lecture-study-notes

name	lecture-study-notes
description	Convert a lecture slide deck or PDF into a clean, non-redundant, well-structured LaTeX study note with a table of contents, tables, and diagrams. Use when the user asks to "create study notes", "summarize a lecture/PDF into notes", "make revision notes", or "turn slides into notes", especially when LaTeX/PDF output is wanted.

Lecture → Clean LaTeX Study Notes

Turn a lecture deck (PDF/slides) into a polished, exam-ready LaTeX study note. The goal is a clean rewrite, not a slide-by-slide transcription: deduplicate, reorganize by concept, and visualize knowledge with tables and diagrams.

Workflow

1. Ingest the source

• For PDFs, read with the Read tool using the pages parameter in chunks of ≤20 pages (large decks fail if read whole). Read the entire deck before writing — do not sample. Note slide titles; they reveal the section structure.
• Capture: definitions, formulas, comparison tables, process steps, worked examples, and any "review question" slides (these flag exam-important points).
• Check for a tips.md (or similarly named tips/hints file) beside the source PDF or at the project root. If present, read it in full — it holds lecturer-given exam tips, predicted scenarios, or hinted topics that don't appear verbatim on the slides. Keep each tip as a checklist item to cross-reference while drafting (step 4).

2. Plan the structure (deduplicate)

• Group slides by concept, not by slide order. Lecture decks repeat the same idea across several slides (e.g. multiple "example" slides for one definition, a diagram repeated 3×). Collapse each concept into one clean treatment.
• Draft a logical table of contents. Reorder so foundational concepts precede advanced ones, even if the deck presented them out of order.
• Drop pure filler slides (title, "Thank you", decorative images with no content).

3. Choose representation per piece of content

Pick the form that conveys the knowledge best — do not default to bullet lists:

Source content	Best representation
"A vs B vs C" comparisons	tabularx table with colored header row
Process / pipeline / steps	TikZ flow diagram (boxes + arrows)
Hierarchy / taxonomy	TikZ tree
Definitions	defbox (tcolorbox)
Formulas	display math \[ ... \], optionally inside a keybox
Worked examples / key takeaways	keybox
Exam hints (from review-question slides)	exambox
Lecturer tip/hint (from tips.md) covered by this content	tipbox (see step 4)
Terminology lists	two-column table (Term

4. Write the LaTeX

• Copy assets/template.tex as the starting point — it defines the colour scheme, custom boxes (keybox, defbox, exambox), header/footer, and section styling.
• Fill in \title, the Learning Objectives box, \tableofcontents, and the sections.
• Keep prose tight. Bold key terms with \term{...}. Never copy slide text verbatim if it is awkward — rewrite for clarity.
• Pin every table/figure to its section. Place each table/figure immediately after the \section{...}/\subsection{...} command it belongs to (with a short lead-in sentence if useful), and force it to stay there with the [H] placement specifier from \usepackage{float} (already in the template) instead of [h]/[htbp]. LaTeX's normal float algorithm can otherwise drift a table above the heading that introduces it or push it past unrelated content onto a later page.
• Mark tip coverage. If a tips.md was found in step 1, check off each tip against the section/subsection that addresses it. Immediately after the relevant content, insert a tipbox (defined in the template) quoting or paraphrasing the matched tip, e.g. \begin{tipbox}Covers: "5V — technical term linked to each V".\end{tipbox}. This gives the student a visible marker showing which tip-sheet items are covered where. Only add a tipbox where content genuinely matches a tip — never fabricate coverage. If no tips file was found, skip this entirely (don't add empty or placeholder tipboxes).

5. Compile and verify

pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode -halt-on-error notes.tex   # run twice for the TOC

• Fix any errors (see Gotchas). Then visually verify by reading a few pages of the output PDF (title/TOC page, a TikZ-diagram page, a table page) to confirm nothing overflows or overlaps. Adjust diagram bend/spacing if labels collide.

Gotchas

• \rowcolor requires \usepackage{colortbl} (already in the template).
• xelatex may be absent; use pdflatex or lualatex.
• Read PDFs in ≤20-page slices; reading without pages fails on large files.
• TikZ feedback/curved-arrow labels can overlap nodes — increase the bend angle and add a small yshift to the label.
• Run pdflatex twice so the table of contents and page numbers resolve.
• Always use \begin{table}[H]/\begin{figure}[H] (needs \usepackage{float}, already in the template) — never [h]/[htbp]. Without [H], LaTeX may float a table above the section/subsection heading that introduces it.

Output conventions

• Name the file <ChapterOrTopic>-Notes.tex, place it beside the source PDF.
• Deliver the compiled PDF; report page count and confirm it compiled clean.
• If a tips.md was used, mention in your final report how many of its tips were matched with tipbox markers, and flag any tip that didn't map to content in the deck.