⚙ Customizing Chat Responses and Learning Guides
NotebookLM offers several chat settings that adjust tone and length. In the Chat panel, open Configure Chat and choose:
Conversational Style Options
- Default – General-purpose responses
- Learning Guide – Structured questions and explanations that encourage deeper understanding
- Custom – Define your own style (e.g., "Respond like a PhD student")
Response Length
- Default – Balanced responses
- Longer – More detailed explanations
- Shorter – Concise answers
🎬 Studio Panel Outputs
The Studio panel is where NotebookLM generates multimedia artifacts based on your sources. These outputs turn static documents into engaging learning materials.
🧠 Mind Maps
Visually summarize main topics and related ideas from your sources.
- Select the Mind Map chip in chat
- Pinch/scroll to zoom
- Click nodes to expand or ask questions
- Download or share the image
🎧 Audio Overviews
AI-generated conversations between hosts discussing your sources.
- Deep Dive – Two hosts explore connections
- Brief – Single speaker summary
- Critique – Constructive feedback
- Debate – Multiple perspectives
🎥 Video Overviews
AI-narrated slide shows with images, diagrams and quotes.
- Explainer – Comprehensive walkthrough
- Brief – Bite-sized summary
- Multiple visual styles available
- Download for LMS upload
📊 Infographics
Condense complex information into a single visual summary.
- Customize detail level
- Choose orientation (Square/Portrait/Landscape)
- Add style prompts
- Download as image
📚 Slide Decks
Transform sources into polished presentations.
- Detailed Deck – Comprehensive slides
- Presenter Slides – Minimalistic, speaker-friendly
- Customize length and language
- Download as PDF
📋 Flashcards & Quizzes
Automatically create study aids from your documents.
- Customize topic and difficulty
- Share study sets with students
- Click "Explain" for detailed overviews
- All answers include citations
🎨 Video Visual Styles
When creating Video Overviews, you can customize the visual style to match your audience and subject matter:
- Classic – Clean, professional look
- Whiteboard – Hand-drawn educational style
- Watercolor – Artistic, soft appearance
- Retro Print – Vintage publication feel
- Heritage – Historical document style
- Paper-craft – Craft project aesthetic
- Kawaii – Cute, animated style
- Anime – Japanese animation inspired
- Auto-select – Let NotebookLM choose
You can also describe a custom style in the steering prompt to focus on particular sources or audiences.
📝 Reports & Custom Documents
Reports synthesize content into structured documents. Available formats include:
- Briefing Docs – Executive summaries
- Study Guides – Learning-focused materials
- FAQs – Question and answer format
- Timelines – Chronological organization
Upgraded reports can suggest formats based on your sources (e.g., glossary for economic theory) and allow you to create custom formats. To export, open the three dots menu next to a report and select Export to Docs or Sheets; tables populate into separate spreadsheet tabs.
🏫 Classroom Applications
✅ Intermediate Best Practices
Tips for Success
- Prompt engineering: Ask specific questions ("Summarize the financial projections in Q3 report") and request formats ("Create a bullet-point summary").
- Group related documents in one notebook, use descriptive notebook names and keep notebooks focused on single topics.
- Use interactive mode sparingly – prepare your questions beforehand and verify responses. Remember that AI may occasionally misinterpret nuance.
- Collaborate with colleagues: Share notebooks privately with viewer or editor permissions. For consumer accounts, you can make notebooks public, but public sharing is disabled for most school domains.
- Protect sensitive data: Do not upload confidential student records or copyrighted materials without permission.