Topic

Topics are your work desk, used to handle ongoing tasks.

Imagine you're organizing a study room

• Topic = Work desk - Projects in progress, materials spread on the desk, discuss with assistant (AI) anytime
• Folder = Bookshelf - Books organized by category, take them out when needed
• Collection = Smart search - "Find all books about AI", automatically gathered from everywhere

In a topic:

• All blocks and conversations revolve around the same subject, maintaining the same context.
• AI can see all content within the topic.

One project, one topic. One idea, one topic.

Topic Features

Independent Workspace

Each topic is independent, like different work desks.

• Notes in different topics don't interfere with each other, keeping the context pure.
• Switching topics equals switching work environments; AI only sees the current topic's content.

Examples:

• "Product Design" topic - Contains product requirements, design drafts, discussion records.
• "Learning Notes" topic - Contains course notes, thoughts, summaries.
• "Project A" topic - Contains all materials related to the project.

Horizontal Column Layout

Notes in topics are arranged in columns, displaying thinking flow from left to right.

• Left to right ordering - Follows human viewing order; you can freely arrange content to organize overall thinking.
• Maximum 5 columns per screen - Maintains visual clarity without revealing too much information at once.

How to Use Topics

Create Topic

1. Click the New Topic button in the upper right corner to start adding notes and importing files.
2. You can also chat with AI directly on the main interface. When you start a conversation, Dessix will create a topic for you directly.
3. Not sure if you need a topic? Hover over the New Topic button, and a Temporary Chat button will appear below. You can chat with AI here without creating a new topic. When you think you need to create one, you can choose to convert this conversation to a topic.

Manage Topics

• Switch Topics - Click the topic list on the left to switch.
• Stash Notes - Put temporarily unused notes in the cache area. AI won't see them then, but you can pull them back into the topic anytime for AI to view.
• Organize Layout - Drag notes to adjust positions, moving the most important ones to the left for easier thought organization.
• Name Topic - Click the star button next to the topic title, and Dessix will generate a title for your current topic based on its content.

Topic vs Folder vs Collection

One-Sentence Distinction

• Topic = Working on - Tasks in progress
• Folder = Archived - Storage for completed content
• Collection = Searching - Automatically aggregated by rules

Detailed Comparison

	Topic	Folder	Collection
Core Function	Workspace	Category Archive	Smart Filter
Content Source	Actively Added	Manually Organized	Auto-Matched
Content Change	Continuously Evolving	Remains Fixed	Dynamically Updated
AI Dialogue	✅ Deep Dialogue	❌ View Only	❌ View Only
Typical Scenario	Writing papers, doing projects	Course material archive	"Last 7 days notes"

Usage Recommendations

When to use Topics?

• Writing a quarterly review and need AI to help organize key points
• Just gathered competitor research and want to discuss it with AI
• Preparing a presentation and need to connect ideas across multiple notes

When to use Folders?

• Course is over — archive all materials under "2026 Spring Course"
• Project delivered — store all related documents for future reference
• Organize reading notes by book title for easy lookup

When to use Collections?

• Want to see "all notes created in the last 7 days"
• Need to find meeting notes scattered across different folders
• Filter everything tagged with "product strategy"