user-guide.md

User guide

This guide walks through Notey's features. For the complete shortcut list see Keyboard shortcuts; for settings see Configuration.

First run

On first launch Notey reveals itself and shows an onboarding overlay with the capture hotkey. You can customize the hotkey there, then dismiss the overlay by pressing Esc or the hotkey itself. On macOS, grant Accessibility permission when prompted so the global hotkey works.

Summoning and dismissing

Notey lives in the system tray and stays out of your way until you need it.

• Summon: press the global hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+N, or Cmd+Shift+N on macOS), or click the tray icon → Open Notey.
• Dismiss: press Esc, or press the hotkey again. The window hides — it never quits — so your work is right where you left it next time.
• Quit: use the tray menu → Quit.

Capturing notes

Type into the editor and Notey saves automatically — there is no save button. The status bar shows the save state (saving / Saved / failed) on the right.

• New note: Ctrl+N.
• Format: toggle between Markdown and Plain text from the status bar or the command palette. The choice is remembered per note.

Tabs

Keep several notes open at once. The tab bar runs along the top.

• Next / previous tab: Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab.
• Jump to tab 1–9: Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+9.
• Close tab: Ctrl+W.

Tabs, cursor position, and scroll are restored when you reopen Notey.

The command palette

Press Ctrl+P to open the command palette — a fuzzy-searchable menu of every action: new note, search, trash, export, settings, theme, layout, and more.

Workspaces

Notes are grouped into workspaces, typically tied to a project directory. The workspace selector lives in the status bar (bottom-left).

• Switch the active workspace from the selector or the Switch Workspace command.
• Choose All Workspaces to see notes from every workspace at once.

Search

Press Ctrl+F to open full-text search. Results rank by relevance (FTS5/BM25) and show match snippets. Scope the search to the current workspace or all workspaces.

The note list

Press Ctrl+B to slide out the note list for the current workspace. Navigate with the arrow keys and press Enter to open a note.

Trash & restore

Deleting a note moves it to the trash (it isn't gone). Open View Trash from the command palette to restore notes or delete them permanently.

Trashed notes are automatically purged after the retention window (default 30 days — see Configuration).

Export

From the command palette:

• Export to Markdown — writes one .md file per note into a folder you choose.
• Export to JSON — writes all your notes to a single JSON document.

Personalization

Open Settings with Ctrl+,.

• Theme: System / Dark / Light. Toggle quickly with Ctrl+Shift+T.
• Layout: Floating (the always-on-top capture window), Half-screen, or Full-screen.
• Font: size and family (monospace or sans-serif).
• Shortcuts: rebind in-app shortcuts; conflicts are detected and rejected.
• Start on login: launch Notey automatically when you log in.

Notey looks right in the dark, too: