I use NotebookLM a LOT, which automatically means I spend a lot of time talking about it. And yet, when people talk about NotebookLM, it’s almost always the Audio Overview feature that gets the spotlight.

Sure, a few might bring up the Mind Map feature, but you rarely hear anyone talking about the rest of what NotebookLM can actually do. One of NotebookLM's most underrated features, in my opinion, is Reports.

Despite it not getting as much attention as other viral NotebookLM features, it's one of my favorite features and one I rely on heavily. Here are a few ways I use this underrated feature to make research feel seamless every single time.

One-click Report formats quickly turn my notes into shareable reports

A click is all it takes

If you aren't familiar with the Reports feature in NotebookLM, it essentially turns any source you upload into organized, easy-to-digest notes. Don't confuse NotebookLM's Reports feature with AI summaries though. While they are essentially summarized versions of documents, Reports goes a step further by structuring the information in a way that’s actually useful for research and reference.

If I had written this piece a couple of days ago, there wouldn’t have been much to talk about. Using Reports in NotebookLM used to be just a one-click operation, and you could only choose from four different Report formats and couldn't customize them. But that’s completely changed now. NotebookLM recently rolled out a bunch of new learning features, including a complete redesign of the Reports feature.

While I’ll cover the newer features later in this article, the ability to generate Reports with just a click is still a feature I'll never stop talking about. When you click the Reports button in the Studio panel, you'll see the following options: Briefing Doc, Study Guide, and Blog Post. The Briefing Doc format is essentially an overview of all your sources, and pulls all the key insights and quotes from your sources and puts it together into a report.

The Briefing Doc format is essentially an overview of all your sources, pulling key insights and quotes into one neat report. The newly launched Blog Post format, on the other hand, takes any source you have and reshapes it into, well, a blog post. If you’d rather read your lecture slides as a casual blog than a dense deck of slides, this one’s for you. And finally, the Study Guide format, organizes your material into a short-answer quiz, essay questions, and glossary of key terms.

Though you can use the Custom Reports option to technically replicate these formats, the one-click versions save you the trouble of writing a detailed prompt. They’re quick, simple, and perfect when you just want to turn your notes into something usable without overthinking it.

Custom Reports let me build the perfect report for any purpose

Your report, exactly the way you want it

Though it hasn’t been too long since NotebookLM added the ability to create Custom Reports, it’s quickly become one of my favorite features.

With the one-click Report formats, you’re essentially bound to a specific format. Although you can now give instructions to NotebookLM to customize the one-click formats, they’ll still only follow the structure of the chosen template. Custom Reports, on the other hand, lets you specify the structure of your report, the style, the tone of it, and more.

To use the feature, all you need to do is click Reports in the Studio panel. Then, you’ll see a Create Your Own option. Once you’ve selected the language of your report, you’ll need to instruct NotebookLM on what kind of report you’d like by prompting it with all your requirements clearly described. With any AI tool, the more detailed your prompt is, the more accurate and tailored the output will be. So, make sure not to hold back and be as specific and detailed as you possibly can.

For instance, I have a NotebookLM notebook I’ve been using to learn Swift, a programming language. Given that I have the memory of a goldfish, there are times when I completely blank out and need to quickly reference key concepts or syntax.

Instead of Googling the same thing over and over, I figured having a single report with all the information I need in one place would be a much better solution. None of the preset formats really fit that need, so I created a custom report that works as a cheat sheet. I sent NotebookLM the following prompt:

The result was simply incredible. The cheat sheet it generated included code snippets with comments to explain exactly what was going on, had tables to compare different concepts, and was structured in a way that made everything so much easier to follow. The report was divided into nine sections, each with subsections, which made it easy to jump straight to the exact concept I needed.

Frankly, it felt like a resource I would’ve spent hours making by hand. The only con, really, was that it took a fair bit of time to generate. However, that’s completely understandable, since the sources in my notebook were quite lengthy. Plus, once it was ready, the quality of the report made the wait more than worth it.

The Suggested Formats feature gives me a starting point when I’m drawing a blank

No more starting at your sources mindlessly

There are times when I have a lot of content on hand, but I really have no idea how to approach it. Attempting to create a custom format when I don’t know which direction I’m going in isn’t the best idea. And when the preset formats don’t quite fit, NotebookLM’s Reports fortunately have another feature that helps out: Suggested Formats. Basically, NotebookLM’s AI analyzes the sources you upload and then suggests four different Report format options based on the theme, topic, and industry in your sources.

For instance, using the same Swift notebook I mentioned above, NotebookLM suggested the following four formats: Best Practices Guide, Technical White Paper, Explanatory Article, and Concept Overview.

Like the Custom Reports option and the one-click Report formats, you can add instructions to the Suggested Formats too, so the output isn’t rigid. I like to think of the Suggested Formats as a middle ground between the one-click options and the Custom Reports. They give me a solid starting point when I’m stuck, but they’re tailored to my sources and still leave room for customization.

If you don't use Reports in NotebookLM, you're missing out

If you often work with a lot of documents at the same time, no NotebookLM feature is better for you than the Reports feature. It's extremely easy-to-use, and the results will never fail you. Like other NotebookLM features, the tool only pulls content from the sources you upload when generating these reports. So, you don't need to worry about hallucinations.