Notes

Every note is one Markdown file in your vault folder. Gilune is a comfortable way to write them, not a place they are locked up.

Making a note

Press Ctrl + N. A note called Untitled appears with its name already selected, so you can simply type the real name over it and carry on into the body. If a folder is selected in the sidebar (it is shaded), the note is made there; otherwise it goes to the top of the vault. Click the empty space below your folders to go back to the top.

A new vault starts with the folders its plugins use: Notes and Captures for your own writing and what you capture, and People when the people plugin is on. A plugin you switch on later adds its own folder then. You are free to rename or delete any of them; they are not put back.

You can also use the new note button at the top of the sidebar, or right-click a folder and choose New note. To make a folder, use the new folder button beside it, or right-click a folder (or the empty space below your folders, for the top of the vault) and choose New folder. You then type the name straight into the tree: Enter or clicking away confirms it, Esc backs out, and a folder you never named is not made.

Naming and renaming

The note's name is the large field at the top of the page — it is the file name, so editing it renames the file. Press Enter to commit, or just click away. Esc puts the old name back. If the note has attachments, they are renamed to match so they stay together.

You can also rename from the sidebar: right-click the note, choose Rename, and type into the tree.

Writing

A note is always ready to write in. Gilune styles your Markdown as you type — headings look like headings, emphasis is emphasised, checkboxes are drawn as boxes.

Formatting

Right-click in a note for its formatting: bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code and links, then headings, bulleted and numbered lists, quotes and tasks. Each acts on what you have selected — or on the word or line the cursor is in — and choosing it again takes it off. The menu shows each one's keyboard shortcut beside it; they are all listed in the keyboard shortcuts table too.

In a list, Return starts the next item. A numbered list counts on — after 2. comes 3. — and the items below move up one so the list still counts; a list you have numbered 1. 1. 1. on purpose stays that way. Return on an empty item leaves the list.

Presentation mode

When you want to read a note, or show it to someone, rather than write in it, press Ctrl + E or choose Presentation mode from the note's ⋯ menu. The note is laid out in full, with no cursor and no Markdown showing, and a click does the thing you clicked on instead of starting an edit:

• a checkbox ticks or unticks, exactly as it does while writing;
• a link opens — a note in a new tab, a web address in your browser;
• a [[wiki link]] opens the note of that name;
• an @mention opens that person's page.

Typing can't change anything while you present. Press Esc, Ctrl + E, or the Presenting label at the top of the page to go back to writing, with the cursor where you left it. Presentation mode has its own font and spacing under Settings ▸ General ▸ Note text.

Line width

Long lines are hard to read: by the end of one, your eye has trouble finding the start of the next. Under Settings ▸ General ▸ Note text, switch on Limit line width and choose how many characters a line may hold. Writing and presentation mode each have their own width, so you can set one without the other. The width counts characters rather than pixels, so a line holds the same words when you change the font size.

Place the text puts the narrower column on the Left of the page, leaving the spare room on the right, or in the Centre, with equal space either side. The note's title and properties line up with the text. A click in the empty space beside the text puts the cursor on the line next to it. A pane that is already narrower than the width you chose is left as it is.

Checkboxes

Type - [ ] something to do and it becomes a checkbox you can click. Clicking one ticks or unticks it and writes the change straight away, without moving your cursor. Put the cursor on a checkbox line and that line shows its plain Markdown again, so you can edit the raw text whenever you want it. Colours stay while you do: a due date, or a person you have mentioned, keeps its highlight on the line you are writing.

Checkboxes are also how tasks work — see the tasks page for due dates and the agenda.

Saving

There is no save button, and you never need one. Gilune writes the note about a second after you stop typing. Ticking a checkbox saves immediately, and so does switching to another tab or closing one. The right-hand end of the status bar says saved or unsaved so you always know where you stand. If you want to force it, the ⋯ menu at the top of the page has Save now.

If the file changes underneath you

Because your vault is an ordinary folder, something else may edit a note while you have it open. If that happens to a note with unsaved changes, a banner appears across the top of the page: This note changed on disk while you were editing it. You choose Use the disk version, which takes the other version and drops yours, or Keep mine, which writes yours over it. Nothing is decided for you, and the tab will not close until you answer. If the note had no unsaved changes, Gilune just quietly picks up the new version.

Properties

Notes can carry properties — the key: value lines at the very top of the file. When a note has any, a small strip sits above the body; click it to see them all.

To change them, open the ⋯ menu and choose Properties…. Each property is a pair of fields you can edit, with a button to remove it and a blank row at the bottom for adding a new one. Apply keeps your changes, Cancel throws them away.

Gilune's own properties — the ones whose names begin gilune- — are shown with a padlock and cannot be edited. They are how a note is tied to its original recording and its history, so the app looks after them. Everything else in there is yours.

Attachments

When a note has files beside it sharing its name — a voice note's audio recording, for instance — a small arrow appears next to it in the sidebar. Click the arrow to show them; click the note's name as usual to open it. Attachments are listed rather than opened in Gilune: right-click one and choose Reveal in Explorer to get at the file itself.

Deleting

Right-click a note in the sidebar and choose Delete. You will be asked to confirm. The note is removed from your vault — but its earlier versions and, if it came from a recording, the original audio, are kept. Deleting what you can see never destroys what it was made from.

If a note is deleted by something other than Gilune, a banner appears at the top of the window asking whether to keep its history or let it go, with Restore and Delete to answer it.

Using other apps on the same folder

This is expected, not merely tolerated. Point Obsidian at your vault folder, edit a note in Notepad, keep the whole thing in version control — all fine. Gilune picks up outside changes and shows them; the refresh button in the top bar asks it to look again straight away.

The one thing worth knowing is the guard described above: if you edit the same note in two places at once, Gilune will stop and ask you which version to keep rather than silently choosing.