Filarr-Hilfe

Write your first note

Create a blank note or start from a template, give it a title, an icon and a cover, let Filarr save it, and read its banners.

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A note is a page of rich text: headings, lists, tasks, tables, images, links to your other notes. Filarr keeps it on your device with the same protection as your files, and saves it as you type. This article walks you through your first one.

Open the notes

Click Notes in the sidebar. The page has three parts:

  • the list of your notes on the left, with the search box and the + button (see Organize your notes);
  • the note you are editing in the middle;
  • the inspector of the note on the right, with three tabs: Outline (its headings, clickable), Links (who cites it, what it cites) and Info (folder, tags, dates, length, sharing, history).

The two buttons at the top of the note, left and right, show or hide the list and the inspector.

The page adapts to the room it has, so that the text never gets too narrow to read:

  • in a wide window (1,200 pixels and more), the list, the note and the inspector sit side by side;
  • narrower, the inspector opens over the note, on demand;
  • under 840 pixels, the note takes the whole width: the list opens as a drawer, the inspector as a panel, and Esc closes them.

The bar at the top, Show notes as, switches between the list and the other views: see Views: list, mosaic, kanban and more.

Create a note

  1. Click + (New Note) at the top of the list, or press Ctrl+Shift+N.
  2. The note opens right away, blank, with the cursor in the title: start typing.

If you leave it without typing anything (another note, another screen, the tab closed), it goes away: no empty Untitled note in the list, and nothing in the trash. As soon as you have typed something, even if you erased it, or added a template, an image or a tag, the note stays.

Under the first line, Filarr suggests a few templates (Start with:). Click one to fill the note, or All templates… to see them all in the Start from a template window. The suggestions go away as soon as you type.

Click Don’t suggest again if you always start from a blank page: empty notes will no longer show templates. You can turn the suggestion back on at any time, and add a template to a note you already wrote with ··· or /, see Templates.

The Start from a template window also reminds you of one difference. A note links up with your other notes (links, backlinks, graph, tasks). If you need a laid-out document to send as a Word file, create a document from a folder instead: see Edit files inside Filarr.

Write the title and the text

A new note shows Untitled as its title and "Start writing or type / for commands..." in the body.

  1. Type the title: the cursor is already there.
  2. Press Enter, or click in the body, and write.

Typing / in the body opens the list of blocks you can insert, see Slash commands. To format text, see Format text in the editor.

Filarr saves for you

There is no save button. Under the title, a line gives the number of words, the reading time ("1 min read") and the date and time of the last change. When you select text, it also counts the selected words.

The save state is in the note bar, at the top: Saving…, then Saved. Pending changes means Filarr is about to save, in a few seconds. If you want to save right now, press Ctrl+S.

If saving fails, the bar says Not saved and a Saving failed banner appears on the note. Your changes stay in the window: nothing is lost while Filarr stays open. Click Retry, or press Ctrl+S; Details shows the reason. Don't close Filarr before the bar says Saved.

With a cloud account, a second badge shows whether the note has reached the cloud: Pending, Sending, Up to date or Offline. Offline, the note saves normally on your device and the bar says Offline: it isn't an error, everything goes out again once you reconnect, in order. See How sync works and Work offline.

Banners on the note

When something needs your attention, a banner at the top of the note says what is happening and what you can do:

  • Saving failed: see above, with Retry.
  • This note changed on another device: two versions crossed during a sync, and one was set aside. Nothing is lost. See both versions compares them block by block so you keep what matters, see Sync conflicts. The bar shows Conflict until it is settled.
  • This note is read-only: the sentence below says why, for example an element this version of Filarr can't display. Nothing can be changed, not even the title: formatting is turned off, Aa is greyed out, and in ··· the actions that would change the note say why they are unavailable. The bar shows Read-only.

While opening, the note and the list show the shape of their content, announced as "Opening the note…". If decryption takes a while, a sentence says so.

Add an icon

  1. Click the round placeholder above the title (Change icon).
  2. Pick a tab: Emojis, Icons, Upload or My vault.
  3. Click the icon or the image you want.

Upload takes an image from your computer, and My vault lists the images already in your vault. Either way, Filarr shrinks the image to a 128 × 128 pixel icon and leaves the original untouched. If an image does not show in My vault, pick the same file with Upload. Remove takes the icon off.

Add a cover

  1. Click Add cover, next to the icon.
  2. In Presets, click a color or a gradient. In Image, choose a picture from your computer: Filarr resizes and compresses it.

To change the cover later, click it. With an image, Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position frame it. Remove takes it off.

The header (cover, title, word count) scrolls with the text. Above it, the note bar stays in place: it tells where the note is and whether it is saved, and holds Share, Aa (typography, see Write in comfort) and ···, the menu of every action on the note.

Delete a note

From the open note, open the ··· menu of the note bar and choose Move to trash, the last entry. The note closes, and Filarr shows "“Title” moved to the trash" with an Undo button for ten seconds: Undo brings the note back and opens it again.

From the list, hover the note and click the bin. You can also restore the note later from the notes trash: see Organize your notes.