# Beyond Notes manual

## Getting started

Each note is one plain `.md` file in iCloud Drive > Beyond Notes. With iCloud off, your notes stay on the device.

Choose New Note on the Mac or an iPad keyboard with ⌘N, then start writing. The first line is your title.

Your welcome note is there to write in. It asks you to try five small things: tick a box, see the marks, make a tag, link two notes and do a sum.

## Writing

The first line is the title you see in the note list. Write the rest below it.

The paragraph you are in shows its Markdown marks. The rest shows the finished page. In Settings, turn on **Show Markdown** if you want the marks to stay everywhere, drawn faintly beside the words.

On iPhone and iPad, the keyboard bar has formatting buttons. On the Mac or with an iPad keyboard, use the Format menu or the shortcuts below.

For a heading, put a space after the hashes. For a code block, type three backticks and a language such as swift, then press Return. The closing fence is added for you. Both fences step aside when you leave the block.

Return continues a list or quote. On an empty item, Return ends it. Numbered lists keep their numbers in order.

Drop or paste a photo into a note to show it in the text. The image file lives in Attachments beside your notes.

## Tags

Type `#work` anywhere in a note and it appears in the sidebar. Use `#work/meetings` to put one tag inside another. A note can have more than one tag.

Type `#` to pick an existing tag. Keep typing to narrow the list, then use Return or tap the tag you want.

For a name with spaces, close the tag with another hash, like `#project ideas#`. You can also keep it together as `#project-ideas`.

Right-click or long press a tag and choose **Choose Icon** to give it a symbol or emoji. New tags get an icon by themselves when a word fits. Your choices sync across devices.

Outside the paragraph you are editing, the icon takes the place of the hash. A nested tag uses its parent's icon.

## Links between notes

Type `[[` and a list of notes opens under the cursor. Keep typing to narrow it down. Press Return to pick a note and make the link, or click it in the list.

A link such as `[[Meeting notes]]` opens that note. If the note does not exist, the link stays plain text you can edit.

At the bottom of the page, **Linked from N notes** opens a list of notes that link to the one you are reading. Each shows the words around the link.

## Tasks

Start a line with `- [ ]` followed by a space and your task. Tap or click the box to tick it. The change is saved in the text as `- [x]`.

The note list counts the tasks still open in each note. Return starts another task. Return on an empty one ends the list.

## Sums

Write a sum with `=` at the end of the line, like `120-3*4=`. The answer appears faintly after it. Press Return to write the answer and start a new line. Tab writes it and keeps you on the same line.

You can use +, -, *, / and ^, or × and ÷. Brackets work too. Use a decimal comma and the answer uses a comma.

## Emoji

Type `:` and two letters of a name, like `:ta`, to open the emoji list. Pick an emoji and it goes into the note as the character itself.

Full shortcodes such as `:rocket:` are also shown as emoji.

## Focus and In the Zone

Focus leaves only the text. On the Mac it also goes full screen. Use ⌘D on a Mac or iPad keyboard. Turn on fading in Settings if you want only the paragraph you are writing to stay bright.

In the Zone goes further. Fresh letters glow as you type, then cool back to ink blue. Faster typing makes them warmer. Use ⇧⌘D, the View menu on the Mac, or the More menu on iPhone and iPad.

Each theme has its own animation, from graphite dust to passing train lights. These are off by default. Turn on **Theme animations In the Zone** in Settings to see them. The glow is there without the animations. Reduce Motion turns the effects off.

## Themes and settings

Choose your theme in Settings. The seven themes are Ballpoint White, Paper Sketcher, Ink Artist, Baker's Delight, Midnight Commuter, Shades of Gray, Moonlight Blue.

Choose Serif, Sans or Mono for your writing, then set the text size. Show Markdown keeps all the marks visible. Fading in Focus leaves the paragraph you are editing bright.

On the Mac, the window has no toolbar buttons by default. Everything is in the menu bar or a note's right-click menu. Turn on **Show toolbar buttons** in Settings if you want them back.

## Finding notes

The sidebar has All Notes, your tags and Trash. On iPhone, the note list is home and the tags open in a drawer. Choose a tag to see its notes.

Search looks through titles, text and tags. Accents do not need to match. Include `#tag` in your search to narrow the results.

On the Mac, choose Edit > Search Notes or press ⇧⌘F. Use ⌘F to find words in the open note.

Swipe left on a note to find Pin and Trash. On the Mac you can also right-click the note. Pin keeps it at the top of the list.

Following a note link or a backlink remembers where you were. Use ⌘[ to go back and ⌘] to go forward. On iPhone and iPad the toolbar has a Back button.

On the Mac, click the note list and use the arrow keys to move through it. Delete moves the selected note to Trash.

## Your files and iCloud

Open Files on iPhone or iPad, or Finder on the Mac. Your notes are in iCloud Drive > Beyond Notes, one `.md` file per note. Any app that reads Markdown or plain text can open them.

Edit a file in another app and Beyond Notes picks up the change. If two devices change the same note before they sync, both versions are kept. Read both and keep the words you want.

Deleted notes go to the Trash folder inside your library. It syncs through iCloud too. Open Trash in the sidebar and choose Put Back to restore a note, or Delete Now to remove it.

Empty Trash removes the notes waiting there. Notes are also removed automatically after thirty days.

## Moving from another app

Export your notes as Markdown or text files. In Beyond Notes, open Settings, choose **Import a Folder of Notes** and pick the folder.

Import accepts `.md`, `.markdown` and `.txt` files. Missing images are reported.

## Export and print

To keep a copy of everything, choose **Export All Notes** in Settings. You get a folder with a copy of every note, with its dates kept.

For a single note, choose **Export as PDF** from the File menu or More menu. On a Mac or iPad keyboard, use ⇧⌘E. The PDF uses A4 pages with 18 mm margins.

Choose Print from the same menus, or press ⌘P. Use Share to share a single note as text. On the Mac, Share is also in the note's right-click menu.

You can share text or a link into Beyond Notes from another app. It becomes a note when you open Beyond Notes.

## Keyboard shortcuts

These commands are in the Mac menus and available with an iPad keyboard. Tag is in the Format menu without a shortcut. Type `#` to start one.

## When something looks wrong

Sync can take a moment after you open the app. If a note is missing, check iCloud Drive > Beyond Notes in Files or Finder. With iCloud off, notes stay on the device.

If you see two versions, both were kept after changes on different devices. Read them before moving either to Trash.

For help with syncing, importing or finding your files, read the support page. You can write there too.

Beyond Notes support. Or write to supportbeyondbeyond.se.