Adding Items to a Notebook

In Uncountable, notebooks are built from individual items (or cells), which are modular blocks that display text, data, plots, comparisons, and more. You can add, rearrange, and edit these items to create reports, summaries, dashboards, or analysis pages.

Adding an Item

To add an item to a Notebook:

1. Open a Notebook page.
2. Click the Add Item button in the top toolbar or the gray + icon on the canvas.
3. From the dropdown menu, select the item type you want to insert.

Each inserted item appears as a cell. You can click and drag to move cells, resize or delete them, and edit their contents in place.

Supported Item Types

Text

Insert text blocks to add section headers, notes, commentary, or instructions. Use the toolbar at the top of the page to format text (bold, italic, underline), change color, add links, or leave comments.

Text cells in dashboard notebooks can also display dynamic values using Value Specs:

1. Add a Text cell and enter a Value Spec using the standard format.
2. Switch the dashboard to Preview mode.
3. The evaluated result appears in place of the Value Spec. When Live Update Mode is enabled, supported resolved values refresh with the notebook.

Custom Table

Create lightweight tables to summarize information manually. Add or remove rows and columns using the + Row and + Column buttons, and align content left, center, or right. Pasting tab-separated text, such as cells copied from a spreadsheet, into a notebook automatically creates a table.

See Table Builder for a detailed walkthrough.

In Live Update Mode, active notebook filters can also recompute Table Builder–backed cells. These cells are read-only while live updating; plain tables without a Table Builder configuration do not update automatically.

To refresh a table after its underlying values change (for example, a field referenced through a Value Spec or the recipe data the table points to), click the 🔨 icon and select Refresh Table Data.

Button

Add a Button cell to create quick links from a notebook or dashboard. Buttons can open an entity, page, listing, custom URL, or trigger in a new tab.

1. Select Button from the Add Item menu.
2. Add a name, description, icon, color, link type, and select the destination.
3. Save your changes.

Embedded Website

Embed a website link directly into your Notebook for quick reference or live data displays.

To add a site:

1. Select Embedded Website from the Add Item menu.
2. Paste the full URL into the modal and click Add.

An interactive preview of the site appears in the Notebook. Embedded websites are useful for dashboards, internal tools, and documentation links.

Structured List

Display data dynamically from your workspace by inserting a Structured List.

• Select the entity type (e.g., experiments, ingredients, batches).
• Choose the listing type:
  • Standard Listing – A configurable list view that can be searched and filtered.
  • Aggregated Listing – A summarized view used for analysis or chart generation. Learn more.

Once added to your notebook, users can:

• Add/remove columns columns by selecting List > Set Columns.
• Add filters by selecting the Filters button.
• Search the listing using the Search bar.

Column, filter, and sort changes you make to a structured list cell apply only to your own view and persist across sessions without affecting other users. To return to the default configuration, select List > Columns > Reset Listing.

To prevent users from creating new records from an embedded listing, enable Hide Create Button when adding the Structured List cell.

Experiment Comparison

By default, adding an Experiment Comparison cell will insert a Compare table with the 10 most recent experiments within the project.

To edit the table, click ⚙️ > Edit.

Settings include:

• Select Cell Type
  • Automatically Select Experiments: Displays the most recent 5, 10, or 25 experiments.
  • Manually Select Experiments: Choose experiments from a dropdown.
  • Infer Experiments with Value-Spec: Dynamically generate comparisons using value specifications.
• Select Most Recent Recent Experiments — Select whether to include the 5, 10, or 25 most recent experiments
• Select Inputs/Outputs — Manually select which inputs or outputs to include or use the checkboxes to include all inputs and outputs from the selected experiments.

Color outputs display an inline color swatch next to their value, making it easier to compare colors across experiments.

Signature Block

Add a Signature Block to record approvals or verifications directly within a Notebook.

To insert a signature block:

1. Select Signature Block from the Add Item menu.
2. Click Sign to open the sign modal.
3. Add your digital signature or create a new one if you haven’t set one up before.

Once signed, the block displays the signer’s name, timestamp, and signature image.

Equation

Add an equation cell to calculate or display formulas. Type your equation directly into the editor; a preview will render below.

Chart

Visualize grouped or aggregated data.

1. Select Chart from the Add Item menu.
2. Click Edit Chart Configuration to define your data source (experiments, equipment, etc.).
3. Choose grouping and aggregation columns, then select your chart type (bar, line, pie, radar, or ternary plot). Bar charts also support vertical or horizontal orientation and grouped or stacked series. See Horizontal and Stacked Bar Chart Options for Notebook Dashboards for details.
4. Configure axes and groupings, then click Save to display your chart.

Once added, the chart is embedded directly in your Notebook. Charts are dynamic, meaning that when Live Update Mode (View > Toggle Live Update Mode) is enabled, any changes to the project data are automatically reflected in the visualization.

Filter Control

Add filter controls to make notebook data and visualizations interactive. When adding a Filter Control cell, first select the entity type you want to filter (e.g. Experiments). After adding it, click Filters to configure the filter.

You can convert supported filters into interactive pill, dropdown, toggle, or text controls. Value Selection controls can also provide dashboard-wide entity or date-range selections, including relative defaults such as the previous month.

Filter Control cells are typically used for dashboard-style notebooks, where plots change dynamically based on the filters added.

To learn more, refer to the Dashboard Notebooks article.

Stacked Cell

Combine related elements, such as a chart and its supporting table, into a single stacked cell where each element appears as a tab.

1. Add a new cell and select Stacked Cell from the cell menu.
2. Click Configure Tabs.
3. Select the elements to stack into the cell and click Submit.
4. Use the tab headers in the cell to switch between elements.

Calendar

Add a Calendar cell to embed a calendar in a notebook or dashboard notebook. Resource timelines can also be embedded.

Page

Add additional pages within the same notebook to organize content by topic or workflow stage (e.g., Methods, Results, Summary). Pages appear in the sidebar and page tab bar at the bottom of the notebook.

Correlation Matrix

Insert a Correlation Matrix to visualize relationships between selected inputs and outputs. Click the pencil icon to open the matrix editor, then select variables to include.

To learn more, refer to View Correlations.

Chemical Structure

Embed Uncountable’s Chemical Search feature within your Notebook for quick molecule lookups or imports.

Chemical Structure cells also support drawing structures, uploading MOL and SDF files, viewing isotopic patterns, and building reaction diagrams. See Chemical Structure Cells and Reaction Diagrams for details.

See Chemical Search for more details.

Add File

Upload and embed files, such as images, directly. Drag and drop files into the modal or click to browse. To bring the contents of a Word document into a notebook as editable content rather than an embedded file, use File > Import from File; see Notebooks.

When multiple images are uploaded together into a single notebook image block, they can be split into separate image blocks after upload. This lets users move, edit, crop, annotate, or delete each image independently.

This is useful when teams capture multiple images at once but later need to organize them separately in a notebook, assign them to different sections, or compare them side by side.

Microsoft Office Files

Create new or embed existing Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files directly within your Notebook. These files open in Microsoft 365 Online for editing, and once saved, remain embedded in the Notebook for view-only access and easy reference.

Requires Office 365 integration and is not enabled by default in all environments. Uncountable users should contact their account manager for access.

New Experiment

Create experiments directly from your Notebook. In the modal, name the experiments, assign a workflow, and select a variant.

After creation, Uncountable automatically adds an experiment comparison cell for the new record. To edit experiment recipe and measurements, click ⚙️ > Go to Experiments.

Visualize Plots

You can also load saved visualize plots directly into your Notebook. In the modal, select an Explore Data save and click Load.

The selected plot is embedded in the Notebook and automatically scoped to the Notebook’s project. To include plots saved across multiple projects, enable Show Visualizations from All Projects in the modal before loading.

Editing and Rearranging Items

• Move cells by dragging their handles.
• Resize cells by adjusting borders.
• Edit inline by clicking within a cell.
• Delete via the cell menu.
• Move to another page from the cell’s ⚙️ menu by selecting Within Notebook > Move to Different Page. The cell is placed below the existing content on the destination page.
• Change background color from the cell settings menu. Dashboard notebooks can also use a background color for the full canvas.

All changes are saved automatically.