Choosing What to Create
You have uploaded the document. Now there are twenty things you could make from it, and the honest question is: which one?
This guide answers that. It is the page to read after Uploading Content and before you spend a credit.
Start from the Goal, Not the Tool
Almost every good answer falls out of one question: what do you need to be able to do afterwards?
| You need to… | Make this |
|---|---|
| Recall facts under pressure | Flashcards |
| Find out whether you actually know it | Quiz or Exam |
| Understand something dense | Video Lecture |
| Learn it while doing something else | Podcast |
| Revise from one document | Summary |
| Present it to other people | Slides |
| Give someone a procedure to follow | SOP |
| Hand over a real, editable file | AI Document |
| Answer a question you do not have the source for | Deep Research |
| See how ideas connect | Mind Map or Flowchart |
| Fit the whole thing on one page | Infographic |
| Show a thing in three dimensions | 3D Model |
| Make a picture you will actually use | Image Studio |
| Just ask about the document | AI Chat |
If nothing on that list is quite it, open the AI Document Creator and describe what you want. It covers reports, timelines, case studies, cheat sheets, outlines, rubrics, lesson plans, flowcharts, worksheets, spreadsheets, calendars, and plain "anything".
Start from the Material
Some sources have an obvious best use.
A textbook chapter or long PDF. Summary first, then flashcards from the same file. The guide gives you the shape; the deck drills the detail. Use a page range so a 400-page book produces a deck about chapter 7, not about everything.
A recorded meeting or lecture. AI Meeting Notes if it is happening now; Transcription if you already have the file and want the text.
A policy, handbook, or process document. An SOP if people need to follow it, a lesson plan if you are going to teach it, a video lecture if you need them to actually watch something. See Turning Work Documents into Training.
A spreadsheet or dataset. Ask about it in AI Chat first. Chat can read the file and tell you what is in it, which usually changes what you want to make.
A YouTube video. Paste the link as a source. See Studying from YouTube Videos.
Notes you typed somewhere else. Paste Text, then treat it like any other source.
A question with no source at all. Deep Research. It investigates the open web and cites what it used.
Something with a shape or a structure: a machine, a molecule, a network, a process with stages. A 3D model you can turn around often explains it in one look where a paragraph does not. Start it from the PDF so the labels come from the source.
Start from the Time You Have
- Under a minute. Open AI Chat and ask. It is the fastest thing in the product and it costs no creation credit for the question itself.
- A few minutes. Flashcards, a summary, an infographic, a mind map, an image in Image Studio.
- A few minutes, and you want to show it. A 3D model, a full build takes a few minutes, and the edits after it are free.
- Ten minutes or so. A video lecture, a podcast, slides, a full document. Start it and go do something else, it finishes in the background and tells you when it lands. See Background Tasks.
- Ten to twenty minutes, and it really matters. Extended research.
When Not to Spend a Credit at All
Some things you already know, and typing them is faster than describing them:
- A list of twenty terms → New → Blank → Flashcards
- A table you have in your head → New → Blank → Table
- A quiz you want to write yourself → New → Blank → Quiz
All free, all instant, none of them touch your AI Creation Credits. See Starting from Blank.
A Reasonable First Hour
If you have just signed up and want a path rather than a menu:
- Upload one real source: something you actually need this week, not a test file.
- Ask it two questions in chat. This tells you whether the source came through cleanly, before you spend anything on it.
- Choose one creation: a video if you want an explanation, a summary if you want a reference, or flashcards if you need to memorize it. Free has one lifetime creation credit, so choose the result you need most.
- Quiz yourself on it. This is where you find out whether step 3 worked.
- Reuse the source later: on a paid plan, make another format such as a podcast or video without uploading the same file again.
The order matters. Checking the source in chat first is what stops you spending a credit on a document that turned out to be a scanned image with no readable text.
If You Pick Wrong
You have not lost the source. Everything you upload stays in your library, and you can build anything else from it later from the Create with AI menu on that item, no re-uploading.
If a creation itself fails, the credit comes back automatically. See When a Creation Fails.
Related
- Uploading Content, getting the source in.
- Getting Started with Scholarly, the whole product in one pass.
- Plans and Limits, what each creation costs.
- Starting from Blank, the free, no-AI starts.
- Choosing an AI Model, which model to run it with.
- AI 3D Models, the newest output, and when depth beats a diagram.