NotebookLM and export format glossary

Gemini Notebook is the name Google gave NotebookLM on July 16, 2026. It is the same source-grounded research assistant: you add documents, links and videos to a notebook, and it answers questions, cites passages and generates study and presentation material from them.

A notebook is one workspace in NotebookLM: a set of sources, the chat about them, your saved notes and the Studio items generated from them. Answers in a notebook draw only on that notebook sources, so one notebook per project or course keeps answers on topic.

A source is one item of material in a NotebookLM notebook: a PDF, a web page, a YouTube video, a Google Doc, an audio file or pasted text. NotebookLM extracts its text and answers only from the sources that are ticked. Each notebook has a maximum number of sources set by Google.

Source grounding means an AI answers from documents you supplied rather than from its general training. NotebookLM is grounded in the sources of the notebook and shows which passage each statement came from. Grounding reduces invented facts but does not prevent misreading a source.

A citation in NotebookLM is the numbered marker after a statement that links to the passage in a source supporting it. Clicking it opens that passage. It is a pointer into your own sources, not a formatted bibliographic reference, and it is lost when you copy text out of the app.

The Studio panel is the area of a NotebookLM notebook where generated outputs live: Audio and Video Overviews, slide decks, mind maps, reports, flashcards, quizzes, infographics and data tables, together with your saved notes. Each item is generated from the selected sources.

An Audio Overview is a podcast-style conversation between AI hosts that NotebookLM generates from your sources. It summarises and discusses the material, usually in several minutes of audio, and can be steered with instructions about audience and focus. It plays in the notebook and can be downloaded as a file.

A Video Overview is a narrated explainer video NotebookLM generates from your sources, combining generated slides with a voice-over. It suits introductions and summaries. It is delivered as a video file; the visuals are generated images and cannot be edited as slides.

A NotebookLM mind map is an interactive tree of topics generated from your sources. Clicking a node expands its sub-topics or asks the chat about it. It is read-only inside NotebookLM, which can only save a picture of the currently expanded view.

A data table is a structured table NotebookLM generates in Studio to compare information across sources, with rows such as studies or products and columns such as method, price or finding. It can be sent to Google Sheets, and with an extension exported as CSV, TSV, Markdown or LaTeX.

A briefing doc is a report type in NotebookLM that summarises your sources for a decision-maker: an executive summary, the key themes, important quotes with context and actionable insights. It is generated in Studio and saved as a report.

A study guide is a report type in NotebookLM built for revision: key concepts, short-answer practice questions, essay prompts and a glossary of important terms, all drawn from your sources. It complements flashcards and quizzes, which test the same material interactively.

A text source is a source created from text you supply, by pasting it or sending it from an extension, instead of from a file or link. It is how content NotebookLM cannot fetch itself, such as a page behind a login or an AI chat, gets into a notebook.

An APKG file is an Anki deck package. It contains cards, their note types and deck settings in one file that Anki desktop, AnkiMobile and AnkiDroid open directly, with no field mapping. It is the simplest way to hand someone a ready-made flashcard deck.

An Anki text file is a plain text file with one card per line and a tab between the front and the back. Anki imports it through File, Import, where you choose the deck, the note type and which column fills which field. It is the most portable way to load cards.

GIFT is a plain-text format for quiz questions created for Moodle. Each question is written as text with the answers in curly braces, where an equals sign marks the correct answer and a tilde marks a wrong one. It is easy to read, edit and import into a Moodle question bank.

Moodle XML is the detailed question format native to Moodle. It stores each question with its type, answers, grades, feedback and formatting in XML, so it preserves more than GIFT. It is imported from the question bank and is specific to Moodle.

QTI, Question and Test Interoperability, is a standard for exchanging quiz questions between learning platforms. A QTI export is a ZIP package of XML files that Canvas and other systems import as a quiz or question bank. Platforms support different QTI versions, so a test import is advisable.

Aiken is the simplest text format for multiple-choice questions. Each question is a line of text, followed by lettered options and a final line naming the answer, such as ANSWER: B. Moodle and several other platforms import it, and it can be written in any text editor.

Markdown is a plain-text way of writing formatted documents: a hash sign for a heading, asterisks for emphasis, hyphens for a list. The file stays readable as text and is rendered as formatted content by notes apps, wikis and code platforms such as Obsidian, Notion and GitHub.

LaTeX is a typesetting system used for academic papers and theses, especially in mathematics and science. You write text with commands in a .tex file and compile it to PDF. It excels at equations, references and consistent structure, and is used online through Overleaf.

DOCX is the document format of Microsoft Word. It stores text, styles, tables, images, footnotes and comments, and opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice. It is the standard format when a document will be edited or reviewed by other people.

PPTX is the presentation format of Microsoft PowerPoint, also opened by Google Slides and Keynote. A slide can hold editable text boxes or just a picture. NotebookLM decks download as picture-only slides, which is why their text cannot be edited without a rebuild.

CSV, comma-separated values, is a plain-text table format with one row per line and commas between columns. Nearly every spreadsheet, database and import tool reads it. It carries values only: no formulas, formatting or multiple sheets.

TSV, tab-separated values, is a plain-text table format like CSV but with tab characters between columns. Because ordinary text rarely contains tabs, it is more robust for cells with long sentences, and it pastes straight into spreadsheet columns.

JSON is a structured text format that programs read easily. A JSON export of a chat, quiz, flashcard deck or mind map keeps every field, such as question, options, answer and explanation, labelled separately, which makes it the right choice for scripts, automation and custom tools.

EPUB is the standard e-book format. It packages a book as chapters of reflowable text, so it adapts to any screen size. NotebookLM does not accept EPUB directly; the book has to be converted to text or PDF, ideally one source per chapter.

OPML, Outline Processor Markup Language, is an XML format for outlines: nested lists of items. Outliners such as Workflowy and OmniOutliner and many mind-map apps import it, which makes it a common bridge for moving a hierarchy from one tool to another.

A .mm file is the mind-map format of the open-source FreeMind program. Because it is simple and documented, it became an exchange format that Freeplane, XMind, MindNode, MindMeister and other mind-map apps can import.

SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics, is an image format that describes shapes and text mathematically instead of as pixels. It stays sharp at any size and can be edited in design tools. It suits diagrams such as mind maps, though some office and chat apps do not display it.

BibTeX is the reference format used with LaTeX. A .bib file lists entries, each with a type, a citation key and fields such as title, author and year. LaTeX documents cite the keys, and reference managers such as Zotero and JabRef import and export the format.

RIS is a tagged text format for exchanging references between programs. Each line starts with a two-letter tag, such as TI for title or UR for URL. Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote and most library databases import and export it.

An RSS feed is a web address that lists the latest items from a site, such as articles or podcast episodes, in a machine-readable form. Feed readers and podcast apps check it for new items. In this context it is used two ways: to import new articles into a notebook, and to deliver audio to a podcast app.

A wiki-link is a link between notes written as the note name in double square brackets. Obsidian, Logseq and similar apps use it to build a web of connected notes and show backlinks. An archive in Obsidian style includes an index note that wiki-links to every exported item.

Frontmatter is a block of metadata at the top of a Markdown file, between two lines of three hyphens, written as key and value pairs. Notes apps and site generators read it for properties such as title, date, source and tags without showing it as body text.

A local day is the calendar day according to the clock and time zone of your own computer. The free allowances in NotebookLM Ultra Exporter, such as 5 Word or PDF exports and 20 source imports, are counted per local day and reset at local midnight.

A collection is a named group of NotebookLM notebooks in the Ultra Exporter workspace. It works like a folder, giving a flat notebook list some structure. Collections are stored by the extension, so they organise your view without changing the notebooks themselves.

An import recipe is a saved import in NotebookLM Ultra Exporter: a source such as a feed, playlist or website, its filters, and the notebook it goes to. Running the recipe again imports only new items. With Pro, a recipe can be checked on a schedule while Chrome is open.