How to Use NotebookLM: Create Study Notes & Presentations

What is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is Google’s AI-powered research and note-making tool that helps users organize, understand, and work with complex information. It acts like a personal research assistant that reads your uploaded materials like PDFs, Google Docs, and web articles, then turns them into clear summaries, structured notes, and creative outputs like presentations or reports.

What makes NotebookLM different from standard AI chat tools is that it grounds every response in your uploaded sources. While most AI chatbots generate answers based on their training data, NotebookLM only uses the documents you upload as its knowledge base, ensuring reliability, traceability, and relevance.

Let’s walk through setting up your first notebook and getting familiar with the interface.

Getting started with NotebookLM

Let’s start with a tour of how to use the NotebookLM platform. Follow these steps to create your first notebook and begin extracting insights from your documents:

Login/ Sign-up into NotebookLM

Visit the NotebookLM website and sign in with your Google account. Once logged in, you’ll be directed to the home page, where you can see any existing notebooks or create a new one.

Create your first notebook

Select the “Create new” option to start a fresh workspace. Think of each notebook as a project folder for a specific topic, research area, or business objective.

For this tutorial, we’ll create a notebook focused on understanding generative AI. Let’s name it “Generative AI Research” to keep our work organized.

Upload your source materials

NotebookLM accepts multiple file formats, making it flexible for various workflows. You can upload:

• Google Docs: Link directly from your Google Drive
• PDFs: Upload research papers, reports, or eBooks
• Text files: Plain text documents or markdown files
• Web articles: Paste URLs to online resources
• Google Slides: Import presentation content

Here, we’ll upload the “Deep Point of View on Generative AI” report by LTI Mindtree, which explores the enterprise applications, challenges, and future of generative AI technology.

To upload a source, select “Upload a source” and choose the file or paste the link.

Understanding the interface

Once your document is uploaded, you’ll see NotebookLM’s panel layout:

• Left panel: Sources: Displays all uploaded documents. You can click on any source to view its full content, highlight passages, or remove it from the notebook.

• Center panel: This is where you interact with NotebookLM. Ask questions, request summaries, or give prompts to generate specific outputs. Every AI-generated response includes inline citation numbers (like [1], [2]) that link directly to passages in your source documents. Click any citation to see the exact text NotebookLM referenced.

Your first interaction with NotebookLM

With the notebook set up and report uploaded, let’s test NotebookLM’s capabilities with some initial queries. Start by getting a high-level overview:

Summarize the main themes and key findings from this generative AI report in 5 bullet points. 

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

Here is a sample response from NotebookLM:

NotebookLM extracts the core insights and presents them concisely, with citations pointing to relevant sections.

We can also dive into specific topics, such as:

What are the primary enterprise use cases for generative AI mentioned in this report? Include specific examples and industries. 

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

We’ll receive a focused answer that pulls together relevant passages from across the document.

Now let’s put it to work creating tangible outputs you can actually use and share.

Creating presentations with NotebookLM

Do you have multiple documents to study for an upcoming exam? Let’s use NotebookLM to transform these materials into structured notes, presentations, reports, and active learning tools in minutes:

Step 1: Upload your study material

Gather all relevant documents and upload them. For this example, we’ll work with a comprehensive set of neurology materials covering central nervous system diseases, pathology, and neurological disorders.

NotebookLM will automatically generate a Notebook guide with an overview, key topics, and suggested questions based on all your materials combined.

Make sure you name the notebook so that you don’t end up losing it!

Step 2: Create structured notes

With your documents uploaded to NotebookLM, it’s time to transform dense medical content into organized, scannable study notes. Use the prompt:

Create comprehensive study notes from all uploaded sources, organized by disease categories and key concepts. 

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

NotebookLM will analyze all sources simultaneously and create a cohesive set of notes that synthesizes information across documents. Here is a sample output:

You now have a solid foundation of organized notes, but what if you need to present this information to your study group or create a lecture outline for teaching?

Step 3: Build presentation content and outlines

Transforming your study notes into presentation-ready content is essential for teaching, study group sessions, or oral exam preparation. Let’s create a presentation outline:

Create a 10-slide presentation outline covering the major categories of neurological disorders from these sources. 

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

NotebookLM will provide a structured outline with:

• Slide titles
• Main bullet points for each slide
• Supporting details and statistics
• Logical flow from introduction to conclusion

We can also add depth with speaker notes:

Generate detailed speaker notes for each of these slides, including explanations and examples for each main point. 

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

We can also refine it to adjust the complexity based on who you’re presenting to:

Simplify this presentation outline for a general audience without a medical background. 

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

Note: NotebookLM creates presentation outlines and content, not actual .ppt files. Copy the generated slides and speaker notes into PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote.

For creating polished, ready-to-use materials, NotebookLM’s Studio Panel offers one-click generation of reports, quizzes, and flashcards.

Step 4: Generate reports using NotebookLM Studio Panel

NotebookLM’s Studio Panel provides pre-built tools for creating materials without writing custom prompts. Select “Reports” to generate comprehensive reports from your uploaded sources.

Upon selecting, it offers various materials to be created for the sources uploaded:

Based on your requirements, you can choose any of these. Here is a sample report (a blog post) we created for our sources:

This automated approach saves hours of manual compilation.

Step 5: Create practice quizzes

The Studio Panel helps generate a variety of quizzes directly from your uploaded materials. This can be helpful for quick practice before the exams. Select the “Quiz” option from the studio panel and wait a few seconds.

The generated quiz typically includes:

• 10-15 questions covering major topics across all documents
• Multiple-choice format with four answer options each
• Difficulty variety ranging from recall to application-level questions
• Instant feedback showing correct answers after completion

Step 6: Generate flashcards for active recalling

Flashcards are one of the most effective tools for memorization and long-term retention. The Studio Panel creates targeted flashcards based on the most important concepts in your documents. Select the “Flashcards” tool and let it create them.

Once created, you can:

• Review interactively by flipping through cards within NotebookLM
• Ask NotebookLM to explain complex card content

You now have a complete active recall system that reinforces learning and helps commit critical information to memory.

So, can we only create notes, quizzes, and flashcards in NotebookLM? The answer is no! There are some more elements that can be created using the Studio panel. Let’s check them.

Exploring the Studio panel in NotebookLM

The Studio Panel is NotebookLM’s creative workspace that converts your text-based sources into interactive, multimedia outputs.

Here are the different options available in the Studio panel:

• Audio overview: One of Studio Panel’s most popular features is Audio Overview, which generates conversational podcast-style discussions from your documents. This helps in learning through auditory methods when visual fatigue sets in.

• Video overview: The video overview feature creates short visual summaries of your documents, combining text, graphics, and narration into digestible video content. They usually take some time to generate.

• Mind map: Mind map helps visualize relationships, hierarchies, and connections between concepts across your documents.

• Reports: The reports feature automatically synthesizes all sources into a comprehensive, well-structured report with headings and citations.

• Flashcards: Create question-and-answer flashcard sets for memorization and retention. NotebookLM extracts key terms, definitions, and concepts formatted as Q&A pairs.

• Quiz: Generate multiple-choice quizzes that test comprehension of your uploaded materials.

Now that we know what all things NotebookLM can do, let’s look at the features that make it stand out.

Features of NotebookLM

NotebookLM distinguishes itself from traditional note-taking apps and generic AI assistants through intelligent features designed specifically for document-based research and learning. Here are some of its features:

• Source-grounded responses: Every answer includes inline citations linking directly to passages in your uploaded documents, ensuring reliability and verification.

• Multi-document reasoning: Synthesizes information across all sources simultaneously, identifying connections and creating cohesive outputs from multiple documents.

• Contextual conversations: Maintains conversation history throughout your session, allowing follow-up questions and iterative refinement without restarting.

• Multiple input formats: Supports PDFs, Google Docs, text files, web articles, Google Slides, and audio files in a single notebook for unified research.

• Studio panel tools: One-click generation of study guides, audio overviews, video summaries, mind maps, quizzes, flashcards, with no complex prompts needed.

• Privacy protection: Your documents remain private and aren’t used to train AI models. You control all content and can delete notebooks anytime.

• Scalable capacity: Supports up to 50 sources per notebook with individual documents capped at ~500,000 words which is sufficient for comprehensive projects.

To get the most out of NotebookLM, there are some points we need to keep in mind.

Best practices for using NotebookLM

Using NotebookLM effectively requires thoughtful document management and verification habits. Here are some of the best practices:

• Add only topic-specific, finalized materials with clear filenames to prevent data clutter and improve citation accuracy.

• Create separate notebooks for different subjects or projects to keep AI responses focused and relevant.

• Review and cross-check all AI-generated outputs against source citations before distribution, especially for academic or professional use.

• Regularly update sources, remove outdated documents, and avoid uploading highly confidential or proprietary information.

You now have a complete toolkit for working smarter with documents and transforming static PDFs and reports into study guides, presentations, quizzes, and visual content that accelerate learning and improve retention.

Conclusion

NotebookLM transforms how you interact with information by turning dense documents into structured notes, interactive quizzes, presentations, and multimedia outputs—all grounded in your sources with full citations. Whether you’re studying for exams or preparing professional presentations, you now have a complete workflow that saves time while maintaining accuracy and rigor.

Ready to master AI-powered tools and prompt engineering techniques? Check out Codecademy’s Intro to Generative AI course to deepen your understanding of how tools like NotebookLM work.

Frequently asked questions

1. What is NotebookLM used for?

NotebookLM is used for organizing and transforming documents into useful outputs like study guides, summaries, presentations, quizzes, and flashcards. Students use it for exam prep, researchers for synthesizing papers, and professionals for creating reports and presentations from multiple sources.

2. Is NotebookLM free or paid?

NotebookLM is currently free to use with a Google account. All features, including Studio Panel tools for generating audio overviews, quizzes, and reports, are accessible at no cost.

3. Is NotebookLM good for studying?

Yes, it’s excellent for studying. NotebookLM transforms textbooks into organized notes, generates practice quizzes, creates flashcards, and produces audio overviews for on-the-go learning.

4. Can I use NotebookLM on a laptop?

Yes, NotebookLM works on any device with a web browser by visiting NotebookLM Website. You can access your notebooks from a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone without downloading NotebookLM.

5. Is NotebookLM really private?

According to Google, your uploaded documents aren’t used to train AI models and remain private to your account. However, exercise caution with highly confidential or proprietary information and review Google’s privacy terms before uploading sensitive materials.