Study tool
Cornell Notes Generator
Lay your notes out on the Cornell pattern: a narrow cue column for the questions you will ask yourself, a wide column for the notes, and a summary band across the bottom. Write several sheets, then print one page or save it as a PDF.
Everything happens in this page. Your sheets are kept in this browser so a half-written set survives a reload, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Loading the Cornell notes tool…
Why the cues are not generated for you
The value of the Cornell format is not the layout. It is that you return to the material and retrieve it, and generating the cues would remove exactly that step. A tool that wrote your questions would produce a tidier page that taught you less, which is why this one formats what you wrote and does nothing else.
Cues should be questions, not headings. “What triggers mitosis?” makes you produce an answer. “Mitosis” does not.
Write the summary the next day, from memory. Doing it in the same sitting turns it into copying, because the detail is still in front of you.
Printing
The print button prints the sheet only, without the surrounding page, so it comes out on one sheet rather than several. If you are on mobile, saving as a PDF from the print dialog gives you the same result as a file.
Why the Cornell layout works, and when it does not
The page is divided into a narrow cue column, a wide notes column, and a summary strip at the bottom. The layout is doing a specific job: notes go on the right as you listen or read, questions and keywords go on the left afterwards, and the summary forces you to compress the page into a few sentences once you have finished.
The value is in that last step rather than in the note-taking. Writing a summary requires deciding what the page was actually about, which is the same act as recalling it, so the summary strip is the part that earns the layout. A page of notes with an empty summary has skipped the work.
It suits lectures and readings that have a clear structure. It suits less well for anything highly visual, such as diagrams or equations that need space, where a plain page with room to draw is more useful than a fixed three-column grid.
Keep the cue column for questions rather than for headings. A heading repeats what is already in the notes, whereas a question forces an answer and gives you something to test yourself with later, which is the point of having the column at all.
Further reading: Read the full guide: Cornell Notes Generator
Common questions
Does it write the cue questions for me?
No. The cue column is the part of the Cornell method that does the work, because it forces you to return to the material and retrieve an answer. A tool that wrote your questions would produce a tidier page and teach you less, so this one formats what you wrote and nothing else.
What goes in each column?
The narrow left column holds questions you will ask yourself later. The wide right column holds the notes themselves. The band across the bottom holds a summary, which is best written the following day from memory rather than during the lecture.
Should the cues be questions or topics?
Questions. "What triggers mitosis?" makes you produce an answer, which is retrieval practice. The topic name "Mitosis" does not, so it is a heading in the cue column rather than a cue.
Can I print the sheets?
Yes. The print button prints the sheet by itself, without the surrounding navigation, so it comes out on one page rather than several. Printing to PDF from the browser dialog gives the same result as a file.
Are my notes saved anywhere?
Only in your browser, using local storage, so a half-written set survives a reload. Nothing is uploaded. Clearing site data for this domain will remove them, so print or download anything you want to keep.
What this tool does
Lays notes out on the Cornell pattern: a cue column for questions, a wide notes column, and a summary band across the bottom.
What you give it
Cue questions, notes, and a summary, typed by the reader.
What you get back
A printable sheet, or several sheets held as tabs.
It runs entirely inside your browser. Nothing you type or open is uploaded, and it works with the network disconnected.
Does not generate the cue questions for you, because producing them is the part of the method that does the work.