Notebook LM Tutorial: Sources, Notes, Mind Maps & Audio (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: In this video, I'll show you how to use Google's Notebook LM step by step. Notebook LM helps you turn PDFs, notes, websites, and videos into an AI-powered research assistant. It can summarize your content, answer questions, generate mind maps, and even create AI-generated podcasts based on your sources. I'm Kevin, and I'll show you everything you need to know to get started. Let's dive in. First, head to the Notebook LM website. You'll find a link right here at the bottom of the screen. For this tutorial, make sure you're signed in with your Google account. Once you're in Notebook LM, click on Create New in the top right. This drops us into a new notebook. Think of a notebook like a workspace for a specific project or topic. For example, you might create one for meeting notes, research, studying, or in my case, a new product launch. At the very top, give your notebook a name. We're launching a new cookie for my small business, the Kevin Cookie Company, so for this, I'll call it the Galactic Marshmallow Explosion Launch. Now, between you and me, I think the marketing team got maybe just a little bit carried away with the naming. Next, let's add some sources. If you don't see this pane, you can click on this icon to toggle it on or off. These are the documents, websites, notes, and videos that Notebook LM uses to understand your content and answer questions about your sources. Right here, let's click on Add Sources. This opens an overlay where we can start adding sources. Now first, I'll drag and drop in a PDF document with our launch plans. And there, we now have our very first source. Let's add another one. Right up here, let's click on this again. Next, I'll add some meeting notes from Google Drive. Over here, I'll click on Drive, and there are those meeting notes. I'll select this and then click on Insert. Let's add a few more. Right up here, let's click on Add Sources. And this time, I'm going to add a website, and let's also add a YouTube video. And here, I'll click on Insert. I now have four different sources in this notebook. Let's also try searching the web for additional sources. I'll click here, and let's try searching for Dessert Trends 2026. And over here, let's run that. It looks like Notebook LM found a number of different sources. Now, let's preview them before importing. I'll click on View. This shows me a full list of all the different sources that it found. I can click on this icon to preview the source. Now, I think this one looks good. So, I'll jump back to Notebook LM, and let me uncheck all the sources, and just select this one that was relevant. Down below, I can now click on Import. And there, on the left-hand side, it added that source. If you want to look at any source in more detail, just click on it. Here's an example. I'll take this PDF document, and at the very top, it generates an AI summary of this document. Down below, I can see all the content within the document. Now, let's go back. Up on top, I'll click on Sources. Especially once you start adding lots of different sources, you can organize them into groups. Right here, let's click on the auto-tagging icon. And there, Notebook LM automatically groups my sources together. This makes it a lot easier to stay organized. Now that we've added our sources, let's start using Notebook LM to analyze all of this information. In the center, we have the chat panel. Here, I can ask questions about my sources, just using natural language. Let's take an example. Let's ask it to summarize our cookie launch strategy. And over here, let's run that. Notebook LM now looks across all of my different sources, and here, it generates a summary. Now, one thing that I really like is that it also includes citations. If I click on any one of these numbers, so here in the launch timeline, over on the left-hand side, it jumps directly to the source where that information came from. So here, I see the source, and it highlights the specific content that it pulled from. Now, let's try another question right down here. What are the biggest risks mentioned across all the different sources? And here, let's run that. Up above, I can see the response. And this is where Notebook LM becomes really powerful. Instead of searching through all of my different sources, I simply ask my question, and it quickly pulls together insights from all of those different sources. Now, looking at this last response, I want to make sure that I save it. I think it has some really good information here. Now, right at the bottom, I have an option to save it as a note. I'll click on that, and over on the right-hand side, it now generates a note with that response. This way, it makes it easy to collect important insights as you work through all of your different research. You can also add your own custom notes down at the bottom by clicking on this button. Let's do that. Now, a customer recently gave me feedback on this new cookie, and I'd like to add that here. So up on top, I'll give the note a name, just Customer Feedback, and then here, I'll type in all of their feedback. As you can tell, they really like this cookie. Now that I've added this, at the bottom, I also have the option to convert this into a source. So let's click on that, and over on the left-hand side, you'll now see that I have another new source included based on that note. Over on the right-hand side, let's now close out of the note. And behind that, you'll see we have what's called the Studio. This is where Notebook LM can automatically generate different types of content based on your sources. Now, I'd like to better understand the trends in the cookie industry, and I think a mind map could really help with that. But I don't want to use all of my different sources. Now, right up on top, I'll click on this checkbox, and that deselects all of my different sources. For the mind map, I only want to use the industry trends. So I'll check this box, and that then selects these two different sources. Now that I've selected all of the sources that I'd like, over on the right-hand side, I'll click on Mind Map. It's now all done creating the mind map, and I have a new artifact called the Confectionary Landscape. That sounds fun. Let's check it out. Notebook LM now creates a visual map showing how all the different ideas and topics connect together. Now here, I can zoom in, I can move around the map, and I can also click into any of the topics to explore them in more detail. Now, I found that this is especially useful when you're working with a lot of information and you want to quickly understand the bigger picture. Let's now go back to the Studio. Right up on top, I'll click here, and then over here, let's click on this. Next, let's generate an audio overview focused on the cookie launch plan. Over here, I'll deselect these sources, and let's select the product launch as my source. Now, for some items in Studio, you'll notice this icon right here. If I click on it, I get additional settings. Now, for the audio overview, I can choose things like the format. Here we have the language, the length, and I can even specify additional focus areas. Now, I think all the defaults look good. So down below, let's click on generate. After a few minutes, this creates an AI-generated podcast discussion based on the sources that I selected. Let's have a quick listen.

[00:06:45] Speaker 2: First, we have the official Galactic Marshmallow Explosion cookie launch plan.

[00:06:49] Speaker 1: A very long name.

[00:06:50] Speaker 2: Extremely long. And this is a formal, highly structured PDF document. You know, it's polished, it's strategic, full of confident bullet points. The corporate dream.

[00:06:58] Speaker 1: Exactly. That's pretty cool. Now, in addition to mind maps and audio overviews, you could also generate things like video overviews, reports, flashcards, and more. Once you've built out your notebook, you can also share it with other people. In the top right-hand corner, let's click on share. From here, I can add specific people, and I can also choose what permissions they have. So here's an example. I can make her a viewer, an editor, or I could remove access altogether. Now, down below, I can also control the overall sharing for the notebook itself. Now, right now, it's set to restricted, which means that only the people that I explicitly add can access it. Once someone has access, they can work with the same sources, notes, and generated content inside the notebook. There you go. Now, as with any AI tool, just make sure to verify important information and outputs, especially if you're using Notebook LM for work or research. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.