Reading through complex research papers and documents is something most struggle with. Understanding each term's meaning and getting overwhelmed with a series of equations can slow you down.
Fortunately, the introduction of AI-based tools has aided individuals in removing that fear and having AI explain complex papers for them.
In this blog, we will learn more about Explainpaper—an AI-based explanation tool for reading long pages and also introduce you to UPDF AI—an alternative tool that can help you achieve more. You can also directly click the download button below to try UPDF now!
Part 1. What is Explainpaper?
Explainpaper is simply an AI-powered reading and explanation tool that allows users to upload academic papers, research papers, and many other documents in PDF format.
Explainpaper utilizes an AI chatbot with GPT-4 capabilities to provide clear explanations for complex information. The objective of this web-based tool is to help users to comprehend information easily and save time in the process.
You can start using Explainpaper for free. Nevertheless, to access all features, you need to upgrade the plan, with its pricing starting at around $12 per month.
How Does It Work?
Let us understand how Explainpaper works. You can start using the web app for free by signing up. You can start uploading documents in .pdf format or pasting the PDF link. Then, the app will take you to its reading mode.
In the reading mode, you will find three tabs on the right-hand side panel—Paper, Explain, and Chat.
Under Paper, you will find the AI automatically providing a gist of the research paper. You will need to upgrade to a paid plan to have it generate a detailed outline for your paper.
Under Explain, you can have the AI explain different terms and paragraphs for you. Simply highlight any text, sentences, paragraphs, or even mathematical equations, and ask the AI to start explaining it.
You can even ask follow-up questions and the AI chat will instantly generate more explanations for your questions.
Under Chat, you can have the AI to summarize your paper, provide a detailed assessment of the significance of the paper, and look up similar papers to what you have. However, this is only available to premium users.
Part 2. Is Explainpaper All That Worth It?
To understand if Explainpaper is fully worth using, it is best understood by going through its pros and cons.
Here are some benefits of using it and some drawbacks observed from using Explainpaper:
Pros:
- It quickly provides a clear explanation for complex terminologies and equations. Moreover, allows users to keep asking follow-up questions.
- One can easily scroll and jump from one page to another, making it easy to read hundreds of pages.
- It can save and store PDF files securely and retrieve them for later use.
- Users can adjust their reading mode preview according to their comfort. For example, there is light and dark mode available.
Cons:
- Its free version has limited features. Users need to subscribe to a paid plan first before using Explainpaper's Chat features such as summarizing. However, its alternative, UPDF AI, provides a free trial after subscription, allowing you to summarize and use all its features. One can cancel their subscription at any time.
- It can only import PDF files and does not support other file formats. To import and explain other documents such as Word and Excel, you have to find and try another tool.
- Users cannot highlight text and have them saved.
- One cannot edit the paper or make notes separately. Users have to access the web app every time to use it. There is no desktop app. It doesn't offer additional features such as translating content or re-writing it.
Explainpaper is definitely a very useful tool for students, teachers, and researchers especially for understanding complex papers and getting clear-cut explanations. However, there are many disadvantages to it and this can limit users from effectively using this AI tool.
This is where UPDF AI comes out on top of being more than just an explanation tool. It is a tool that can be part of your daily work system.
Part 3. UPDF AI: A Better Alternative for Explaining Complex Papers
UPDF AI can be your powerful AI assistant for reading, writing, and for many more purposes. It helps you to manage your PDF files securely, save any work in progress automatically, and have you solve many problems using AI chat. It features all the capabilities that Explainpaper offers.
Here is a walkthrough of how it works after downloading and opening the UPDF app:
You can import research papers and other documents of different formats in UPDF by heading to File, Create, and selecting any of the options.
For example, if you are importing a Word file, select PDF from Word (.docx) or if it is already a PDF file, open it directly in UPDF.
After opening the paper, you can access the UPDF AI chatbot, located at the bottom-right corner of your screen.
UPDF AI provides the following features that can help solve any challenges with reading and understanding your paper:
Summarize: UPDF AI helps to summarize the entire paper automatically and provide key points. You can also ask the chat to polish the summary for you or summarize specific paragraphs.
Explain: The explanation feature is one of the biggest benefits you can experience from UPDF AI. You can ask the chat to explain any terminology or paragraphs by highlighting them or simply entering them into the chat. Additionally, you can save the explanations using sticky notes in the PDF doc and be able to remember them every time.
Translate: To break any language barrier, UPDF AI can also translate the entire paper or any portion of it to multiple supported languages, allowing you to export the paper in different languages.
Write: You can ask UPDF AI to brainstorm ideas and generate an outline regarding your paper. It can inspire you to rewrite content and take your writing efficiency to the next level.
Chat: UPDF AI is your day-to-day companion. It has an understanding, similar to a human being and you can ask anything related or not related to your PDF. You simply can't live without its help.
Generate Mind Map: You can ask UPDF AI to generate a mind map to visually organize your thoughts and ideas. It can help you explore connections between concepts and inspire you to develop your arguments more effectively.
Chat with image: UPDF AI is your everyday assistant, ready to help you with all things related to your images. It understands your needs as a human would, so you can ask anything about image editing, enhancing, or organizing.
Watch the below video to know more about UPDF AI assistant
UPDF AI Can Do More Than Explaining Papers…
Explainpaper is a specialized tool for explaining complex academic and research papers. There are definitely pros one can benefit from using it and also there are limitations.
On the other hand, UPDF AI can take your study and work efficiency to another level by assisting you to understand any complex paper across various devices.
To get a hands-on experience of UPDF AI, download it for free and purchase UPDF AI paid version to unlock and use its premium features.
