docs/3-USER-GUIDE/interface-overview.md

Interface Overview - Finding Your Way Around

Open Notebook uses a clean three-panel layout. This guide shows you where everything is.

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The Main Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  [Logo]  Notebooks  Search  Podcasts  Models  Settings      │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬───────────────────────────────┤
│              │              │                               │
│   SOURCES    │    NOTES     │           CHAT                │
│              │              │                               │
│  Your docs   │  Your        │   Talk to AI about            │
│  PDFs, URLs  │  insights    │   your sources                │
│  Videos      │  summaries   │                               │
│              │              │                               │
│  [+Add]      │  [+Write]    │   [Type here...]              │
│              │              │                               │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

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Navigation Bar

The top navigation takes you to main sections:

Icon	Page	What It Does
Notebooks	Main workspace	Your research projects
Search	Ask & Search	Query across all notebooks
Podcasts	Audio generation	Manage podcast profiles
Models	AI configuration	Set up providers and models
Settings	Preferences	App configuration

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Left Panel: Sources

Your research materials live here.

What You'll See

┌─────────────────────────┐
│  Sources (5)            │
│  [+ Add Source]         │
├─────────────────────────┤
│  ┌─────────────────┐    │
│  │ 📄 Paper.pdf    │    │
│  │ 🟢 Full Content │    │
│  │ [⋮ Menu]        │    │
│  └─────────────────┘    │
│                         │
│  ┌─────────────────┐    │
│  │ 🔗 Article URL  │    │
│  │ 🟡 Summary Only │    │
│  │ [⋮ Menu]        │    │
│  └─────────────────┘    │
└─────────────────────────┘

Source Card Elements

• Icon - File type (PDF, URL, video, etc.)
• Title - Document name
• Context indicator - What AI can see:
  • 🟢 Full Content
  • 🟡 Summary Only
  • ⛔ Not in Context
• Menu (⋮) - Edit, transform, delete

Add Source Button

Click to add:

• File upload (PDF, DOCX, etc.)
• Web URL
• YouTube video
• Plain text

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Middle Panel: Notes

Your insights and AI-generated content.

What You'll See

┌─────────────────────────┐
│  Notes (3)              │
│  [+ Write Note]         │
├─────────────────────────┤
│  ┌─────────────────┐    │
│  │ 📝 My Analysis  │    │
│  │ Manual note     │    │
│  │ Jan 3, 2026     │    │
│  └─────────────────┘    │
│                         │
│  ┌─────────────────┐    │
│  │ 🤖 Summary      │    │
│  │ From transform  │    │
│  │ Jan 2, 2026     │    │
│  └─────────────────┘    │
└─────────────────────────┘

Note Card Elements

• Icon - Note type (manual 📝 or AI 🤖)
• Title - Note name
• Origin - How it was created
• Date - When created

Write Note Button

Click to:

• Create manual note
• Add your own insights
• Markdown supported

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Right Panel: Chat

Your AI conversation space.

What You'll See

┌───────────────────────────────┐
│  Chat                         │
│  Session: Research Discussion │
│  [+ New Session] [Sessions ▼] │
├───────────────────────────────┤
│                               │
│  You: What's the main         │
│       finding?                │
│                               │
│  AI: Based on the paper [1],  │
│      the main finding is...   │
│      [Save as Note]           │
│                               │
│  You: Tell me more about      │
│       the methodology.        │
│                               │
├───────────────────────────────┤
│  Context: 3 sources (12K tok) │
├───────────────────────────────┤
│  [Type your message...]  [↑]  │
└───────────────────────────────┘

Chat Elements

• Session selector - Switch between conversations
• Message history - Your conversation
• Save as Note - Keep good responses
• Context indicator - What AI can see
• Input field - Type your questions

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Context Indicators

These show what AI can access:

Token Counter

Context: 3 sources (12,450 tokens)
         ↑          ↑
         Sources    Approximate cost indicator
         included

Per-Source Indicators

Indicator	Meaning	AI Access
🟢 Full Content	Complete text	Everything
🟡 Summary Only	AI summary	Key points only
⛔ Not in Context	Excluded	Nothing

Click any source to change its context level.

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Podcasts Tab

Inside a notebook, switch to Podcasts:

┌───────────────────────────────┐
│  [Chat]  [Podcasts]           │
├───────────────────────────────┤
│  Episode Profile: [Select ▼]  │
│                               │
│  Speakers:                    │
│  ├─ Host: Alex (voice model)  │
│  └─ Guest: Sam (voice model)  │
│                               │
│  Include:                     │
│  ☑ Paper.pdf                  │
│  ☑ My Analysis (note)         │
│  ☐ Background article         │
│                               │
│  [Generate Podcast]           │
└───────────────────────────────┘

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Settings Page

Access via navigation bar → Settings:

Key Sections

Section	What It Controls
Processing	Document and URL extraction engines
Embedding	Auto-embed settings
Files	Auto-delete uploads after processing
YouTube	Preferred transcript languages

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Models Page

Configure AI providers:

┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Models                               │
├───────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Language Models                      │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ GPT-4o (OpenAI)         [Edit]  │  │
│  │ Claude Sonnet (Anthropic)       │  │
│  │ Llama 3.3 (Ollama)      [⭐]    │  │
│  └─────────────────────────────────┘  │
│  [+ Add Model]                        │
│                                       │
│  Embedding Models                     │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ text-embedding-3-small  [⭐]    │  │
│  └─────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                       │
│  Text-to-Speech                       │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ OpenAI TTS             [⭐]     │  │
│  │ Google TTS                      │  │
│  └─────────────────────────────────┘  │
└───────────────────────────────────────┘

• ⭐ = Default model for that category
• [Edit] = Modify configuration
• [+ Add] = Add new model

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Search Page

Query across all notebooks:

┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Search                               │
├───────────────────────────────────────┤
│  [What are you looking for?    ] [🔍] │
│                                       │
│  Search type: [Text ▼] [Vector ▼]     │
│  Search in:   [Sources] [Notes]       │
├───────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Results (15)                         │
│                                       │
│  📄 Paper.pdf - Notebook: Research    │
│     "...the transformer model..."     │
│                                       │
│  📝 My Analysis - Notebook: Research  │
│     "...key findings include..."      │
└───────────────────────────────────────┘

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Common Actions

Create a Notebook

Notebooks page → [+ New Notebook] → Enter name → Create

Add a Source

Inside notebook → [+ Add Source] → Choose type → Upload/paste → Wait for processing

Ask a Question

Inside notebook → Chat panel → Type question → Enter → Read response

Save AI Response

Get good response → Click [Save as Note] → Edit title → Save

Change Context Level

Click source → Context dropdown → Select level → Changes apply immediately

Generate Podcast

Podcasts tab → Select profile → Choose sources → [Generate] → Wait → Download

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Send chat message
Shift + Enter	New line in chat
Escape	Close dialogs
Ctrl/Cmd + F	Browser find

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Mobile View

On smaller screens, the three-panel layout stacks vertically:

┌─────────────────┐
│    SOURCES      │
│    (tap to expand)
├─────────────────┤
│    NOTES        │
│    (tap to expand)
├─────────────────┤
│    CHAT         │
│    (always visible)
└─────────────────┘

• Panels collapse to save space
• Tap headers to expand/collapse
• Chat remains accessible
• Full functionality preserved

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Tips for Efficient Navigation

1. Use keyboard - Enter sends messages, Escape closes dialogs
2. Context first - Set source context before chatting
3. Sessions - Create new sessions for different topics
4. Search globally - Use Search page to find across all notebooks
5. Models page - Bookmark your preferred models

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Now you know where everything is. Start with Adding Sources to begin your research!