In the lecture: type, don't design
During a lecture, speed matters more than layout. Open the Lecture notes template and stay in the outline. It gives you five branches to aim for: Key concepts, Examples, Formulas & definitions, Questions to review and Further reading. You don't have to fill them in order.
- Enter starts the next point at the same level. Tab tucks it under the point above. Shift Tab pulls it back out.
- Missed something? Type a placeholder like “?? check slide 14” under Questions to review and keep going. You will see it as its own branch later.
- Keep each node to one idea. Short nodes make a readable map, and they make better flashcards later.
Typeahead helps here because it knows where you are. Under Key concepts in a note titled Lecture 6: Thermodynamics, typing “Ent” is far more likely to finish as “Entropy” than anything else. Press Tab to accept, or keep typing and it gets out of the way.
After class: flip to the map and look for gaps
Press ⌘⇧M (Ctrl Shift M on Windows) to see the same note as a mind map. Thin branches stand out: a concept with no example, a formula with no definition, a whole section with one node under it. Those are the parts to fix while the lecture is still fresh.
Drag nodes to where they belong. A point you wrote under Examples might really be a concept in its own right; drop it on Key concepts and it moves, with everything under it, in both views.
Revision: use the map to test yourself
Re-reading notes feels productive but doesn't stick. Retrieval does: trying to remember something before you look. A collapsible map is a good tool for that.
- Press ⌥1 to show only the first level. You see the headings and nothing else.
- For each branch, say or write what you think is underneath it.
- Expand that branch (⌘; on the selected node) and check. Anything you missed becomes a node under Questions to review.
- Repeat with ⌥2 for the next level down when the first is easy.
With AI on, Rewrite › Make it a question (⌘J) turns a statement like “Entropy of an isolated system never decreases” into a prompt you can answer from memory. The new wording replaces the node straight away; if you liked the original better, Undo in the toast brings it back, and a version snapshot is taken first in any case.
Readings: summarise, then check
For a long article or chapter, Generate › Summarize pasted text turns up to 6,000 characters into a map of the main points. Treat it as a first draft: open the source next to it and correct anything that is wrong or missing. Checking a summary against the text is itself good revision, and the mistakes you catch are the ones you will remember.
Pasted text is sent to our AI provider (Groq) to make the summary. If your course materials aren't yours to share, type your own outline instead, or switch AI off in Settings.
Exam week and group study
- Print it. Export the map as a PDF on one A4 page, or as a PNG for your phone's lock screen.
- Share it. Export Markdown and paste it into your group chat or shared doc. Anyone can import it back into a map.
- Library computers. Notes are saved in that browser. Before you leave, sign in with Google so the note syncs to your account, then sign out and choose to remove the notes from that computer. No account? Export the note as JSON and import it on your own device.
- No Wi-Fi. Once the app has loaded, everything keeps working offline, and suggestions come from your own notes, which is often exactly the vocabulary you need.
Start a lecture note now, or read why we think you should use both views.