What Parallel Notes does
Parallel Notes is a two-pane browser workspace for source → compression → refinement. The left pane is the source of truth. The right pane contains the AI-generated draft, which remains fully editable.
The application is client-side and static. Your workspace is persisted in the browser, while cloud AI providers are optional. A local WebLLM model can be used when the browser/device supports it.
Understand the workspace
Documents sidebar
Create documents, import files, switch between documents and manage existing documents. The active document is highlighted.
AI toolbar
Shows AI availability, the selected model, the output mode, Customize and Generate/Stop controls.
Source pane
Your parent material. Edit it freely, render mathematics, copy it, download it, or maximize the pane.
Result pane
Your generated draft. It can be edited independently, copied, downloaded or printed/exported.
Sidebar footer
The information button opens documentation links; the centred status shows save state; theme and settings controls sit on the right.
Pane splitter
Drag the vertical divider between Source and Result to allocate more space to either pane.
On smaller screens the sidebar can be collapsed. Use the sidebar toggle in the AI toolbar to show or hide it.
Your first end-to-end workflow
Source and Result panes
Source pane
- Edit the source directly in the rich-text editor.
- Rename the document from the document-name field in the pane header.
- Render Math & Refresh refreshes displayed LaTeX/math rendering.
- Copy notes copies the source content for reuse elsewhere.
- Download Source opens the export workflow for the current Source pane.
- Maximize pane temporarily gives the Source editor the available workspace.
- The footer shows the source word count and reminds you that AI generation does not replace the source.
Result pane
- The result is editable; generated text is not locked.
- Use Render Math & Refresh when equations need a fresh render.
- Copy, download and maximize controls work independently of the Source pane.
- Switching documents restores each document's saved Source/Result state.
You can select a passage in the Source editor before generating. When a selection exists, the AI receives that selected passage as the primary content, plus a limited amount of surrounding context. With no selection, the full source document is used.
How generation works
Generation is deliberately source-bound. The application packages the editor text, the requested scope and useful structural hints before sending the task to the selected provider.
No selection
The complete Source pane becomes the primary source. This is the normal full-document workflow.
Text selected
Only the selected passage is primary. Up to a limited local context around it is supplied to help preserve meaning.
Streaming
For supported providers, the Result pane is updated progressively instead of waiting for the entire response.
Stop generation
The Generate button becomes a red stop control while running. Stopping preserves the partial output already produced.
Important source anchors include dates, numbers, names, institutions, legal references, examples, chronology, qualifiers, negations and causal relationships. The system prompt explicitly discourages correcting, researching, updating or filling gaps from outside knowledge.
Choose the right transformation
| Mode | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Short Notes | Your default revision pass. Compress the source while retaining high-value factual anchors. |
| Super-Short | You want a much denser last-minute revision layer. It is more aggressive about removing explanatory prose. |
| Structured Notes | The source benefits from clear hierarchy, sections, bullets and structured presentation. |
| Comparison | The source contains contrasts, alternatives, schools, approaches, features or other material that benefits from side-by-side organization. |
| Mindmap | You want concepts and source-supported relationships represented visually rather than as a normal text draft. |
| Custom | You need a task-specific instruction. Custom instructions are layered on top of the source-bound safety rules. |
Custom instructions
Click Customize to add an instruction such as “prioritize numerical data and committee names” or “use compact comparison tables where useful.” Your custom instruction steers presentation and emphasis; it does not override the source-only boundary.
Bring material into Parallel Notes
PDF and DOCX
Use the Upload Document button in the sidebar. The importer creates a new document and places extracted content in its Source pane.
- PDF: searchable text is reconstructed with attention to paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, columns and common repeated headers/footers.
- DOCX: Word headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, emphasis and links are converted into editor-ready content.
- Imported files are processed temporarily; the application saves the resulting editor content rather than keeping the original upload as a workspace file.
- Standard extraction is the fast deterministic path.
- Enhanced structure assist can use the selected AI model to classify ambiguous structure. Extracted text remains the source of truth.
URL / external imports
Parallel Notes also contains URL-import integration for supported external content. For YouTube URLs, the application can use an available transcript service and a configured fallback path. Availability depends on the source and browser/network conditions.
Save or share your work
Source and Result have independent export controls. The export dialog currently supports:
Print-ready document generated from the current pane.
Word (.docx)
Editable Word output with rich-text structure and rendered equations where required.
Print-friendly
Print exactly the current pane using a dedicated print layout.
Save as Source Notes
When offered from the Result workflow, creates a new document using the current draft as its source.
For long documents, PDF export is designed to paginate per page rather than attempting to render the entire document as one oversized canvas. DOCX export uses a normalized content snapshot so the live editor remains unaffected.
Configure models and AI behaviour
Models tab
- Configure Gemini, OpenAI, OpenRouter and custom OpenAI-compatible API models.
- Add local WebLLM models when supported by the application/runtime.
- API keys can be remembered on the device for convenience. They are not stored in a secure secrets vault.
- Local model caches can be inspected and cleared separately from your workspace documents.
AI Behaviour tab
- Source fidelity: Maximum, High or user-tuned emphasis.
- Revision density: targets for Short and Super-short output; these are targets, not hard word limits.
- Generation controls: temperature, Top P and maximum output tokens.
- Long-document context budget: controls the source chunking budget.
- Auto-split long documents: enables automatic chunking for large inputs.
- Local context window: controls local-model context and may require reloading the model.
- Reasoning / thinking: provider-specific reasoning controls where supported.
- Prompt addendum: adds an emphasis instruction to every AI task without overriding source-grounding rules.
Data & Reset tab
You can clear local model caches, delete all workspace documents, or use the full reset action. Treat reset actions as destructive operations.
How persistence works
Documents are stored individually in the browser's IndexedDB workspace. Settings are also kept locally. The Saved indicator in the sidebar footer communicates the current persistence state.
- Normal editor changes are autosaved through the document controller.
- Creating, renaming, switching and deleting documents updates the workspace state.
- Generating documents may be promoted to the top of the recent document list.
- Parallel Notes uses browser-local state; opening the same workspace in another browser/device does not automatically sync it.
Use Mindmap mode for conceptual revision
Mindmap mode generates a saved concept graph instead of a normal text result. The view provides three ways to inspect it:
- Overview: a broad map of the generated concepts.
- Linkages: relationships between source-supported concepts.
- Section map: focus on a selected source section.
The mindmap also reports coverage such as concept, relationship and section counts. It is intended as a study/revision aid, not as a replacement for checking the underlying source.
Know where your text goes
When you use a local WebLLM model, inference is performed in the browser. When you select a cloud model, the relevant source text is sent from your browser to that provider according to the provider's API behaviour.
- Workspace documents are stored locally in IndexedDB.
- Remembered API credentials are stored locally for convenience.
- Imported PDF/DOCX files are processed temporarily; the resulting editor content is what becomes workspace data.
- The website currently includes a Counter.dev analytics script.
- Third-party provider policies apply when you send content to those providers.
For the full application-specific summary, read the Privacy Policy.
Common problems
“AI not loaded” / local model will not load
Check whether the selected local model is compatible with your browser/device and whether WebGPU is available. You can switch to a configured API provider if local inference is not practical.
Generation is slow
Generation speed depends on the selected provider/model, document length, context budget and network conditions. For large documents, enable automatic chunking and use an efficient model suited to summarization.
The result misses information
Try Maximum — protect facts first, a less aggressive mode, or a custom instruction emphasizing the missing type of information. Also check that the source extraction itself contains the missing fact.
PDF/DOCX import looks wrong
Complex layouts can be difficult to reconstruct. Review the extracted Source pane before generation. For PDFs, Enhanced structure assist can help classify ambiguous structure when an AI model is configured.
My notes disappeared
Check that you are using the same browser profile and origin. Do not clear site data before exporting important work. The app does not provide cloud synchronization for the local workspace.