An index card is a single idea. It holds a short piece of text you wrote, a compact AI-generated header that names the idea, and a topic tag that links it to neighbouring cards. Index cards live in the Explore sub-tab of Outline mode and form the raw material for your plan and eventual draft.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.trydear.app/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Anatomy of a card
Each card has four visible parts:| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Note text | The note you typed, spoke, or pasted — your words, unchanged |
| Header | A short AI-generated label that summarizes the card’s idea |
| Topic tag | A label that groups related cards by topic |
| Topic connection | A visual indicator showing whether this card shares a topic with the card directly above it |
header is generated automatically. You do not need to name your ideas yourself, though you can edit the header text after it appears.
Card statuses
After you submit a note, Dear moves the card through three statuses before it is ready to use:Fetching header
Dear has sent your note to the AI and is waiting for a response. The header area shows a loading indicator.
Typing header
The header is streaming in character by character. You can already read a partial label.
Topic grouping
When a card is generated, Dear determines whether it belongs to the same topic as the card above it. Cards with the same topic as their predecessor are displayed with a visual connection that helps you see clusters of related ideas at a glance. Topic tags and grouping are assigned by the AI based on the meaning of each card’s text. They update when you reorder cards.The topic connection indicator is absent on the very first card in a document, since there is no preceding card to compare against.
Adding cards
You can add cards in three ways from the Explore sub-tab:- Type — write a short note in the staging area and submit it.
- Talk — use live transcription to speak your idea aloud; Dear converts the transcript into a card automatically.
- Import — paste a block of text; Dear splits it into cards.