Cornell Notes Template: Free Copy for Docs and Word

A Cornell notes template splits each page into three parts: a narrow cue column on the left for questions and keywords, a wide notes column on the right for what you hear in class, and a summary box across the bottom. Copy the free template below, or build it in Google Docs or Word in two minutes.

The layout comes from Walter Pauk, a Cornell education professor, and his book How to Study in College. Cornell University's Learning Strategies Center still teaches it. Further down you will find a filled example and a way to fill gaps from a lecture recording. We make a note-taking app and say where it fits, but you do not need it to use this template.

The Learning Strategies Center's one-page handout, adapted from Pauk's book, draws the page like this:

Select the table, paste it into Word, Google Docs or your notes app, and replace each bracket. Use one page per lecture, or one per topic in a long lecture.

The handout lists five steps. The template only works if you do steps 2 to 5: a page with an empty cue column is just ordinary notes.

Write the summary box after class as well, in your own words. Many guides call step 2 "Reduce", because the questions shrink the notes down to what you need to remember.

1. Open a new document and type a line for the course, the date and the topic.
2. Choose Insert, then Table, and pick 2 columns by 2 rows.
3. Click in the table and open Format, then Table, then Table options. Set the left column to about 30% of the width and the right column to about 70%.
4. Select both cells in the bottom row, right-click and choose Merge cells. That row is your summary box.
5. Press Enter inside the notes cell to make it as tall as you like. The cue cell grows with it.
6. Keep this file as your blank and make a copy for each lecture.

1. Type a line for the course, the date and the topic.
2. Choose Insert, then Table, and highlight 2 columns by 2 rows on the grid.
3. Click a cell in the left column, open the Table Layout tab, and type a width in the Table Column Width box of the Cell Size group. Do the same for the right column: 2 and 4.5 inches on US Letter, 5 and 12 cm on A4.
4. Select both cells in the bottom row, right-click and choose Merge Cells. That is the summary box.
5. Save the file as your blank and reuse a copy for each lecture.

An invented page from an introductory economics lecture on price elasticity of demand. Note the gap marked with the time.

Nobody writes everything down. Mark each gap with a question mark and the clock time, as in the example, and fill it after class. If you record the lecture, you can check the lecturer's exact words instead of guessing.

1. Ask first. Check your university policy and ask the lecturer before you record.
2. Take notes as usual during the lecture. Cornell's Learning Strategies Center says research shows notes by hand work better than typing on a laptop, so paper is fine. The recording is your backup, not your notes.
3. After class, find each marked time in the transcript or the recording, listen to that moment, and fill the notes column.
4. Write the cue questions yourself. That is the step that makes you think.
5. Write the summary box in your own words. An automatic summary of the lecture is not your Cornell summary.

Reline records your microphone, plus the computer's audio for an online lecture, locally on Mac, Windows, Linux (beta) or in the browser, and no bot joins. Transcription, AI and storage run in the cloud. It transcribes while it records, so the transcript is ready when the lecture ends, and you can press play on any transcript line to hear that moment again. That is how the ? 31:40 gap in the example gets filled.

You can also ask the chat on the note something like "List eight questions this lecture answers." The answer comes from your transcript and quotes the lines with their [m:ss] timestamps. Treat it as a draft. Rewrite the questions in your own words before they go in the cue column, or you skip the step that does the learning.

• No mobile app: you record from a laptop or a desktop, not a phone.
• Free is 10 hours of transcription and up to 1 hour of recording per note, so Free cuts a longer lecture, and 10 hours can run out within a term. Professional is $15 a month.
• Reline only transcribes what it records live. It cannot transcribe a file from another app or a recording downloaded from your course page.
• In a lecture hall everything reaches one microphone, so every line is labelled "Me". Names are not automatic.

Once your pages are done, the five steps carry you to the exam: recite from the cue column, then review weekly. These two guides cover the rest.