---
title: Overview of notebooks
description: Learn about the building blocks of a notebook.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/cloud/tools/notebooks/overview/
estimated_tokens: 1114
product: InfluxDB Cloud (TSM)
version: cloud
---

# Overview of notebooks

Learn how notebooks can help to streamline and simplify your day-to-day business processes.

See an overview of [notebook concepts](/influxdb/cloud/tools/notebooks/overview/#notebook-concepts), [notebook controls](/influxdb/cloud/tools/notebooks/overview/#notebook-controls), and [notebook cell types](/influxdb/cloud/tools/notebooks/overview/#notebook-cell-types) also know as the basic building blocks of a notebook.

## Notebook concepts

You can think of an InfluxDB notebook as a collection of sequential data processing steps. Each step is represented by a “cell” that performs an action such as querying, visualizing, processing, or writing data to your buckets. Notebooks help you do the following:

-   Create snippets of live code, equations, visualizations, and explanatory notes.
-   Create alerts or scheduled tasks.
-   Downsample and normalize data.
-   Build runbooks to share with your teams.
-   Output data to buckets.

## Notebook controls

The following options appear at the top of each notebook.

### Run

Select Run (or press **Control+Enter**) to display results of each cell and write data to the selected bucket.

### Save Notebook (appears before first save)

Select Save Notebook to save all notebook cells. Once you’ve saved the notebook, this button disappears and the notebook automatically saves as subsequent changes are made.

Saving the notebook does not save cell results. When you open a saved notebook, click **Run** to update cell results.

### Local or UTC timezone

Click the timezone drop-down list to select a timezone to use for the notebook. Select either the local time (default) or UTC.

### Time range

Select from the options in the dropdown list or select **Custom Time Range** to enter a custom time range with precision up to nanoseconds, and then click **Apply Time Range**.

### Share notebook

To generate a URL for the notebook, click the icon. For more detail, see how to [share a notebook](/influxdb/cloud/tools/notebooks/manage-notebooks/#share-a-notebook).

## Notebook cell types

The following cell types are available for your notebook:

-   [Data source](#data-source)
-   [Visualization](#visualization)
-   [Action](#action)

### Data source

At least one data source (input) cell is required in a notebook for other cells to run.

-   **Query Builder**: Build a query with the Flux query builder.
    
-   **Flux Script**: Enter a raw Flux script.
    
    Data source cells work like the **Query Builder** or **Script Editor** in Data Explorer. For more information, see how to [query data with Flux and the Data Explorer](/influxdb/cloud/query-data/execute-queries/data-explorer/#query-data-with-flux-and-the-data-explorer).
    

### Visualization

-   **Table**: View your data in a table.
-   **Graph**: View your data in a graph.
-   **Note**: Create explanatory notes or other information for yourself or your team members.

### Action

-   **Alert**: Set up alerts. See how to [monitor data and send alerts](/influxdb/cloud/monitor-alert/).
-   **Tasks**: Use the notebook to set up and export a task. See how to [manage tasks in InfluxDB](/influxdb/cloud/process-data/manage-tasks/).

[notebooks](/influxdb/cloud/tags/notebooks/)