I learn badly from a wall of text. What I actually need is to see how the pieces connect — which idea causes which, what is a type of what, where the whole thing hangs together. For a long time that meant redrawing diagrams by hand on paper. Then I started using Concept Map in Notebook OS, and the redrawing became the point instead of the chore.

Here is exactly how I go from a pile of sources to a map I understand.

Step 1: Install Notebook OS (free)

Concept Map is one of the free features, so there is nothing to buy to try it. Install Notebook OS from the Chrome Web Store, pin it, and open any Gemini notebook. A Concept Map button appears in the Studio panel, right alongside Gemini Notebook's own tools.

Step 2: Pick the sources and a mode

Add whatever I am studying to the notebook — lecture PDFs, a couple of papers, a YouTube transcript — then click Concept Map and choose which sources to include. Before it builds, I pick a mode, and the mode genuinely changes the map:

  • Comprehensive (the default) — an exhaustive, fine-grained map: definitions, subtypes, mechanisms, causes, treatments, outcomes, and 30+ labeled links. This is my go-to for a first pass.
  • Overview — only the 8–12 most central concepts, for a big-picture glance.
  • Hierarchy — a clean "is a type of / is part of" taxonomy tree.
  • Cause & Effect — emphasizes "causes / leads to / prevents" chains.
  • Process — models steps and stages in order.
  • Compare — highlights how concepts are similar to or differ from each other.
💡 How I use the modes: Comprehensive first to see everything, then Hierarchy or Cause & Effect to test whether I actually understand the structure. If the map surprises me, that is the part I did not really know.

Step 3: Drag it until it matches my head

The map renders as nodes joined by labeled relationship arrows — not just lines, but "treats", "is a type of", "leads to". Then the useful part begins. I can zoom, pan, and drag any node to rearrange the layout. Clicking a node highlights its neighbors and surfaces a little insight panel about how it connects.

Drag nodes into the arrangement that matches your mental model — the layout is yours to shape.

I move the central concept to the middle, cluster the subtypes on one side, line up the causal chain top to bottom. By the time the map looks the way my head wants it to, I have effectively taught myself the topic — the arranging is the studying.

Step 4: Export a 16:9 PNG

Once the layout is right, I hit ⬇ PNG. Concept Map exports the current layout — concepts and arrows, in a clean 16:9 frame — as a concept-map-*.png file. I drop it into my notes to review later, or straight onto a slide when I need to explain the topic to someone else.

Everything runs locally in the browser, and past maps are kept in a short history so I can reopen and re-export them. Nothing leaves for an external server.

✦ Why it sticks: A summary tells you the answer. A concept map makes you place every idea in relation to every other one — and that act of placing is what turns reading into understanding.