Ideally, when you research a topic you’re interested in, you may end up opening a bunch of tabs from various sources to gather information from them and note them down in your preferred note-taking app. This may consume a significant amount of time if the topic in question is a vast one and covers a bunch of terms, ideas, and solutions. 

Google now makes the process of analyzing and synthesizing information from various sources much easier with its new AI tool – Google NotebookLM. With this tool, explore interesting findings, brainstorm ideas, and summarize the topic you want to learn the easy way to enhance your productivity. 

In this post, we’ll help you explain all the ways you can create a notebook and add notes to it inside Google NotebookLM. 

What is Google NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is Google’s new AI tool that can summarize information, define keywords, generate creative ideas, and organize your thoughts effectively. The tool can be used to improve your thinking process when you’re researching a topic that has various sources so that you can sum up all of your ideas to create a complete and comprehensive article. 

You can add multiple sources from Google Docs, PDF files, or copied text and NotebookLM will be able to read and extract the contents from all of them to provide you relevant answers. You can create multiple notes inside a notebook to separate different topics within a notebook, combine two or more notes to merge information, and create outlines and study guides based on the information available. 

How to create a notebook on Google NotebookLM [4 Ways]

Before you can add sources and generate responses from Google NotebookLM, you’ll need to create a notebook for the project you’re working on. 

  1. Go to notebooklm.google.com on a web browser and sign in using your Google account. Currently, NotebookLM is accessible to everyone in the US who are at least 18 years of age. You may also be able to use NotebookLM with a VPN connected to a US server to check it out. 
  2. When you arrive inside the NotebookLM homepage, click on the New Notebook button. 
  3. Inside the Project Title text box, type a desired name for your notebook and click on Save. 
  4. The new notebook will now be created from scratch and from here, you can upload sources, ask questions, and take notes.

How to add a new note on Google NotebookLM

There are various ways you can add a note inside Google NotebookLM. 

Method 1: Create a note from scratch 

The easiest way to create a note is by writing once yourself inside a notebook. 

  1. Open an existing notebook inside Google NotebookLM. 
  2. When the notebook loads up, click on Add note at the top right corner of the page. 
  3. The new note will be added to the Notes section with a “Written Note” label at the top.
  4. To add content to the note, click on it and type your own text or copy-paste content from other sources and documents.
  5. Once you’ve added the necessary content inside the note, click anywhere outside the note to exit it. 
  6. The note will now contain the contents you added inside it. 

Method 2: Save a model response to a new note

When you ask Google’s AI questions about topics in your project, the responses you receive inside NotebookLM can be directly added as notes in your notebook.

  1. Open an existing notebook inside Google NotebookLM.
  2. Ask NotebookLM to create an outline, summary, study guide, or relevant content based on the added sources by typing your query inside the chat box at the bottom and then clicking on the arrow button or pressing the Enter key on your keyboard. 
  3. When a response is generated, you can add it to a new note by clicking on the Pin button at the top right corner of the desired response. You can use the Pin button on earlier responses as well to create new notes from them. 
  4. The note you pinned will be added to the Notes section with a “Saved Response” label to help you distinguish this from written notes. 

Method 3: Save a key topic from a source to a note

NotebookLM also lets you create and explain key topics from a single source that you can add to a note. 

  1. Open an existing notebook inside Google NotebookLM.
  2. Select a source from the “Sources” panel on the left to generate topics and responses from. 
  3. When the source expands on the next screen, you’ll see a “Source guide” section at the top which offers a quick summary of information added to the source as well as Key Topics written inside. You can generate a response from NotebookLM by clicking on a desired topic from the Key Topics section. 
  4. NotebookLM will now generate a response based on your selected topic. If you wish to add this response to a new note, click on the Pin button at the top right corner of the response. 
  5. The note you pinned will be added to the Notes section with a “Saved Response” label. 

Method 4: Use existing notes to create a new note

You can also create notes from existing notes you added to a notebook. 

  1. Open an existing notebook inside Google NotebookLM.
  2. From the Notes section at the top, click on the checkbox next to the existing notes that you wish to merge data from. You can select up to 25 notes at a time to combine them. 
  3. Once you have selected the notes, click on the Combine notes button or Create study guide button from the bottom toolbar. You can also request NotebookLM to generate a combined response based on the selected notes and pin the generated response to create a new note as well. 
  4. The combined note will have an automatically generated title and will be added to the Notes section with a “Saved Response” label. 

FAQs

Is Google NotebookLM available for free?

Since it’s still in the early testing phase, Google NotebookLM isn’t charging for access during this time. So, as long as you’re in the US, you can use the Google NotebookLM for free in the testing phase. 

How many notes can you add to a notebook?

When you create a notebook, you can add up to 1000 notes per notebook. This includes the notes you manually create, type, and paste text into as well as the notes you save from responses that are generated from your queries. 

Is there a limit to the number of notebooks you create?

Yes. At the moment, you can only create up to 100 notebooks per Google account inside NotebookLM. You can save different projects you’re working on inside separate notebooks and any information you add or generate within a notebook will stay inside the notebook. 

What’s the maximum number of sources you can add to a notebook?

You can add a maximum of 20 different sources within a notebook. These sources could be in the form of Google Docs files, PDF files, or copy-pasted text. Each of the sources you add to a notebook needs to be limited to 200,000 words but Google says these limitations may change periodically to determine the best user experience. 

That’s all you need to know about creating a notebook and adding notes to it on Google NotebookLM.