Notebooks give you a place to collaboratively record your research. You can have as many notebooks your team requires. Use custom tags to categorize them by project, team, or any other attribute you choose. This topic covers the process of authoring a notebook, including creating it, adding to it, editing it, and submitting it for review.

• Create New Notebook
• Notebook ID Generation
• Expand and Collapse Detail Panel
• Create New Tag (Biologics Only)
• Add Custom Fields (Experimental Feature)
• Rename a Notebook
• Copy a Notebook
• Add to a Notebook
• Add to an Entry
• Rename an Entry
• Add a Reference
• Add References in Bulk
• Add a New Day
• Comment on an Entry
• Add Attachments
• Add a Table
• Adjust Wide Tables
• Entry Locking and Protection
• Manage Entries
• Add an Entry
• Archive Entry
• Copy Entry
• Reorder Entries
• Archive Notebook
• Access Archived Notebooks
• Submit for Review

Create New Notebook

To create a new notebook, click Create Notebook from the Notebooks Home dashboard.

• Enter a Notebook Title.
• Select the Tag from the dropdown. Available in LabKey Biologics LIMS only. Whether this field is required or optional is controlled by an administrator setting.
• If you are a Biologics LIMS administrator, you can click Create new tag to add a new one.
• Enter a Description.
• Select Start and end dates.
• By default, You are an author. Use the selection menu to add more Co-authors.
• If you have templates defined, you can choose one to use by clicking Browse Templates.

• Click Create Notebook.

Notebook ID Generation

When you create a new notebook, a unique ID value is generated for it. This can be used to help differentiate notebooks with similar names, and cannot be edited later. The format of this ID is:

ELN-{userID}-{date}-{rowId}

For example, the user creating the notebook here has assigned User ID "1006", the date it was created was November 30, 2022, and it is the second one created on this server.

Expand and Collapse Detail Panel

The left panel of the notebook screen displays a table of contents, full listing of references to this notebook as well as items this notebook references, and attachments for the notebook and any entries. This section can be collapsed by clicking the and expanded again by clicking the .

Create New Tag (Biologics Only)

During notebook creation in LabKey Biologics, the author can select an existing tag. If that author is also an administrator, they have the option to click Create new tag to add a new one.

Learn more about tags in this topic:

• Manage Tags

Add Custom Fields (Experimental Feature)

To define and use custom fields for your notebooks to support additional classification that is meaningful to your team, you must first enable the experimental feature "Notebook Custom Fields".

Once enabled, you will see a Custom Fields section. Use Add custom field to select an existing field to add to this notebook. Type ahead to narrow the list of existing fields to find the one you want. Shown here, the "ColumnTemperature" field is added and you can now provide a value for this field for this notebook.

To manage the set of custom fields available in your application, click Manage custom fields. In the popup you can see the existing defined fields and how many notebooks are currently using them. Here you can also add new fields, and edit or remove any fields not currently in use. Click Done Editing Fields when finished.

Rename a Notebook

A notebook author can click the to rename a notebook. Non-authors will not see the edit icon. While the system does not require names to be unique, you will want to choose something that will help your colleagues identify it on lists and dashboards.

Copy a Notebook

Once you have created and populated a notebook, you can copy it to create a new notebook with the same details. This is similar to creating a new notebook from a template, except that templates do NOT include the value of any custom fields, and copied notebooks do include these values. You do not need to be a notebook author to make a copy of it. Select Save As > Copy.

Give your new notebook a name, and if using within Biologics, you can select a tag (the tag of the one you copied is the default). Click Yes, Copy Notebook to create the new one.

Add to a Notebook

A notebook lets you record your work in a series of entries, each of which can have a custom name, span multiple days, include references to data in the application, and support entry-specific comment threads.

The Table of Contents on the left lists the entries, references (both to this notebook and from this notebook to other entities), and attachments. On the right, the header section lists the name and ID, the authors, shows the tag (if any), creation details, and status. A new empty notebook looks like this:

As you complete your notebook, everything is saved automatically. Note that refresh is not continuous, so if you are simultaneously editing with other authors, you may need to refresh your browser to see their work.

Add to an Entry

The New Entry panel is where you can begin to write your findings and other information to be recorded.

The formatting header bar for an entry includes:

• Insert: Select to add:
• Table
• Attachment
• New Day
• Reference
• Styling menu: Defaults to Normal and offers 3 heading levels.
• Font size: Defaults to 14; choose values between 8 and 96 point type.
• Special characters: Add mu, delta, angstrom, degree, lambda, less than or equal, greater than or equal, and plus minus characters.
• Bold, Italics, Underline, Strikethrough
• : Link selected text to the target of your choice.
• / : Make a text selection a super- or sub-script.
• Text color. Click to select.
• Alignment selections: Left, center, or right alignment; indent or dedent.
• : Numbered (ordered) lists
• : Bullet (unordered) lists
• : Checkboxes
• and : Undo and Redo.
• : Clear formatting.

Rename an Entry

Click the next to the "New Entry" title to rename it.

Add a Reference

Within the entry panel, you can use the Insert > Reference menu, or within the text, just type a '/' forward slash to reference an available resource.

The / menu lets you select the category you want to reference:

If you click Samples you will next be able to click one of the existing Sample Types, then can type ahead to Search within that category, or the most recent entries in that category are shown.

When referencing Assays, if the Assay Type you choose includes Batch fields, you'll have the option to reference either runs or batches.

Once added, the reference appears as a color-coded lozenge in the text, and is also added to the Referenced Items list in the Table of Contents panel. Click the to expand the Samples listing:

Add References in Bulk

After selecting the type of reference you want to add, you can click Reference multiple [type of reference].

In the popup, you can:

• Paste (or type) your references into the box, one per line. Use Sample IDs as shown below, for example.
• Click Upload file to upload a file of references, supported formats include .csv, .tsv, .txt
• In the case of samples, assays, media, or registry entity references, click Change [category] to switch types within that category.

If any pasted or uploaded references cannot be found, you'll see a warning listing the invalid references (valid references are not shown in the warning.

You can either:

• Correct any errors and click Recheck References
• Or click to Skip and Add References, proceeding without the ones not found.

Add a New Day

Place the cursor where you want to add a marker for a new date. Select Insert > New Day. A date marker will be added to the panel for today's date.

Hover to reveal a delete icon. Click the day to open a calendar tool, letting you choose a different day to reference. Record activities for that day below the marker.

Comment on an Entry

Click Start a thread to add a comment to any entry. Each entry supports independent comment threads, and an entry may have multiple independent comment threads for different discussions.

By default you will enter comments in Markdown Mode; you can switch to Preview mode before saving. Other dashboard options include bold, italic, links, bullets, and numbered lists. Click the button to attach a file to your comment.

Type and format your comment, then click Add Comment.

Once your comment has been saved, you or other collaborators can click Reply to add to the thread. Or Start a thread to start a new discussion.

For each thread, there is a menu offering the options:

• Edit comment (including adding or removing files attached to comments)
• Delete thread

Add Attachments

Attachments, such as image files, protocol documents, or other material can be attached to the notebook.

• To add to the notebook as a whole, click the Attachments area in the Table of Contents area on the left (or drag and drop attachments from your desktop).
• To add an attachment to an entry, select Insert > Attachment. You can also paste the image directly into the entry; it will be added as an attachment for you.

Once a notebook has attachments, each will be shown in a selector box with a menu offering:

• Copy link: Copy a link that can be pasted into another part of an ELN, where it will show the attachment name already linked to the original attachment. You can also paste only the text portion of the link by using CMD + Shift + V on Mac OS, or CTRL + Shift + V on Windows.
• Download
• Remove attachment

Note that the details panel on the left has sections for attachments on each entry, as well as "Shared Attachments" attached to the notebook as a whole. Each section can be expanded and collapsed using the / icons.

Add a Table

You can add a table directly using the Insert > Table menu item, directly entering content. You can also paste directly from either Google Sheets or Excel either into that table, or into a plain text area and a table will be added for you.

Adjust Wide Tables

After adding a table to an ELN, you can use the table tools menu to add/remove columns and rows and merge/unmerge cells. Drag column borders to adjust widths for display.

When configured, you'll be able to export to PDF and adjust page layout settings to properly show wider tables.

Entry Locking and Protection

Many users can simultaneously collaborate on creating notebooks. Individual notebook entries are locked while any user is editing, so that another user will not be able to overwrite their work and will also not lose work of their own.

While you are editing an entry, you will periodically see that it is being saved in the header:

Other users looking at the same entry at the same time will be prevented from editing, and see your updates 'live' in the browser. A lock icon and the username of who is editing are shown in the grayed header while the entry is locked.

Manage Entries

Your notebook can contain as many entries as needed to document your work. To add additional panels, click Add Entry at the bottom of the current notebook. You can also add a new entry by copying an existing entry.

Use the menu to:

• Archive Entry
• Copy Entry
• Reorder Entries

Archive Entry

You cannot completely delete an entry in a notebook. Archiving an entry collapses and hides the entry.

• You can immediately Undo this action if desired.
• Note that when an entry is archived, any references in it will still be protected from deletion. If you don't want these references to be 'locked' in this way, delete them from the entry prior to archiving. You could choose to retain a plain text description of what references were deleted before archiving, just in case you might want to 'unarchive' the entry.

Return to the active entries using Archive > View Active Entries.

Copy Entry

Create a duplicate of the current entry, including all contents. It will be placed immediately following the entry you copied, and have the same name with "(Copy)" appended. You can change both the name and position.

Reorder Entries

Select to open a panel where you can drag and drop to rearrange the entries. Click Save to apply the changes.

Archive Notebook

You cannot delete a notebook (just as you cannot fully delete a notebook entry, but you can Archive it so that it no longer appears active. Archived notebooks will be locked for editing, removed from your list of recently accessed notebooks, and will no longer show in your active notebooks. They can be restored at a later time.

To archive a notebook, select Archive > Archive Notebook from the top of the notebook editing page.

Access Archived Notebooks

From the Notebook Dashboard, select Manage > Archive. You'll see a grid of archived notebooks making it easier to restore them or otherwise access their contents.

To Restore (i.e. undo the archiving of) a notebook, open it from the archived Notebooks list and click Restore.

Submit for Review

When your notebook is ready for review, click Submit for Review.

You'll review your entries, references, and attachments to confirm you have included everything necessary, then click Go to Signature Page.

• Select one or more reviewers from the Request review by dropdown. You'll see individual users as well as any project groups that have been assigned the "Editor" role.
• You can also provide a deadline, and comments if needed.
• Verify your identity by providing your LabKey login, i.e email address and password. This verification positively identifies the submitter.
• Check the box to certify that the data contained in the notebook and all attachments are accurate.

Learn more about the notebook review process in this topic:

• Notebook Review

Related Topics

• LabKey ELN
• Manage Tags
• Export Notebook
• Notebook Review
• Notebook Templates