8 Document Types: Tutorial, Report, Article & More — Which to Choose?

Smart Export isn't "save conversation." It's transformation.

Raw export gives you a transcript — user said, assistant said, repeat. Smart Export reads the entire conversation, understands what was discussed, and restructures it into a professional document.

The key question: what kind of document?

AI Suggests, You Choose

When you click Smart Export, Artifactor's AI analyzes your conversation and suggests the best document type. Coding session? It suggests Tutorial. Research discussion? Report. Strategy brainstorm? Proposal.

You can accept the suggestion or pick a different type. The AI adapts either way.

Here are all 8 types and when to use each.

1. Tutorial

Best for: Coding sessions, how-to conversations, step-by-step problem solving.

What you get:

• "What you'll learn" section
• Prerequisites
• Numbered steps with code blocks
• Expected outputs at each step
• Troubleshooting section

Use when: You asked an AI to help you build something, debug something, or set something up. The conversation bounced between attempts and corrections. The tutorial extracts the working path and presents it cleanly.

Example conversation: "Help me set up authentication with JWT in Express.js" — 30 messages of back-and-forth become a clean step-by-step guide.

2. Report

Best for: Analysis, research, data exploration, technical investigations.

What you get:

• Executive summary
• Methodology
• Key findings
• Data tables and comparisons
• Conclusions and recommendations

Use when: You asked an AI to analyze something — market data, performance metrics, code architecture, research papers. The report format organizes findings into something you could present to a team or stakeholder.

Example conversation: "Analyze the pros and cons of microservices vs monolith for our use case" — becomes a structured technical report with clear recommendations.

3. Article

Best for: Blog posts, thought pieces, opinion formation, content creation.

What you get:

• Compelling introduction
• Structured sections with subheadings
• Key arguments developed
• Conclusion with takeaways

Use when: You brainstormed a blog post, discussed an opinion piece, or explored ideas for content. The article format turns scattered discussion into publishable prose.

Example conversation: "Help me think through why AI will change developer workflows" — becomes a structured article draft.

4. Meeting Notes

Best for: Decision tracking, action items, project discussions.

What you get:

• Date and participants
• Agenda items
• Decisions made (clearly marked)
• Action items with owners
• Follow-up items

Use when: You used AI as a thinking partner for project decisions, sprint planning, or strategy sessions. Meeting notes capture what was decided and what needs to happen next.

Example conversation: "Let's plan the Q2 product roadmap priorities" — becomes structured meeting notes with clear action items.

5. API Documentation

Best for: Endpoint discussions, integration guides, technical specifications.

What you get:

• API overview
• Authentication section
• Endpoint reference (method, path, parameters)
• Request/response examples
• Error codes

Use when: You designed an API with AI help, discussed endpoints, or worked through integration details. API docs format organizes everything into developer-ready reference material.

Example conversation: "Design a REST API for a task management app" — becomes a proper API reference document.

6. Case Study

Best for: Problem-solution narratives, project retrospectives, success stories.

What you get:

• Challenge/problem statement
• Approach taken
• Solution implemented
• Results and metrics
• Key learnings

Use when: You discussed a problem you solved, a project you completed, or a challenge you overcame. Case study format tells the story in a structured, compelling way.

Example conversation: "How we reduced API response time from 2 seconds to 200ms" — becomes a structured case study with before/after metrics.

7. Proposal

Best for: Business proposals, project pitches, feature requests.

What you get:

• Executive summary
• Problem statement
• Proposed solution
• Timeline and milestones
• Budget/resource requirements
• Expected outcomes

Use when: You brainstormed a business idea, planned a feature, or prepared a pitch with AI. Proposal format structures the discussion into something you could send to a decision-maker.

Example conversation: "Help me plan a proposal for migrating our infrastructure to Kubernetes" — becomes a professional project proposal.

8. Changelog

Best for: Release notes, update summaries, version tracking.

What you get:

• Version header
• Added features
• Changed behavior
• Fixed bugs
• Breaking changes
• Migration notes

Use when: You discussed what changed in a release, planned update notes, or reviewed a set of changes. Changelog format organizes everything into standard release note structure.

Example conversation: "Let's document everything that changed in v2.0" — becomes a clean changelog entry.

How AI Picks the Right Type

Smart Export doesn't just look at keywords. It analyzes:

• Conversation flow — Q&A pattern suggests tutorial, back-and-forth analysis suggests report
• Content type — code-heavy suggests tutorial or API docs, strategy-heavy suggests proposal
• Outcome — decisions made suggest meeting notes, problems solved suggest case study
• User intent — explicit requests like "help me write a blog post" clearly map to article

The suggestion is right most of the time. When it's not, override with one click.

Same Chat, Different Documents

Here's what makes this powerful. The same conversation can become different documents depending on the type you choose.

A conversation about building a payment system could be:

• Tutorial — step-by-step implementation guide
• API Docs — endpoint reference for the payment API
• Report — analysis of payment provider options
• Proposal — project proposal for adding payment processing

Same conversation. Four different documents. Each structured appropriately for its purpose.

Raw Export vs Smart Export

| Feature | Raw Export | Smart Export | | -------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | What you get | Transcript (user/assistant dialog) | Structured document | | Document types | N/A | 8 types to choose from | | AI processing | None | Full conversation analysis | | Price | Free (unlimited) | Starter: 30/mo, Pro: 50/mo | | Formats | PDF, DOCX, Markdown, JSON, TXT | PDF, DOCX, Markdown, JSON, TXT |

Raw Export is great for archiving. Smart Export is for creating deliverables.

Try Smart Export

Free tier gives you unlimited raw exports across Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek & Grok. All 5 formats.

Starter ($4.99/mo) unlocks 30 Smart Exports with all 8 document types. Pro ($9.99/mo) unlocks 50 plus Own API Key and Ollama for unlimited processing.

Try Artifactor

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