Common Workflows

This page focuses on practical Lens tasks in real usage. You can start directly from the workflows below.

Scenario 1: Reading a New Paper for the First Time

Use this when you have just received a paper and want a useful overall understanding within about ten minutes.

Recommended steps:

1. Start a new conversation.
2. Turn on Academic mode.
3. Upload the paper PDF.
4. Choose Paper Quick Read.
5. Enter:

Please summarize the research problem, core method, experiment setup, main conclusions, and limitations.

If the first answer is already enough, continue with:

Compared with mainstream approaches, what is the genuine innovation in this paper?

Scenario 2: Compressing Material Before a Literature Review

Use this when you have multiple PDFs or Word files and want them compressed into a readable set of conclusions.

Recommended plugins:

• PDF Batch Summary
• Word Batch Summary

Recommended prompt:

Please organize these materials by research topic, method route, consensus findings, and open disagreements.

If you are preparing a review, add:

Finally, give me an outline suitable for writing a literature review.

Scenario 3: Turning a LaTeX Draft into a More Mature Version

Use this when you already have a draft, abstract, or methods section and want to improve the writing.

Common plugins:

• LaTeX Summary
• Precise LaTeX Translation
• LaTeX English Polishing
• LaTeX Chinese Polishing
• LaTeX Highlighted Correction

Recommended flow:

1. Upload the .tex file or the relevant project archive.
2. Start with LaTeX Summary to inspect the overall structure.
3. Then use LaTeX English Polishing or LaTeX Chinese Polishing to improve the style.
4. Finish with LaTeX Highlighted Correction to inspect the actual edits.

If specific terms must stay fixed, write it explicitly:

Preserve the terms consistency model, diffusion prior, and ablation study exactly as written.

Scenario 4: Chaining Multiple Capabilities into One Research Flow

Use this when you do not want to copy intermediate results between tasks and instead want Lens to process them step by step.

Examples:

• PDF Deep Reading -> English Polishing
• Arxiv Summary -> Chinese Polishing
• Paper Quick Read -> Chinese Polishing -> Mind Map
• Code Explanation -> Chinese Polishing

Recommended flow:

1. Turn on Academic
2. Switch to Orchestration
3. Add each step in order
4. Add constraints where needed, such as fixed terminology, output format, or focus sections
5. Upload the materials and send the task

Recommended prompt:

Please deep-read this PDF first, extract the core problem, method, and conclusions, and then polish those conclusions into English paragraphs suitable for a related work section.

Plan boundaries apply: Pro supports up to 2 steps, Max up to 3, and Plus does not support orchestration. During execution you can inspect whether each step is running, completed, or failed.

Scenario 5: You Only Have an arXiv Identifier

Use this when you receive a paper identifier from a chat, a social platform, or email and want to know quickly whether the paper is worth reading in depth.

Recommended plugins:

• Arxiv Summary
• Arxiv English Summary

Example input:

1812.10695

Recommended follow-up:

Tell me the 3 parts of this paper that are most worth reading, and explain how it differs from the classic baselines.

Scenario 6: Turning Raw Material into Presentation-Ready Content

Use this when you are preparing a group meeting, progress review, weekly summary, or internal sync.

Suitable materials:

• paper PDFs
• Word documents
• Markdown notes
• source-code projects

Recommended goal statement:

Based on the uploaded material, organize a version suitable for a 5-minute spoken presentation, structured as background, key progress, risks, and next steps.

If the result is meant to be shared directly, add:

Keep it concise, title-driven, and under 80 words per section.

How to Choose More Reliably

• If you want the overall picture first: choose Paper Quick Read or LaTeX Summary
• If you want detailed probing: choose PDF Deep Reading
• If you want batch compression: choose PDF Batch Summary or Word Batch Summary
• If you want to improve wording directly: choose polishing, translation, or correction plugins
• If you want a continuous process: choose Orchestration and chain reading, organization, polishing, and mapping in order

If you are still unsure which plugin to use, go back to Quick Start, then compare the capability list in Academic Mode and Plugins. If a capability is hidden or the UI asks for an upgrade, check Plans and Capability Boundaries.