Reading a paper in Anara is different from reading in a standard PDF viewer. The document and your AI assistant are side by side — you can read a passage, ask a question about it, and get a cited answer without switching windows. Every AI response links back to the exact passage it came from, so you can verify claims in one click.
Opening a PDF
Click any document in your library to open it in the viewer. The PDF loads in the main panel with your document on the left and a collapsible sidebar on the right.
Navigating pages
The viewer toolbar gives you everything you need to move around:
Previous / Next buttons — jump one page at a time
Page number input — type a page number and press Enter to jump directly. The input shows "X of Y" so you always know where you are.
Zoom control — click the zoom percentage button to zoom in or out
The viewer sidebar
The sidebar to the right of your document has five tabs:
Ask — Chat with Anara about this specific document. Ask questions, request summaries, or explore specific sections. The AI cites exact passages in every answer.
Notes — View and create notes linked to this document.
Details — File metadata, AI-generated summary, abstract, and a formatted citation. See Viewing file details and summaries.
Related — Documents in your library related to this one.
Annotations — All your highlights and comments on this document. See Highlighting and annotating PDFs.
If the sidebar is hidden, click the toggle button in the toolbar to show it.
Reading with AI side by side
Think of the Ask tab as a research assistant who has read the entire paper. You can highlight a passage, send it to chat, and ask "what does this mean?" or "does this contradict the findings in the introduction?" — all without leaving the document.
When the AI responds, each claim includes an inline citation. Click any citation to jump directly to the relevant passage in the PDF. This is the trust mechanism: you don't have to take the AI's word for it.
Tip: Highlight any text in the PDF and choose Chat from the floating toolbar to send that exact passage to the AI. Your question will be grounded in the specific section you selected.
Tips
Use the model selector in the Ask tab to switch AI models for more detailed or concise answers.
Your reading progress is tracked automatically. The library table shows a progress percentage for each document.
The Related tab surfaces other documents in your library that connect to the paper you are reading — useful for building context.
If something isn't working
The sidebar won't open. Click the toggle button in the top toolbar. If it still doesn't appear, try refreshing the page.
The AI gives vague answers. This usually means the document has limited text extraction. Check the Full text status in your library — if it shows "Abstract only" or "Content unavailable", see Understanding how Anara reads your documents.
PDF won't load. Try closing and reopening the document. If the issue persists, the file may not have processed correctly — see Files aren't processing correctly.