Get things done in Solo Note.

Getting started

Open Solo Note for the first time

There's no account, no sign-in, and no password to remember. The first time you open Solo Note it creates a default Space and drops you straight into your notes. The encryption key for everything on disk is generated for you and stored in your Mac's secure Keychain, bound to this device — so the app unlocks transparently on every launch.

• Because the key lives in the Keychain rather than in a passphrase you type, there's no lock screen to get past.
• The key never syncs to iCloud and never leaves this Mac.
• The one password you do choose is the optional password on an encrypted .solonote backup (see Backup & export) — keep that one in your password manager.

Write your first note

1. Press ⌘N or click New Note in the toolbar.
2. Type a title. ↩ moves the cursor into the body.
3. Start typing. The first block is a paragraph; press / to change it to anything else.

Notes save automatically and continuously — there's no Save command. If you close the window or the app crashes mid-keystroke, the last unsaved characters are kept in an encrypted draft and restored next launch.

Tour the three-pane layout

From left to right: Sidebar (sources — folders, tags, todo lists, reports, spaces), Notes list (notes inside the selected source), Editor (the open note). Each pane has a toggle:

• ⌘0 — Toggle sidebar
• ⇧⌘L — Toggle notes list
• ⌥⌘0 — Toggle properties (right-side inspector)

Drag the splitters to resize; Solo Note remembers each pane's width per window.

Jump to anything fast

• ⌘O opens Quick Open — fuzzy-matches every note title and body.
• ⇧⌘K opens the Command Palette — runs any action by name.
• ⌘? opens the full shortcuts sheet (the same content as the Shortcuts page).

Block editor workflows

Insert any block type

Type / on an empty line to open the slash menu. Start typing the block name — “tab” for Table, “call” for Callout, “cod” for Code, and so on. ↩ commits the highlighted match.

There are sixteen block types: Paragraph, Heading 1/2/3, Bulleted list, Numbered list, Todo, Divider, Quote, Code, Link, Timestamp, Collapsible, Image, Table, and Callout.

Use markdown shortcuts for the common ones

On an empty block, typing these patterns converts the block inline so you don't have to reach for the slash menu:

• # space — Heading 1 (##, ### for H2, H3)
• - space or * space — Bulleted list
• 1. space — Numbered list
• [] space — Todo
• > space — Quote
• --- — Divider

Format text inline

• ⌘B — Bold
• ⌘I — Italic
• ⌘U — Underline
• ⌘E — Inline code
• ⇧⌘X — Strikethrough

Text color and highlight live in the right-click menu (or the floating format bar that appears on selection). Both palettes remember your recent colors per space.

Link to another note

Select the text you want to make a link, press ⌘L, and pick a note from the list that pops up. Backlinks accumulate automatically — open the inspector to see who points at the current note.

To turn a pasted URL into a link, just select some text and paste a URL on top of it. The selection becomes the visible label; the URL becomes the link target. Pasted links render as plain blue text — no underline.

Rearrange and duplicate blocks

• ⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓ — Move the active block up/down
• ⌘D — Duplicate the active block
• ⇥ / ⇧⇥ — Indent / outdent (or nest list items)

For mouse-driven moves, hover any block; the drag handle on the left lifts the whole block and shows insertion guides.

Work with tables

• Insert via the slash menu → Table. Seeds a 2-column, 2-row table.
• Press ↩ in the last cell to append a new row.
• Press ⇥ to advance one cell; the row appends when you tab past the bottom-right cell.
• Right-click any cell for Insert row above/below, Insert column left/right, Delete row/column, Row/column color, and alignment per column.
• Drag a column or row border to resize it live — the table reflows as you drag.
• Inline formatting (bold, links, color) survives row inserts — appended rows don't reshuffle styling.

Find inside a note

⌘F opens the in-note find bar. ⌘G and ⇧⌘G walk through matches; esc closes the bar.

Focus on one block at a time

⌃⌘F toggles focus mode: the active block stays bright; everything around it dims. Great for long-form drafting.

Organizing notes

Folders

Folders are a tree. Create one with ⇧⌘N or via the sidebar's + New Folder row. A note's folder shows in the inspector; drag a note onto any folder in the sidebar to move it.

• Selecting a folder shows its notes and every descendant folder's notes as one flat list.
• Folders can be renamed, dragged to reorder, and nested arbitrarily deep.
• Right-click a folder and choose Color… to tint its icon — the same shared color picker used for tags, note rows, tabs, and text.
• Notes that belong to no folder live under Unfiled.

Tags

Tags are flat labels you can attach to any note. Open a note, click + Add tag below the title, type a name. Reusing a tag name picks the existing tag — no duplicates.

• Click a tag in the sidebar to filter the notes list to notes carrying that tag.
• Tags can be colored — right-click in the sidebar for the swatch picker.
• Deleting a tag removes it from every note that used it; the notes themselves stay put.

Todo lists

Todo lists are first-class sidebar entries. Use them for standalone task lists that don't belong inside a note.

• Create a list with the sidebar's + New Todo List row.
• Each row has a checkbox, text, optional due date, and optional recurrence rule (daily/weekly/monthly).
• Sort modes: Due Date, Title, or Manual (drag to reorder). The chosen mode persists across launches.
• Right-click empty space in the list for New Task; right-click an unlinked task for Create Note, which spins up a new note in Unfiled with that task as its first block and keeps the two mirrored.
• Today in the sidebar surfaces every open task due today (or overdue) across every list.

Mirroring a todo block from a note into a list. Open any todo block in a note and click the Assign to list chip to its right. The block keeps appearing in the note; a mirrored task simultaneously shows up in the chosen list. Editing either side syncs the other.

Spaces

Spaces are fully isolated notebooks — Work, Personal, Research — each with its own encryption key and its own sidebar contents. Notes never cross between spaces.

• Switch spaces from the small uppercase label in the top-left of the sidebar.
• New Space… in the same menu mints a brand-new vault. Rename changes the label only.
• Delete destroys the space's encryption key and on-disk storage. The confirmation sheet requires you to retype the space name verbatim — there is no recovery once it's gone.

Properties (per-note metadata)

Properties let you attach typed metadata to notes — owners, review dates, URLs, counters, checkboxes. Open Manage Properties from the Command Palette to declare new ones; each property has a kind (Text, Number, Date, URL, Checkbox). Filled-in values appear in the inspector pane.

Comments on a note

The inspector's Comments section accepts free-form notes about a note — meeting context, review feedback, follow-up reminders. Each comment shows its timestamp and can be edited or deleted from its row.

Pin, archive, delete

• Pin a note from the note's inspector or right-click menu — pinned notes sit at the top of every list view.
• Delete a note with ⌘⌫ (with confirmation). Deleted notes go to Trash in the sidebar; restore from there, or empty Trash to delete permanently.

Generate a work-log report

The Reports section of the sidebar holds Work Log — a rolled-up view of everything you created or updated, grouped by day. It's built for timesheets, status updates, and client billing.

• Open Work Log from the sidebar's Reports section.
• Set the start and end dates with the two date pickers; the report rebuilds as you change them.
• Each day lays its entries out in columns — title, type, status, location (the folder or list), and time. Completed tasks show with a strikethrough.
• Click Export PDF to save or print a paginated copy. As with any print, Solo Note confirms first.

Backup & export

Make an encrypted backup bundle

Solo Note's native backup format is a .solonote file — a single encrypted bundle containing every note, image, tag, todo list, and version snapshot in the current space.

1. Open the Command Palette (⇧⌘K) and run Export…, or press ⇧⌘E. (Backup Now to Folder… writes a timestamped bundle to a folder you choose.)
2. Choose a destination and pick a password for the bundle. This password protects the export only; the app itself has no password.
3. Solo Note packages everything and writes a single sealed file.

Keep the bundle and its password somewhere safe. Without the password the file is opaque — even to us.

Restore from a backup bundle

1. From the Command Palette, run Import… (or press ⇧⌘I) and pick a .solonote file.
2. Enter the bundle's password. If it doesn't match, nothing is touched on disk.
3. Choose whether to import into the current space (merging) or as a new isolated space.

Export & import a single note as Markdown

Open the note, then run Export Note as Markdown… from the Command Palette (or press ⌥⌘E). Block types map to standard markdown wherever they have a one-to-one equivalent; everything else (callouts, collapsibles, colored runs) downgrades cleanly.

Going the other way, Import Note from Markdown… (⌥⌘I) turns a Markdown file into a new note, parsing headings, lists, todos, quotes, code fences, and dividers back into blocks.

Roll back a note to an earlier draft

Solo Note keeps up to fifty version snapshots per note — captured automatically on each save. To browse them, open the note and choose Version History from the Command Palette.

• Snapshots that are byte-identical to the previous one are skipped (no noise).
• Restore swaps the editor's current contents to the snapshot's; the previous current state is itself saved as a new version, so a restore is reversible.

Find your data on disk

Each space lives in its own folder under Application Support/solo-note/vaults/<space-id>/, as a single vault.sqlite file plus encrypted assets. Under the Mac App Store sandbox the whole tree sits inside ~/Library/Containers/io.vicras.solo-note/. The folder is excluded from Spotlight and Time Machine by default. Don't edit the files by hand; the SQLCipher database needs its key from the Keychain to open.