Choose a report format for your goal
Document turns your selected sources into a written report. Ready-made Templates give you a useful starting point, each organizing content for a different use:
- Brief: A focused overview of a source or group of sources.
- Study Guide: An organized guide for studying and review.
- Blog Post: Content closer to an article you can publish.
- Custom Report: Define the report format, audience, goal, and points to focus on yourself.
The source can be the same, but the report changes with its use. Course files can become a Study Guide, project references an Executive Summary, and sources on a topic an article.
Suggested Reports suggests; you decide
Selecting Suggested lets Gemini Notebook examine your sources and suggest reports it considers suitable. This helps when you have extensive content and aren't sure which angle to start with.
But a suggestion isn't an instruction. Choose the report with a real use and leave the rest.
Use the pencil icon or editing settings to change the language, instructions, and sources. For a report on one Module, select only its files. If it's for a particular audience or needs a specific focus, state that before Generate.
A report you can interact with
An Interactive Report is more than a long Document full of text. The tool divides content into chapters and sections and suggests an interactive Studio output within each part to support the meaning. Each suggestion comes with an initial Prompt. Review it and add what's worthwhile.
The lecture's example makes this clearer: sources from a course on fasting rulings. The report started with an introduction, then organized explanations and suggested outputs where they suited the content.
From reading to testing in one journey
- Audio Overview after the section on prescribing fasting: A recording explaining how fasting was prescribed in stages, so learners hear the idea after reading it.
- Mind Map at the pillars of fasting: A map showing the elements and relationships together instead of a separate list.
- Flashcards after what invalidates the fast: Active review, where learners try to recall information before revealing the answer.
- Infographic for recommended and disliked acts: A visual summary that's easy to revisit.
- Presentation for concessions and Zakat al-Fitr: A presentation supporting the section that benefits from being divided into slides.
- Quiz at the end: A short quiz to see whether information has stuck or some points still need review.
Each suggestion has Add. If it fits, open and edit the Prompt, select sources, and use Generate Now. When the output is ready, it becomes part of the report itself instead of scattered links and attachments.
Choose only what helps
The tool might suggest a Podcast after a simple section that doesn't need audio, or a Presentation where an Infographic would be clearer. You can see the reader's whole journey, so ask: Will this output help them understand or review, or interrupt them and crowd the page?
Adding audio, a presentation, cards, and an infographic after every two paragraphs makes the report tiring. Useful interaction belongs where it changes how someone understands, rather than being about the number of elements.
Document or Interactive?
| If you need | Choose | Result |
|---|---|---|
| A Brief, Study Guide, article, or traditional report | Document | Organized written content that's easy to share |
| Long educational content or a guide someone will use over time | Interactive | Reading with outputs that help understanding and review |
If the report will be read once and sent on, Document is usually enough. If someone will spend time on the topic and needs to listen, review, and test themselves, Interactive can make a real difference.
When do reports make a difference?
A teacher can create a Study Guide after a Module, or an Interactive Report with explanations, review, and a quiz. A student can gather several lectures into a Report for review. A creator of a long course can make a report on one Topic, gathering everything relevant from multiple Sources.
The Studio interface and available outputs keep developing, and new interactive experiences may appear. Give each major feature a clear purpose instead of squeezing it into a report just because it's available.
Create two versions from the same sources
- Choose a Module or Topic with a clear set of sources.
- Create a written Study Guide and review its structure.
- Create an Interactive Report from the same sources.
- Accept only two interactive outputs that actually fit the content.
- Compare: who needs the written version, and who benefits from the interactive journey?
In the next lecture, we'll organize content visually in a Mind Map and extract repeated data into a Data Table.
