**Lecture Slides and Recording Into One Set of Notes | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/students/slides-and-lecture/ Slides and lecture # Turn your lecture slides and the recording into one set of notes Add the slide PDF and a photo of the board to the lecture you recorded. SozAI reads the pages and writes the notes from what was said and what was shown. [Add slides to my lecture free](https://sozai.app/download/) ## The short answer In the SozAI app for iPhone, iPad, Android or Mac, open a lecture's recording and add its slides as a PDF, plus photos of handouts or the whiteboard. SozAI reads the text on them and rebuilds the notes from the transcript and the pages together. The quizzes and cards you make after that use both as well. A PDF can have up to 50 pages and 50 MB, a photo up to 15 MB, and one recording up to 20 files. SozAI reads text, not drawings. Adding files is not available on web.sozai.app. ## Why the notes need both The slides and the recording fail in opposite ways. Slides are terse: a heading, four bullet points, a chart. The explanation and the worked example are only in what the lecturer said, and so is the hint that something will come up. The recording has all of that, but it hears names and formulas by sound, foreign terms too, and sound is where they get misspelled. The same goes for lecture capture videos. A posted video may show the slides on screen, but the transcript is made from the sound, so the words on the slides never reach the notes. Download the deck from the course page and add it to the recording anyway. Put together, the recording carries the argument and the slides carry the spelling. That is the order we'd trust them in, too: when the two disagree on a fact, the lecturer's words are usually the newer version, and the slide is usually right about how a term is written. ## How to add slides and photos to a lecture 1. Record the lecture or upload its file, and wait for the transcript. 2. Open the recording and go to Sources. Tap Add a source and choose PDF file, Photos from gallery (up to 20 at a time) or Take a photo for a page, a slide or the whiteboard. On a Mac you can drag the PDF or photos onto the window. 3. SozAI uploads the files and shows Reading the text… with the page it has reached. You can leave the screen. 4. When the pages are read, the notes are made again from the transcript and the pages, usually within a minute. 5. Make the quiz and the flashcards after this step, so they draw on the slides too. If you only have a PDF or photos and no recording, start a new record from PDF & photos instead. SozAI reads the pages and writes notes from them; quizzes and cards follow as usual. ![Mac app adding a PDF and photos: drop zone, file limits and progress for each file being read](https://sozai.app/wp-content/themes/sozai/assets/images/screens/en/mac-sources-pdf-photos-reading.webp) ## File limits Checked in the app in October 2026. | What | Limit | | --- | --- | | Formats | PDF, JPEG, PNG, HEIC | | One PDF | Up to 50 pages and 50 MB; split a longer one into parts | | One photo | Up to 15 MB | | Photos at once | Up to 20 | | Files per recording | Up to 20 | | Password-protected PDFs | Not accepted; remove the password first | | Files added to recordings, per month | 10 on a free account, 300 with Premium | | New documents from PDF or photos only, per month | 3 on a free account, 100 with Premium | Pages and photos don't use transcription minutes; they count against the monthly limits above. The lecture recording itself can be up to 500 MB. ## Photos that read well SozAI can only use the text it can read, so the photo decides most of the result. Shoot the board straight on rather than from the side, so the lines don't slant. Get the whole board in the frame, then a closer shot of the dense corner. Good light matters more than resolution. Printed slides read better than handwriting, and small, fast handwriting may come back partly or not at all. For a paper handout, photograph each page on its own, flat on the desk; twenty photos fit in one batch. A slide that is only a chart or a diagram adds little: SozAI reads the words on it, not the shape of the curve. Write the one line the lecturer said about the chart into your own notes instead. ## The mind map Once the notes have chapters, open Mind map from the notes. Each chapter becomes a branch, and tapping one opens that place in the notes. You can zoom, show the whole map, and share it as an image for a study group. The map is built from the chapters, so a short recording whose notes have none won't get one. It works best as an overview before a review session: a minute on the map shows which part of the lecture you can't explain yet, and that is where to start. ![Mind map of a macroeconomics lecture on Mac, one chapter selected with its summary and timestamps beside it](https://sozai.app/wp-content/themes/sozai/assets/images/screens/en/mac-mindmap-chapter.webp) ## Where the pages go Photos and PDF pages are read by a third-party AI service to get their text, and the notes are written by AI models, after you agree to that once in the app. Files are stored on our servers in Germany (Hetzner), and every company that processes them is listed on the [sub-processors page](https://sozai.app/subprocessors/). Deleting the recording deletes its sources with it. ## When SozAI is not the right tool - You study on a laptop through the web version only. Adding PDFs and photos needs one of the apps. - Your material is mostly equations, diagrams or handwriting that is hard to read. SozAI reads text; the rest needs your own notes. - You want slides generated for you. SozAI reads slides; it doesn't make them. - You have a whole textbook to work through. One PDF stops at 50 pages, so take the chapters the lecture covered. More on the full study loop: [SozAI for students](https://sozai.app/students/). What the Lecture template puts in the notes: [lecture notes](https://sozai.app/lecture-notes/). Lectures in another language: [translate the transcript and notes](https://sozai.app/students/lecture-in-another-language/). Revising afterwards: [exam prep](https://sozai.app/students/exam-prep/). Updated October 27, 2026 By [Merey Tleugazin](https://sozai.app/about/merey/) Answers ## Frequently asked questions Can SozAI make notes from my lecture slides and the recording together? Yes. Open the recording in the app, add the slides as a PDF under Sources, and SozAI rebuilds the notes from the transcript and the slides together. So do the quiz and cards you make after that. Can I add a photo of the whiteboard to my lecture notes? Yes. Choose Take a photo or Photos from gallery under Add a source; up to 20 photos at a time, 15 MB each. SozAI reads the text in the photo, so shoot straight on and in good light. Does SozAI read handwriting? Sometimes. It reads the text it can recognize in the photo, and clear writing has a much better chance than small, fast handwriting. If no text is found, the app tells you so for that photo. Can I make notes from a PDF without any recording? Yes. Start a new record from PDF & photos and SozAI writes notes from the pages, and a quiz if you want one. A free account can create 3 such documents a month, Premium 100. Does SozAI make a mind map of a lecture? Yes, in the apps (not on the web). Open Mind map from the notes: each chapter is a branch, tapping it opens that part of the notes, and you can share the map as an image. Can I add slides on the web version? No. Adding PDFs and photos works in every SozAI app, not in the browser. A lecture with slides added in the app shows the rebuilt notes on web.sozai.app as well, because it is the same account. Do PDFs and photos use my transcription minutes? No. Pages and photos count against a monthly file limit instead: 10 files added to recordings on a free account and 300 with Premium. Only transcribing audio uses minutes. Turn your next recording into text Record, upload a file or paste a link. You get the transcript, speakers and a summary back. [Add slides to my lecture free](https://sozai.app/download/) Free on iOS and Android. No account required for YouTube transcripts. --- This is the markdown twin of https://sozai.app/students/slides-and-lecture/ — the same content, without the markup. Published by SozAI (https://sozai.app). Reuse and quotation are allowed with attribution and a link back. Machine-readable index: https://sozai.app/llms.txt · data API: https://sozai.app/api/