AI Writer Overview
Write research documents with AI assistance, collaborative editing, and citation management.
Write research documents with AI assistance
Write research documents with AI assistance — generate complete papers with inline citations, edit collaboratively in real time, and manage versions and comments. AI Writer is built on a TipTap rich-text editor with AI features integrated throughout, so you can move from idea to draft, revision, and export in one workspace.
Three creation modes
Choose the starting point that matches how much structure you want up front.
| Mode | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Generate Document | AI searches papers, screens results, extracts relevant information, and writes a complete document with inline citations. | Full literature reviews, research summaries, grant proposals |
| Generate Outline | AI searches papers and creates an outline from your topic so you can review and edit the structure before generating the full document. | When you want control over structure before writing |
| Start from Scratch | Opens a blank document with all AI features available, including AI Chat, AI Edit, Smart Continue, and autocomplete. | Writing from your own notes or existing drafts |
Use Generate Outline when you want AI help with research discovery but prefer to shape the argument before the full draft is written.
The editor
The editor gives you a full rich-text writing surface for academic work. It supports formatting such as bold, italic, headings, lists, and links, while keeping citations embedded directly in the document as clickable references.
Math-heavy writing fits into the same workflow. You can insert math blocks with LaTeX support, then use AI tools in the sidebar to discuss your draft, refine sections, or generate new text without leaving the document.
Selected text actions are built into the toolbar. When you highlight a passage, AI Edit can rewrite it for clarity, tone, simplicity, translation, or a custom instruction while preserving citation markers already attached to that text.
Collaborative editing
AI Writer keeps documents in sync across your workspace through real-time connections. When you open a document for editing, the system acquires a single-editor lock so only one person can make changes at a time while others continue viewing and commenting.
That lock expires automatically after 60 seconds if your tab closes or disconnects unexpectedly. Documents do not stay locked indefinitely, and lock status updates appear to connected viewers in real time.
- Sidebar sync — document creation, deletion, renaming, and folder moves propagate to workspace members immediately.
- Shared with me — documents shared with you appear in your sidebar, with notifications when access changes.
Single-editor locking reduces conflicting edits in long research documents while still allowing collaboration through comments, sharing, and live visibility into document status.
Document management
AI Writer includes the organizational tools you need once drafts start to multiply.
Folders
Organize documents in a hierarchical folder tree with drag-and-drop support. Move folders and documents within a workspace or across workspaces when projects change hands or move between teams.
Version history
Save manual snapshots whenever you reach a milestone, or rely on automatic snapshots in the background. When you restore an earlier version, AI Writer auto-saves the current state first, so restoration stays non-destructive and easy to undo.
Comments
Add threaded comments anchored to specific text passages in the document. Resolve or unresolve discussion threads as work progresses, and edit or delete your own comments when you need to clarify feedback.
Export
Export any document to DOCX for Microsoft Word. The export preserves document formatting, citations, tables, and references so the file stays usable for review, submission, or handoff outside Paperguide.
Exported files use US Letter page size with Georgia 11pt body text. That makes the default output suitable for common academic and professional review workflows.
AI features
AI Writer includes several AI tools for drafting, revising, and exploring sources without breaking your writing flow.
- AI Chat — discuss your draft, find relevant papers, and insert AI-generated text with citations.
- AI Edit — select text and rewrite it to improve, change tone, simplify, humanize, translate, or follow a custom instruction.
- Smart Continue — continue writing from your cursor while maintaining the structure and tone of the current draft.
- Autocomplete — receive short in-line completions as you type, including citation support.
- Describe to LaTeX — describe an equation in plain English and convert it to LaTeX code.
Read AI Features for the full feature breakdown and usage details.