#361 – Generating Diagrams with Napkin AI

#361 — Generating Diagrams with Napkin AI

AVID Open Access
9 min

Keywords
napkin AI, visual expert, beta version, free access, text import, AI generator, diagram customization, collaboration tools, export options, content generation, informative diagrams, slide shows, handouts, website visuals, AI resources

Transcript

Paul Beckermann 0:01
Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I’m your host, Paul Beckermann.

Transition Music 0:04
Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann 0:16
The topic of today’s episode is Generating Diagrams With Napkin AI. Recently, I’ve heard my tech integration and teaching friends buzzing about a new AI tool called Napkin AI, so I figured I’d better check it out. What I found was a helpful tool for creating clear and simple content summaries with accompanying diagrams for visuals. In its FAQ section, Napkin describes itself saying, “Napkin helps you transform your existing text content into visuals like diagrams, charts, scenes, and images.” Think of it as having a personal visual expert right at your fingertips, ready to bring your ideas to life. For time-strapped educators, this type of virtual friend can be helpful. Here’s a summary of what I found when I explored Napkin AI.

Transition Music 1:06
Here’s the, here’s the, here’s the tool for today. Here’s the tool for today.

Paul Beckermann 1:12
First of all, I wanted to find out a little bit about Napkin AI, and I discovered it’s not currently available on mobile, so I had to access it on my computer workstation. That’s really not a big deal for me because that’s where I do my planning work. Second, I discovered that Napkin is still in beta, which means that they’re still actively developing their product. Because of that, new features might appear at any time, and you just need to be ready for that. It also means that the developers are not charging for the product. You can access all the features for free, at least for now, and napkin says that they will never take away any of the content that you have created, even if the plans change. So now is a great time to get in there and create some things. With that understanding, I created my account. I had the option of signing in with Google or creating an account with my email. I chose the Google option. Once logged in, it was pretty clear how I should begin. I was greeted by a single menu button in the middle of the page that said, “Create my first napkin.” So, I clicked it and began. From there, I was offered two choices: paste in my own text content, or have the Napkin AI engine generate text for me. If you already have the content, the pasting option would make a lot of sense. It would allow you to control exactly what the content says. For now, the only way to import text is to copy and paste it, which is probably not an issue in most situations. They indicate that they are working on options to import from other formats, like PowerPoint, PDF, or docs, but those are not ready yet.

For my trial run with Napkin, I wanted to try out the AI generator, so I chose that option. For the AI generation, I was able to write a prompt in the prompt box, much like I would do with any generative AI tool. For my try, I typed in “Writing a Metaphor,” and then I clicked “Continue.” From there, I was given a nicely outlined guide of four sections with the title: Crafting Metaphors, A Guide to Figurative Language.” The sections included “Understanding Metaphors,”Components of a Strong Metaphor,” “Examples of Effective Metaphors,” and “Tips for Writing Your Own Metaphor.” It also had an introduction and a conclusion, and I found that this was a pretty standard style for most of the summaries that it generated. I thought the summary for metaphors was on point, easy to understand, and generally, pretty helpful. Once you have the text generated or inserted, then you can hover your mouse to the left of any section of text. By doing that, a blue lightning bolt icon appears. If you click that icon, Napkin will go to work generating a diagram to help visually summarize the content in that section. When I clicked the lightning bolt, I received a collection of diagram options in a scrollable menu. When I clicked the one I liked the best, it inserted it into the document below the text. Pretty intuitive. That wasn’t the end of the fun, however. I had lots of control over customizing the diagrams. I could click on any icon included in a diagram to expose another little lightning bolt, which gave me lots of different icons I could choose from instead of the one I was originally offered. Below the image was another menu that offered options for Spark search to look for custom icons and even add shapes to your image, a labeling tool to add any additional text that I desired, a sketch option in case I wanted to mark up the diagram with a digital pen, and an image option, which allowed me to upload, drag-and-drop, or paste in my own images to the diagram that had been generated for me. I could customize it in a lot of ways.

Beyond that, I could resize elements by stretching the corners, edit the font type, the font style, alignment, and color. I could even add a frame around certain elements. If I wanted to download just a part of the graphic, or maybe even the entire illustration, I could do either of those things, too. Napkin allows for collaboration, as well. To aid in that process, you can add comments along the right margin, much like you do in a Google Doc. It’s pretty intuitive. The sharing process was also much like Google or Microsoft. You simply click the share button by your profile image at the top, and then share by adding in someone’s email or sending somebody a shareable link. There are options for allowing collaborators to view, comment, edit, or edit and share. If you’d like to download a copy of your finished work instead, you can export it as a PNG, SVG, or PDF file type. If you choose the PDF option, you can download as a single continuous page so none of the images get broken up. Or you can choose to download in a format that’s broken up into several pages that you can then print. Beyond that, there’s a library menu at the top left as well as a button to create a new Napkin. It’s all pretty simple and intuitive. So when would I use this?

Transition Music 6:04
How do I use it? Integration inspiration. Integration ideas.

Paul Beckermann 6:08
Number one, I’d consider it for content generation. If I’m looking to generate clear, organized, and accessible overview information about a topic, Napkin does a pretty nice job of generating that. Of course, you could do this with ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other generative AI tool of your choice. Number two, it’s great for generating diagrams. Napkin is not really an image generator, in my opinion. It doesn’t produce pictures. Rather, it creates informative diagrams that can help you organize ideas and concepts in a visual manner. You could create these by hand using the insert diagram feature in your favorite productivity tool, like Google Slides, or you could have Napkin create some options for you. You can then use those as a starting point and revise them however you desire. Number three, I think it’d be great for adding visuals to slide shows and handouts and websites. While you can use the generated diagrams any way that you’d like, they do lend themselves well to slide shows and handouts and websites. In fact, if you like the content as well as the visuals, you could print them out and use them just as they’ve been generated. You’d have a complete handout. Or you can select just the visual elements that you like, or maybe some of the text, and insert those pieces into a project of your choice, like a slide show or a website. In its current beta form, that’s about all there is to this new tool called Napkin. If you’re looking for visuals, particularly diagrams to go along with your content, this just might be the tool that you’re looking for.

To learn more about today’s topic and explore other free resources, visit AvidOpenAccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out our collection of articles about AI. You can find it by going to AvidOpenAccess.org and searching for “AI in the K-12 Classroom.” And, of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for our full-length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we’re joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.