🗂️

Home Room Menu & Navigation

Understand the simplified vs. full menu — and how to unlock the whole platform in seconds if you're ready to hit the ground running.

⚙️ Open Menu Settings →

In this tutorial

1.Why two menu modes?
2.The Simplified Menu
3.The Full Menu
4.Side-by-side comparison
5.Power user quick-start
6.What each feature does
7.Switching menu modes
8.Per-page settings
9.Admin & Creator accounts
10.Full-access checklist

🤔

Why two menu modes?

NotaeLibrary is a rich platform — Study Rooms, a live Feed, a Reading Shelf, a Calendar, a personal Workspace, Emails, AI tools, and more. For a first-time user that can feel overwhelming. For a power user who came here specifically to use all of it, a stripped menu is annoying.

The solution is two menu modes you can switch between at any time:

🌱 Simplified Menu (default for new accounts)

Shows only the four core tabs — My Feed, My Reading Shelf, My Rooms, and Settings — so new users can orient themselves without being flooded with options.

You can selectively add Calendar and Workspace one at a time from Menu Settings.

⚡ Full Menu (one toggle away)

Unlocks every tab at once — My Hub, Notifications, Feed, Emails, Reading Shelf, Calendar, Workspace, and Settings. Power users and returning members typically prefer this.

💡Both modes are cosmetic only — your data, rooms, bookshelf, and history are always intact regardless of which mode you use. Switching modes never deletes anything.

🌱

The Simplified Menu

When you first create an account, your Home Room navigation shows four tabs:

📰

My Feed

Posts from every Study Room you've joined, in one live stream.

📖

My Reading Shelf

Your personal bookshelf — currently reading, finished, want to read.

🗂️

My Rooms

All the Study Rooms you belong to — join, browse, and manage them here.

⚙️

Settings

All your account, menu, and feature preferences.

The Home Room button in the top-left always takes you to your hub dashboard.

ℹ️In simplified mode you can also individually enable My Calendar and My Workspace without switching to the full menu — ideal if you only want one or two extras. Visit Menu Settings to do this.

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Side-by-side comparison

Tab	Simplified	Full	What it does
🏠 My Hub	—	✓	Home dashboard with widgets, Continue Reading, and activity summary
🔔 My Notifications	—	✓	Platform-wide notifications — invites, mentions, events, system alerts
📰 My Feed	✓	✓	Aggregated live feed of all posts from your Study Rooms
🗂️ My Rooms	✓	✓	All your Study Rooms — browse, join, and manage in one place
✉️ My Emails	—	✓	Built-in email inbox and composer inside Home Room
📖 My Reading Shelf	✓	✓	Personal bookshelf, reading progress, and shelf management
📅 My Calendar	—	✓	Consolidated calendar showing events from all your rooms
🎨 My Workspace	—	✓	Notes, image generation, Amazon books, and creative drafts
⚙️ Settings	✓	✓	All account, menu, feed, billing, and privacy preferences

✓ = visible by default in that mode. Calendar and Workspace can also be added individually while staying in Simplified mode.

⚡

Power user quick-start

If you know what you want and you're ready to use everything NotaeLibrary offers, here is how to go from a fresh account to full access in under two minutes:

Open Menu Settings

Navigate to Home Room → Settings → Menu Settings. You can also reach it from the ⚙️ Settings tab in any menu mode.

Turn on "Show Full Menu"

The first toggle on the page is labelled 🗂️ Show Full Menu. Flip it on. Every tab unlocks instantly — no page reload needed. The nav bar updates live.

Verify your tabs

Your Home Room nav bar now shows all eight tabs: My Hub, Notifications, Feed, Emails, Reading Shelf, Calendar, Workspace, Settings. The Home Room dropdown also lists My Rooms for quick Study Room access.

Join your first Study Room

Head to Study Rooms and join at least one room. Your Feed will immediately start receiving posts. Your Calendar will start showing that room's events.

Configure your Feed

Visit Settings → My Feed to toggle which rooms appear in your feed and set your content preferences.

⚡Power tip: Admin, Creator Pro, and Enterprise users are automatically placed in full menu mode and cannot be downgraded to simplified. If you hold one of those roles, the toggle in Menu Settings will appear locked — your full menu is always on.

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What each feature does

🏠My Hub/homeroom →

•The main dashboard when you open Home Room
•Continue Reading strip — jump back into any book you opened
•Coming Up widget — next events from all your rooms
•My Rooms widget — quick access to every Study Room
•Reading stats — streak, books finished, rooms joined
•Personal AI Assistant chat entry point

🔔My Notifications/homeroom/notifications →

•Room invite notifications with one-click accept/decline
•Mentions and replies in Study Room discussions
•Event reminders and schedule changes
•System announcements and platform updates
•Mark all read or dismiss individually

📰My Feed/homeroom/feed →

•Live aggregated stream of all posts from rooms you belong to
•Unread counter badge so you know what's new at a glance
•Filter by room, post type, or unread-only
•Real-time banner when new posts arrive while the page is open
•Mark all read with one click
•Manage Rooms toggle — show or hide specific rooms from the feed

✉️My Emails/homeroom/workspace/email →

•A full email inbox directly inside NotaeLibrary
•Send and receive messages without leaving the platform
•Integrated with your NotaeLibrary identity
•Useful for Study Room coordination and creator correspondence

📖My Reading Shelf/homeroom/readingroom →

•Create custom shelves — Currently Reading, Finished, Want to Read, or any name
•Reading progress auto-saves when you read in the browser reader
•Shelf management — move, re-order, and remove books
•Room reading lists shown separately for reference
•Reading goal tracking and streak display

📅My Calendar/homeroom/mycalendar →

•All events from every room you've joined in one view
•RSVP to virtual or in-person events
•Virtual meeting links activate at event start time
•Filter by room to focus on a single community's schedule

🎨My Workspace/homeroom/workspace →

•Personal scratchpad for notes, ideas, and creative drafts
•Amazon book tracking — add books you've published or purchased elsewhere
•AI image generation (Creator and above subscriptions)
•Drafts are private to you and never visible in Study Rooms

⚙️Settings/homeroom/settings →

•Menu Settings — simplified vs full, per-feature toggles
•My Feed Settings — which rooms appear and content preferences
•Profile & Account — name, avatar, email, password
•Library Cards & Billing — subscription plan and payment
•Privacy & Data Control — cookie preferences, data downloads

🔄

Switching menu modes

You can switch between simplified and full menu at any time — as many times as you like. Nothing is lost or reset when you switch.

Go to Menu Settings

/homeroom/settings/menu — reachable from ⚙️ Settings → Menu Settings.

Toggle "Show Full Menu"

The master 🗂️ Show Full Menu switch controls both modes. Turn it on for the full menu, turn it off to return to simplified mode with only your selected features.

Add individual features (optional — simplified mode only)

In simplified mode, the section below the master toggle shows Add to your menu — individual toggles for My Calendar and My Workspace. These let you expand your menu one feature at a time without switching to full mode.

💡Changes take effect instantly. The navigation bar updates live so you can see exactly what your menu looks like as you toggle.

⚠️The master toggle is disabled for Admin, Creator Pro, and Enterprise users. These accounts always have the full menu enabled automatically. You'll see the toggle as locked with a note explaining why.

🎛️

Per-page settings

Several features have their own dedicated settings pages reachable from Home Room → Settings:

🗂️

Menu Settings

Simplified vs full menu, per-feature toggles

/homeroom/settings/menu →

📰

My Feed Settings

Feed content preferences, room visibility toggles

/homeroom/settings/feed →

👤

Profile & Account

Display name, avatar, email, password, account preferences

/homeroom/settings/profile →

💳

Library Cards & Billing

Subscription plan, payment methods, invoices

/homeroom/settings/billing →

🔒

Privacy & Data Control

Cookies, data downloads, connected accounts

/homeroom/settings/privacy →

🏅

Admin & Creator accounts

Certain account types automatically get the full menu regardless of the simplified menu toggle:

Account type	Full menu?	Notes
Reader (free)	🌱 User's choice	Simplified by default, can switch to full
Reader Pro	🌱 User's choice	Simplified by default, can switch to full
Creator	🌱 User's choice	Simplified by default, can switch to full
Creator Pro	⚡ Always full	Full menu enabled automatically
Enterprise	⚡ Always full	Full menu enabled automatically
Admin / Staff / Tech	⚡ Always full	Platform role forces full menu on

⚡If you are a Creator building a Study Room community, upgrading to Creator Pro ensures you always have access to every tool — Calendar for scheduling events, Workspace for drafting content, Notifications for member engagement, and Emails for direct outreach.

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