Write in comfort

Some days you need a quiet page and nothing else. Filarr can hide what surrounds the text, change how the text looks, and keep time for you while you write.

One bar above the text

Above a note, one bar stays in place while you scroll: the note bar. It shows where the note is (the breadcrumb), the save state, then four buttons: Share (with a cloud account), Aa for typography, ··· for every action on the note, and distraction-free mode.

The title, its properties (word count, date) and the text scroll together: the further down you go, the more room the text gets.

Distraction-free mode

Distraction-free mode leaves only the note: it hides the header of the app, the tabs, the view bar, the list of notes, the right panel, the note bar and the fixed toolbar. The title stays at the top of the text, which narrows to a centered column. A small badge at the bottom right keeps the word count and the save state.

To turn it on, open a note, then:

click the Distraction-free mode button, at the right of the note bar;
or choose Distraction-free mode in the note's ··· menu;
or press Ctrl+Shift+F;
or choose Distraction-free mode in the command palette.

Close the Version History panel yourself if it is open: distraction-free mode leaves it in place.

To come back, press Esc, click Leave distraction-free mode at the top of the page, or press Ctrl+Shift+F again. If a menu is open, Esc closes it first, and a second Esc leaves the mode. The panels, the bars and the tabs come back as you left them.

Distraction-free mode only works in the notes. Elsewhere, the shortcut tells you so.

Document typography: “Aa”

Click Aa in the note bar. Six settings, three choices each:

Setting	Choices
Font	Sans, Serif, Mono
Text size	Small, Normal, Large
Line spacing	Tight, Normal, Relaxed
Column width	Narrow, Normal, Wide
Heading size	Subtle, Normal, Strong
Page colors	Theme, Paper, Night

The Aa panel open under the note bar: Font with Sans, Serif and Mono, then Text size, Line spacing, Column width and Heading size, each on Normal, Page colors on Theme, Writing color with The theme’s own and its inks, and Back to default settings

Theme follows the colors of the Filarr theme. Paper gives a warm background and soft text, Night a dark background, whatever the theme. With Paper or Night, the title, the line under it, the links and the databases on the page take colors matched to that background.
Writing color, under the six rows, sets the ink of the theme on screen: The theme’s own, inks matched to the theme, and More… for any color. It is the same setting as in Settings → Appearance, and each theme keeps its own. It applies to the Theme page and to the app’s text; Paper and Night keep their own ink. See Themes and appearance.
Back to default settings restores the starting typography: Sans font, normal sizes, a column of about 70 characters (720 pixels), theme colors. The themes’ writing colors don’t change.
If a setting from an earlier version of Filarr matches none of the three choices (a 15 pixel size, for example), no choice is checked and Aa says so under the row (Custom setting). It stays as it is until you pick a choice.

These settings apply to all your notes, on this device. They don't change the notes themselves. The colors and fonts of the whole app are set elsewhere: see Themes and appearance.

Spell check is in the note's ··· menu. It is on at first, and checks in the language of Filarr, then in the language of your system (on the web, in your browser's languages). The text of your notes never leaves the computer to be corrected. On Linux, the first time a language is used, the desktop app downloads its dictionary from Google's servers: see Privacy.

The ··· menu of a note: Share…, Publish to the web…, Export…, the copy and print commands, Version history, Note info, Find in note, Pin, Move to…, Duplicate, the templates, Add a reminder…, View as mind map, Distraction-free mode, the Drawing mode, Fixed toolbar and Spell check boxes, Keyboard shortcuts and Move to trash

Widen the column by hand

You can also drag the edge of the text column. Move the pointer into the margin, to the right of the text (or to the left when the margin allows): a line and a grip appear at the edge. On hover, a bubble shows the width of the column.

Drag to widen or narrow the column: both edges move apart together, and the bubble follows the width. Double-click the grip to restore the original width, about 70 characters per line (720 pixels), the most comfortable to read.

With the keyboard, Tab reaches the handle; the arrow keys adjust the width (Shift to go faster) and Enter restores the original width. The width you drag is the same setting as Column width in Aa: when it is none of the three choices, Aa says so.

More room around the text

The fixed toolbar (bold, headings, lists above the text) is off at first: you format with the selection bubble and the / menu. To show it, check Fixed toolbar in the note's ··· menu. See Format text in the editor.
The buttons at the top corners of the page hide or show the list of notes and the right panel. Ctrl+Shift+L does the same for the list, Ctrl+Shift+I for the panel.
In Settings → Appearance, Note panels on hover keeps the side panels out of the way: they slide in when you move the pointer to the edge of the page.

Time your writing

The Focus timer, in your profile menu (your avatar, at the top right), times work sessions: 25 minutes of focus, then a 5 minute break, and a 15 minute break after 4 sessions. Click Start, and change the durations in its settings.