How to get the most out of Recitare: a step-by-step workflow

Go to recitare.app/app and drop your file onto the upload area. Recitare accepts PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, and images (JPG, PNG, TIFF). You can also paste a URL. Any webpage or arXiv paper link works.

Pro tip: For arXiv papers, just paste the abstract URL (e.g., arxiv.org/abs/2401.12345). Recitare will fetch and parse the full paper automatically.

Once uploaded, the Document Intelligence Card appears showing difficulty level, estimated reading time vs. listening time, key terms, and a suggested reading mode. This helps you decide how to approach the paper before you start.

Recitare offers 5 reading modes. Each mode shows only the tools relevant to that workflow, keeping the interface clean:

• Listen: Pure playback with sentence highlighting. Best for first passes and background listening.
• Study: Adds Ask Max chat, Snap-to-Explain, and comprehension checks. Best for deep reading when you need to understand every section.
• Exam: AI summaries, study guides, and Audio Overview. Best for exam prep and review.
• Research: Text analysis tools (word cloud, concordance, collocates). Best for literature reviews and paper triage.
• Simplify: AI explanations and summaries. Best when the material is above your current level.

Not sure which mode to pick? Start with Listen for your first pass. Switch to Study for your second pass on sections that didn't click. Use Exam the night before a test.

Before hitting Play, configure your listening preferences in the Controls bar:

• Speed: Start at 1x for difficult material. Increase to 1.5x or 2x for review passes or familiar content. Drop to 0.75x for statistics-heavy sections.
• Voice: Choose from 6 personas across American, British, and Australian accents. Pick whichever voice is easiest on your ears for long sessions.
• TTS tier: Toggle between Free (quality AI voices), or Premium (Inworld TTS-1.5 Max, highest quality, expressive). The toggle is in the Controls bar.

The science: Research by Pastore (2012) found that learner-controlled pacing improves comprehension by up to 40% compared to fixed-speed playback. Don't be afraid to change speed mid-document. Slow down for methods, speed up for lit reviews.

This is where most people go wrong. Listening to a paper isn't like listening to a podcast. You need to engage with the text as it plays. Here's how:

• Pause when confused. Hit pause, re-read the highlighted sentence, and use Quick Insights (sparkle icon) if you need a plain-language explanation.
• Use Skip Back to replay the previous sentence. It's faster than scrubbing.
• Ask While Listening (Reader/Pro): Tap the floating “hand raise” button to pause and ask Max a question about what you just heard. Audio resumes after you get your answer.
• In Study mode, comprehension checks will pause playback automatically after each section. Answer them honestly. They reveal gaps before you move on.

Academic papers are full of charts, tables, and diagrams that TTS can't read. Don't skip them.

Click the Snap-to-Explain (crosshair icon in the toolbar), then drag a rectangle over any figure. Recitare captures it at 300 DPI and sends it to Max for analysis. Within seconds, Max explains:

• What the axes and labels represent
• The key trends or patterns in the data
• How the figure relates to the paper's argument

The explanation opens in the Tutor Sidebar with auto-narration. Click “Add to Notes” to copy the screenshot + explanation to your clipboard for Goodnotes, Notion, or any notes app.

Pro tip: Snip locations are saved. When you revisit the document, amber lightbulb icons appear over previously-analyzed figures. Click to replay the explanation.

After your reading pass, generate study materials while the paper is still fresh:

• AI Summary: One-click summary with page citations. Export as Markdown or PDF. Good for building a library of paper summaries.
• Study Guide: Choose from 5 formats: Key Concepts, Q&A Pairs, Cornell Notes, Outline, or Flashcards. Each format is optimized for a different study technique.
• Audio Overview: Generate a two-voice podcast about the paper. Listen during your commute to reinforce what you read.

The best workflow: Generate a Q&A study guide immediately after reading. Test yourself 24 hours later (spaced repetition). Use the Flashcards format for exam prep. Export to Anki or study in Recitare.

If you're reviewing multiple papers, switch to Research Mode (left toolbar toggle). This opens a text analysis panel with four tabs:

• Word Cloud: See the paper's key terms weighted by importance (TF-IDF)
• Term Heatmap: Spot where specific terms cluster across pages
• Concordance: See every occurrence of a term with surrounding context
• Collocates: Find words that statistically co-occur with your selected term

Triage strategy: Upload a paper, check the Document Overview (word count, readability, key terms), scan the Word Cloud, and decide in 2 minutes whether it's worth a full read. This alone can save hours during a lit review.