

1. RecCloud

If you are looking for a tool that can accurately take notes from YouTube videos via speech to text transcription operation, RecCloud is a solid choice! This web-based tool supports an AI-powered speech to text feature that enables you to turn various YouTube videos into text. With this capability, you can easily take note of important information from the video without the need to constantly pause, rewind, and rewatch it. How is that possible? Well, this feature leverages advanced speech recognition technology that accurately recognizes and processes YouTube videos regardless of their language. With that, you can acquire an unparalleled note-taking operation via AI speech to text experience. Aside from its main functionality, this feature can also generate summaries, which is a great capability especially for lengthy videos. Moreover, it also supports an AI chatbot, which you can ask queries based on the source (YouTube video), such as questions to further expand your knowledge, and requests to automatically generate a note. 

Here’s how you use it:

• Head to RecCloud’s AI Speech to Text webpage using your browser, click the “Start for Free” button, and click to upload or drag the YouTube video you wish to take notes on.

• Then, wait for the tool to finish uploading and extracting the text from the video you have imported earlier. Once done, the extracted text will be available on the left section of the tool’s interface. It also made the summarized version of the text available on the right.

Tip: To apply changes to the transcribed text, click the “Edit” button with the “Pen” icon at the upper right corner of the “AI Polished” section. You can also quickly navigate to a specific word by clicking the “Find and Replace” icon and copy the whole text by clicking the “Copy” icon.

• To ask queries related to the transcribed text from the YouTube video, click the “Ask me anything” chat box, type in your question, and click “Send”. You can also ask the chatbot to generate notes for you, and then, click “Copy” to copy and paste it into another tool.

• Lastly, to export the generated text click “Export”, select “AI Polished” and “Summary”, and click “OK”. Then, the tool will automatically export the transcribed text as a DOCX file. And that’s how you use RecCloud as a tool to take notes from YouTube videos.

2. YouTubeDigest

Another web-based tool you can use to take notes from YouTube videos is YouTubeDigest. The same goes with the first option, this one is also a web-based tool and you can use it as a Chrome extension. It is designed to help you quickly understand the content of a YouTube video and extracts summaries that you can take notes on. It generates summaries with the use of ChatGPT and Gemini, and provides you with a range of summary formats. These formats include tl;dr summary in a single paragraph, listed main points in bullet form, layered bullets, and article style summaries. Moreover, it also exports generated summaries as a PDF, Word, and plain text file. However, this one will only work if the YouTube video you wish to take notes supports YouTube-provided transcripts. 

Here’s how you use it:

• On your browser, access the YoutubeDigest official webpage and choose a browser between the two options based on what you are using right now.

• Then, download the tool’s extension on your browser by clicking the “Add to Chrome” or “Add to Firefox” button and click the “Add” button. After that, access the video that you wish to take notes with on YouTube. Next, click the “Sign in with Google” on the top left.

• After signing in to an account, click the “Mode” dropdown button and choose a specific mode from the list of options. Then, click the “Language” button and choose your preferred language. 

• Next, click the “Summarize” button to start summarizing the YouTube video. After that, wait for the tool to summarize the whole video. Once done, it will automatically display the generated summary with timestamps. You can use this output as your notes. 

• Then, click the “Download” icon and choose an output format or copy the file. And those are the steps on how to take notes from YouTube videos using YouTubeDigest.

3. OtterAI Transcribe Voice Notes

If you are looking for an app to take notes from YouTube videos, Otter.ai is one of the best options to pick. Similar to the first featured tool earlier, this app also enables you to extract important information from a YouTube video by turning it first into text. It can effectively and accurately transcribe videos into text and generate summaries that are well-written and structured. Additionally, it also supports an option that enables you to manually type in important takeaways you have learned from the transcribed text. Additionally, it also supports the option to highlight specific information from the transcribed text or summaries for quick reference, better retention, and improved comprehension. 

Here’s how you use it:

• Visit Otter.ai official website and install the app on your mobile device. After that, launch the app and sign up for an account. Next, tap the “Add” button with the “Plus” icon to and select “Import audio or video file” to import the YouTube video you wish to take notes on.

• Once the importing process is done, refresh the dashboard by sliding down a finger on the screen and tap the imported video. Next, tap “Summary”, select the “Copy” icon to copy the summary and paste it into another app. You can use this as your notes!

Tip: You can also ask the app’s AI chatbot to generate a note based on the transcribed text, just tap the “AI Chat” tab, enter your note request on the app’s chatbox, and tap send. Then, the app will automatically generate a note for you, which you can copy and paste into another app.

Conclusion

There you have it! Those are the three best tools to take notes from YouTube videos and capture the key points without constantly pausing and rewinding. Through them you can turn YouTube videos to text and generate summaries, which you can use as your notes! However, among these three tools, only RecCloud’s AI Speech to Text feature can provide you with the best service and output! With this tool, you can generate summaries and notes from YouTube videos easily, quickly, and effectively! Try this tool today.