Writing

Every note is Markdown text. You can see and edit it in three ways.

The three modes

Switch modes with the Read, Write and Visual buttons above the note.

To choose which mode notes open in, go to Settings and use Open notes in: The last mode I used (the default), The last mode I used for that note, or always Read, Write or Visual. New notes always start in Write.

Undo and redo work inside the mode you are in. Switching modes starts a fresh undo history.

Write mode

The editor has a toolbar with Bold, Italic, Heading, Bullet list, Checklist and Link a note. Each inserts the matching Markdown. Press Tab to indent. Long lines always wrap.

Visual mode

The Visual formatting toolbar has text styles (Text, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3), Strikethrough, Inline code, Link a note, Web link, Bullet list, Numbered list, Checklist, Quote, Code block, Divider, Table, undo and redo, plus bold and italic. Inside a table, Add row and Add column appear.

• A plain click edits. Hold Ctrl and click a link to open it.
• Press Ctrl Enter to tick or untick the selected checklist items.
• Web links must start with https://, http:// or mailto:.
• Parts of Markdown that Visual mode can't edit are kept exactly as written. They show as "Markdown block · edit in source". Use the Markdown source link to switch to Write and edit them. This applies to callouts, Mermaid diagrams, code blocks with extra information, raw HTML, images and frontmatter.
• If a change can't be saved as Markdown, you see a message with an Open source button.

Supported Markdown

Not supported: maths ($...$), ==highlight==, and embedding one note in another with ![[Note]].

Callouts

Start a quote with a type in square brackets, optionally followed by a title:

> [!tip] A useful title
> The body of the callout.

Add - after the bracket (> [!tip]-) for a callout that starts folded, or + for one that starts open. Types: note, abstract (summary, tldr), info, todo, tip (hint, important), success (check, done), question (help, faq), warning (caution, attention), failure (fail, missing), danger (error), bug, example and quote (cite). An unknown type shows as a note. With no title, the type name is used. Edit callouts in Write mode.

Note links

Type [[ in Write or Visual mode to get a list of your notes, then pick one. Other forms work too:

• [[Note title|shown text]] shows different text for the link.
• [[Folder/Note title]], [[Note title#Heading]] and [[Note title.md]] find the note by its title; the folder and heading parts are ignored for matching.
• [[#Heading]] jumps to a heading in the same note.

Links match titles without caring about capital letters. In Read mode, click a link to open the note. Hover over it for a short preview. If no note has that title, the preview says "No note with this name yet. Click to create it.", and clicking creates it. Links inside code are ignored.

Tags

Write # followed by letters, digits, _, - or /, for example #ideas or #project/alpha. The # must be at the start of a line or follow a space. A heading like # Title isn't a tag. Tags are case-sensitive, so #Ideas and #ideas are different tags. In Write mode, typing # and a character suggests your existing tags. #words inside code blocks still count as tags. Click a tag in Read mode to list the notes that use it. See Organizing.

Diagrams

Kithnote draws diagrams written in Mermaid. In Write mode, type a code block whose language is mermaid:

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A[Idea] --> B[Note]
```

Switch to Read to see the diagram, labelled "Mermaid diagram", with a Show source button. If it can't be drawn, you see "This diagram could not be rendered. Its Markdown source is safe below." Mermaid is the only diagram format, and there is no toolbar button for it. Very large diagrams (over 20,000 characters or 400 connections) aren't drawn.

Find in a note

• Ctrl F (or Find in note in the Note actions menu) searches the open note.
• Ctrl H (or Find and replace) opens find and replace. Replacing always happens in Write mode, so Kithnote switches to it.

In Read and Visual mode a find bar shows "N of M" matches, with previous (Shift Enter) and next (Enter) buttons, Replace… and close (Esc). To look across all your notes, use search (see Organizing).

Focus mode

Choose Focus mode in the Note actions menu, or press Ctrl \, to hide the sidebar, the note list and the side panel.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac browser, use Cmd in place of Ctrl.

In the search window, ↑ and ↓ choose a result and Enter opens it.

Limits

• A note's text can be up to 500,000 bytes. Plain English text uses one byte per character; other scripts and emoji use more. Past the limit, Kithnote stops accepting more text. In Write mode the extra text just isn't added. In Visual mode you see "This note is full. Split it into another note before adding more."
• A note title can be up to 200 characters.
• A folder name can be up to 100 characters.

See FAQ for all limits.

Themes

In Settings, under Appearance, choose Evening (dark, the default) or Daylight (light).