This is a bonus exercise for those who finish early or want to explore a more advanced feature of AI tools.
A notebook contains a set of related documents — for example, financial performance reports, compliance policies, or research papers. You load the documents in, and the AI uses only that content to answer your questions. It does not search the web or draw on its general training. This is sometimes called being grounded in the content.
This makes notebooks especially useful when:
Some AI assistants have a notebook capability:
In this exercise, create a notebook titled “Jane Austen Novels” and import some of her novels.
Here are 5 novels in text and Word format:
Custom instructions to add to the notebook:
Act as an expert in the novels of Jane Austen. Adopt an engaging, informal tone but keep your answers brief. Keep to the topic. If the user asks an unrelated question, politely decline to answer, reminding them that you can only answer questions on Austen’s novels.
Starter questions:
How does Jane Austen portray social class and its impact on relationships in her novels?
In what ways do Austen’s female protagonists challenge or conform to the gender norms of the Regency era?
How does Austen use irony and satire to critique societal expectations and conventions?
What role does marriage play in Austen’s novels?
How do Austen’s narrative techniques shape readers’ understanding of character and perspective?
If Jane Austen is not your thing, try this instead. Load a set of work-relevant documents — for example:
Then ask questions such as:
What does our policy say about [topic]?
Summarise the key actions required in the next quarter based on these reports.
Are there any contradictions or gaps across these documents?
What would a new team member most need to know from reading these?
This approach is particularly useful for onboarding, policy review, or research tasks — and because the AI is grounded in your documents, it is less likely to invent information.