How to use notes in Elbuz

Notes are the electronic equivalent of paper notes that help you organize your thoughts and ideas. With notes, you can quickly capture important information, categorize it, set reminders, and share it with colleagues and friends. You will also have the opportunity to test your knowledge by creating interactive tests.

Use notes for:

• 📝 Recording ideas and thoughts - record everything that comes to mind.
• ❓ Recording questions and searching for answers - save questions and add answers as you find them.
• 🎯 Goal Settings - Define tasks and track their completion.
• 🧳 List Makers - Create shopping, to-do, or packing lists for your trip.
• 💡 Collect inspiration and interesting finds - save links, quotes or images for inspiration.
• 📚 Note-taking and studying - write down key points so you don't forget important things.
• 📜 Test Taking - Create knowledge tests based on your notes.
• 🔔 Task reminders - set reminders so you don't forget anything.
• 🗂️ Organize information - Group notes by categories, tags and statuses.
• 🤝 Collaboration - Share notes with colleagues for group use.

Notes will help you not to forget anything, structure information, achieve goals and always have quick access to the necessary data. Let's get started with this handy tool! 👨🏫

Getting started with notes

Open notes using the shortcut on the desktop or through the main menu.
To open notes through the main menu:

1. In the main menu, select the "Organizer" section
2. In the menu that opens, select "Notes"

Overview of the note-taking interface

At the top of the window there are buttons for managing notes, such as:

• Create a note
• Note categories
• Calendar categories
• Note statuses
• Visual connection graph
• Search by statuses and other parameters

Below the control buttons there is a list of notes with the ability to search by key words.
Notes can be displayed either in the form of cards or in the form of a list.

You can work with notes in edit or view mode.
For editing mode, you need to click on the “Pencil” icon, for viewing mode, you need to click on the “Eye” icon. Also, some fields can be edited directly in the list without opening the note card.

An example of the note editing mode

Approximate view of the note viewing mode

Create a note

To create a new note:

1. Click the "+" button.
   If necessary, you can immediately select a category where a new note will be created
   
2. Enter a name notes or go directly to the text of the note (the title will be filled in automatically after closing the window).
3. Write the text of the note using a convenient visual editor for formatting, attach files if necessary, specify tags, categories, source link and other parameters
   
   💡 Useful: dictate the description of a note using a microphone, adjust and correct the text using AI, add pictures to a task using the AI generator.

Formatting note text

Use the formatting buttons on the toolbar to:

• Set headings (H1, H2, H3)
• Make text bold, italic, underlined or strikethrough
• Change text color and background
• Create lists (numbered and bulleted)
• Insert links, images, videos, tables
• Add code blocks or quotes
• Add text of a note by voice (dictation)
• Change text using artificial intelligence

💡 Useful: Dictate the text of a note using a microphone, adjust and correct the text using AI, add pictures to a note via AI generator.

Useful keyboard shortcuts for working with text

Provides keyboard shortcuts to make formatting text easier. Here are the most useful ones:

Basic keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl+B — Bold text.
• Ctrl+I — Italic (Italic).
• Ctrl+U - Underline.
• Ctrl+Shift+S — Strikethrough text.

Insert:

• Ctrl+Shift+V — Paste without formatting (as text).
• Ctrl+K — Insert or edit a link (Link).
• Ctrl+Shift+K - Delete a link.
• Ctrl+L - Insert an image.

Undo/redo:

• Ctrl+Z - Undo.
• Ctrl+Y - Repeat (Redo).

Use AI to change and supplement note text

By default, the following AI actions are available: :

• Chat AI
  What it does: Helps to conduct a conversation or search for answers to questions in a dialogue format.
  What you need it for: Used to receive advice, clarification or real-time help, whether searching for information or solving problems.
• Contents at a glance
  What it does: Condenses text to highlight key points and main ideas.
  What you need it for: Convenient for quickly reading a long text in order to understand the essence without studying all the details.
• Correction and improvement of text style
  What it does: Corrects spelling and grammatical errors and improves text style.
  What you need it for: Suitable for improving the quality of text, making it more readable, professional, or tailored to the target audience.
• Short text extension
  What it does: Develops concise texts by adding details, examples and explanations.
  What you need it for: Useful for creating more informative content, adding context, or enriching text with new ideas.
• Translate text into another language
  What it does: Translates text from one language to another, preserving the original meaning.
  What you need it for: Used to create multilingual content, communicate with people from different countries, or learn languages.

You can add other actions, to do this you need to add a new template indicating the task (prompt) for AI, after which it will appear in the list for selection .

How to use the AI assistant to work with a note

Step 1 - Highlight the text

1. Select the desired text (optional)
2. Click the right mouse button over the selected text
3. Select the required action

Step 2 - Launch AI

An AI assistant window will open containing the selected text.

1. Change the text before sending to AI (if required)
2. Click the "Submit" button "
3. Below will be the response from the AI in the visual editor
4. Change the AI text (if necessary)
5. Copy text to the clipboard to paste into a note
6. Or paste new text directly into the visual note editor to replace previously selected text, to do this, click on the button "To the left."

In this example, the selected text has been expanded for better understanding and more information.

Categories notes and tags

Categories and tags help you group and quickly find the notes you need.

To add a category or tag:

1. Select the desired category from the list. If the category is not in the list, you can create a new one through the note category directory.
2. Provide a tag name and press Enter to add. If a tag has been added previously, then it will appear in the list for selection.

Note statuses

Use statuses to display the status of work on a note:

• 💡 Idea - for new thoughts and ideas
• 📝 Draft - when work on the note started
• ⏳ In progress - note in the process of writing/solving
• ❗ Important - for especially important notes
• 🕰️ Postponed - when work is paused
• 💬 Discussion - if you need to consult with colleagues
• ✅ Done - for completed notes
• 🗄️ Archive - outdated, but possibly useful in the future notes
• ➕Create your own statuses if what you need is not in the list

How to change the status of a note

1. Click on the current status under the title.
2. Select status from the dropdown list
   

Search for notes

To quickly search for notes use:

• Search bar at the top pages - searches by name and description
• Filters by categories, tags, statuses
• Possible sorting and searching by any fields in display mode "List"

Start typing a search term to quickly find the notes you need. 🔍

Set flags for notes

Each flag has its own purpose. Activate the flags that suit your purposes:

Activity

• What it does: Flags a note as relevant to you.
• When to use: For notes that you work with and are relevant to you.

Favorites

• What it does: Places the note in the list favorites for quick access.
• When to use: For frequently used notes.

Pinned to top

• What it does: Pins a note to top of the list.
• When to use: For important notes that should always be at hand.

Archive

• What it does: Moves the note to the archive .
• When to use: For completed notes that need to be saved but removed from active use.

Trash

• What it does: Moves the note to the trash for later removal.
• When to use: For notes that are no longer needed.

Template

• What it does: Marks a note as a template for reuse.
• When to use: To create basic blanks that can be copied.

Encrypted

• What it does: Encrypts note text with using a password.
• When to use: For sensitive data.

Visual Editor

• What it does: Includes advanced tools text formatting.
• When to use: For notes where you want to use design, such as highlighting, tables, or lists.

Adding files to a note

The adding files feature allows you to attach additional materials to a note, such as like images or documents. This is useful for expanding information and storing related content in one place.

Follow the steps below to successfully add files.

Step #1 – Open the "Files" tab

There are two ways to add files:

• From local disk
• Via link

Addition file from local disk:

1. Click the "Select file" button.
2. A window will open to select files on your computer.
3. Select the desired file.
   • Images, documents and other popular formats are supported.
4. Click "Open" , after that the file will be attached to the note.

Adding a file via the link:

1. Click the "Add file via link" button.
2. Enter the file URL in the field that appears.
   • Make sure the link is to a downloadable file.
3. Click "Add" so that the file is uploaded and attached to a note.

Step #2 – Verify that the file was successfully added

1. Once added, the file will appear in the list of attached files.
2. Check that the file is displayed correctly:
   • Images will show a preview of them.
   • For documents, the file name will be displayed.

Setting note reminders and notifications

You can set reminders for notes so you don't forget about important things.

How to set up a reminder

1. Open the "Reminders" tab 🔔
2. Select date and time or enter manually.
3. Set the frequency (if the task is repeated), the following modes are available: once, daily, weekly, monthly, annually.

Now the system will send you notifications according to the specified schedule until the task is completed. ⏰

If necessary, you can specify a reminder category, this will allow you to more effectively in the future use an event calendar in which your notifications will be distributed into folders.

Collaborate on notes

Share notes with colleagues and work together. By default, a note is visible only to the person who created it; if you want another user to see it, then give him access.

How to share a note

1. Open the "Advanced" tab
2. Open the list of users
3. Select users by checking them

Note templates

Use ready-made templates to quickly create generic notes.

How to create a note based on a template

1. Next to the Create Note button, click to the "Select template" item.
2. A list of templates to choose from will appear.

How to create a new note template

1. Create a new note.
2. Fill in the required fields.
3. Check the "Template" flag in the "Flags" tab.

Your template will then appear in the selection list templates To make the template available to all users, mark the ones you want in the note edit.

Encrypt note text

The encryption feature allows you to protect the text description of a note so that only you can view or edit them using a password . Data is encrypted using the strong AES algorithm, and the password is stored exclusively in your browser's local storage and is not accessible to third parties. This feature ensures reliable protection of your information.

How to protect note text

1. Open the Flags tab.
2. In the list of available flags, check the box next to “Encryption”.
   
3. After activating the “Encryption” flag, a window for entering a password will appear.
   Enter a strong password. Password Recommendations: Length of at least 8 characters. Use letters, numbers and special characters.
   Confirm your password by clicking the “OK” button.
   
   💡 Important: The password is saved in your browser's local storage. If you change browsers or delete data from the cache, you will not be able to access the text of the note without re-entering your password. If you forget your password, the note will remain encrypted and you will not be able to access the content. There is no way to recover your password. We recommend that you keep your password in a safe place.

Encryption for new notes

You can enable default encryption when creating new notes located in a certain category, for example, these could be the categories “Personal”, “Passwords” and others.
To activate this mode, open the directory of note categories and change the setting of the category you need by setting the "Encryption" flag

Adding links to a note

The adding links feature allows you to attach other elements to a note, such as tasks, projects, documents, presentations, forms and tables. This simplifies data management and creates visual connections between elements in a graph.

Follow the step-by-step instructions to set up connections.

Step #1 – Go to the “Connections” tab

You will see a list of already added connections, or an empty area if no connections have been created yet.

Step #2 – Create a connection

1. At the top, find the button with the icon "+" .
2. Click this button to open a list of available items.

Step #3 – Select an item to link

In the list that appears, you will see the available item types:

• Notes – to communicate with another note.
• Tasks – for linking to a task.
• Projects – for attaching to a project.
• Documents – to add an important document.
• Presentations – to add a connection to the presentation.
• Forms – for communication with the form.
• Tables – for connecting a table.

In the list of elements that opens, its type will first be indicated, then its ID and name. You can use the search bar to quickly find an item.

Step #4 – Add a connection

1. After selecting an item, click the Select button.
2. The connection will appear in the list of connections.

Step #5 – Check that the links are correct

1. Make sure that the selected items appear in the links list.
2. If necessary, click on the "Pencil" icon to open the associated element for editing.
3. Include a note about the connection in the Description column.

How to view connections in a visual graph

Related items will be displayed in a visual graph for simplicity working with interrelated data. The graph makes it easy to see relationships between notes, mark related items, and edit them directly from the graph. To do this, open the additional menu and select "Graph"

An intuitive visual a form in which abstract information will be linked, you can zoom in or out, as well as open elements for editing directly from the graph.

Posting a note on the Kanban board

The Kanban board post-it feature allows you to organize notes more efficiently and manage their implementation. A Kanban board is a visual note management tool that helps you organize your workflow, track progress, and improve productivity. It is a table divided into columns, each of which displays a certain stage of task completion. Notes are presented in the form of cards that can be moved between columns as they are completed.

How to post a note on the board

1. Open the "Advanced" tab
2. Click on the board selection field. From the drop-down list, select the board you want to post the note on.

You can manually place notes on boards, and also set up automatic movement through Kanban columns when the status of a note changes. By default, Elbuz already has ready-made Kanban settings, but you can change them individually for yourself. Setting up automatic movement of elements along kanban columns is described in detail in a separate section of the “Boards” manual. Brief description: In the Kanban board settings, define which statuses are associated with which columns. For example:
Status “New” = column “New notes”.
Status “In progress” = column “In progress”.
Completed status = Done column.

Creating tests to assess knowledge based on the note

Test Creator lets you easily create tests based on your notes to test your knowledge. You can use artificial intelligence to automate the process or create a test manually. Below is a step-by-step process for setting up and creating a test.

Step 1. Go to the "Tests" tab

• A list of previously created tests is displayed here.
• You can manage existing tests or add a new one.

Step 2. Create a test

Select how to create a test . There are two ways to create a test:

1. Manual test creation.
2. Automatic creation using artificial intelligence.

Manual test creation:

1. Click the "+" button .
2. Specify the following parameters:
   • Test name – enter the name that will be displayed in the list of tests.
   • Test Description – Briefly describe the purpose of the test.
   • Questions and Answers - Add each question and answer options manually. Please indicate the correct answers by checking the box.

Automatic test creation using AI:

1. Click on button with icon "Magic wand".
2. In the window that opens, do the following:
   • Enter number of tests that you want to create.
   • Enter the number of questions in each test.
3. Click the "Create" button.
4. After the process is completed, the test will automatically appear in the general list.

Step 3. Set up the test (as needed)

Each test in the list has two main buttons:

• Edit test – to change questions, answers or test parameters.
• Run testing – to run the test in interactive mode.

If you want to edit the test:

1. Click the "Edit" button (pencil icon) next to the desired test.
2. Make changes.

If you want to start testing:

1. Click the button "Start test" (eye icon) next to the desired test.

5 . Share the test with others

To access the test with other users:

1. Click the "Copy link" button located next to the test.
2. The link will be copied to the clipboard.
3. Send a link to users so they can take the test.

Now you can effectively create quizzes to assess your knowledge, use them yourself, or share them with others!

Note-taking glossary

• Note - electronic text record.
• Category - the group to which a note on a topic or direction belongs.
• Sharing - the ability to give colleagues access to a note.
• AI (Artificial Intelligence) - Artificial intelligence, built-in assistant for editing, improving and analyzing the text of notes.
• AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) - An encryption algorithm used to protect the text of notes.
• Visual connection graph - A tool for visually displaying the relationships between notes and other elements of the system.
• Visual Editor - A convenient tool for formatting text with functions for adding images, tables, links, etc.
• "Links" tab - Section where you can attach related elements to a note (tasks, projects, tables, etc. .).
• Files Tab - Place to attach images, documents, and other materials to a note.
• "Flags" tab - Section where special labels for notes are set, such as "Archive", "Favorites" " or "Encrypted".
• Graph - A visual form of representing relationships between elements, facilitating data management.
• Dictation - Speech-to-text function for taking notes by voice.
• Kanban Board - A table divided into columns that helps you visually track your progress on notes.
• Notes category - A group of notes, united by topic for easy management and search.
• Shortcut keys - Keyboard shortcuts for quick actions (e.g. Ctrl+ B for bold text).
• At a Glance - AI feature to highlight key points in text.
• Reminders - A tool to set notifications for note-related tasks.
• Linking statuses to Kanban - Automatically move notes between columns based on their statuses.
• Text Expansion - AI function for adding details to short text.
• Sorting - A tool for organizing notes by categories, tags, statuses or other parameters.
• Note Status - Reflects the current status of the note (for example, "Idea", "Working", "Done" ).
• Tag - A tag that makes it easier to group and find notes.
• Note template - A template that can be used to create typical notes.
• Encryption - The process of protecting a note with a password to maintain confidentiality.
• Link Item - The object associated with the note (such as a document, project, or spreadsheet).

We hope that this guide will help you quickly master notes in Elbuz and make your work even more productive. Try, experiment and organize your tasks and ideas in the best possible way! 💪

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