Views and display

How a document appears is decided on two levels. The view belongs to the individual tab: it determines whether the document is shown rendered, as source text, split or live. The appearance applies to the whole application: theme, zoom, content width and fonts. This page brings both levels together and names the place of every setting.

The six views

Every tab is in exactly one of six views. The chosen mode applies per tab, not globally: one document may be open rendered while a second one is edited as source text next to it.

Switching happens via the buttons in the status bar or via the top of the View menu; the mind map lives in the menu and on its shortcut, not in the status bar, and the canvas button stays dimmed as long as the document holds no canvas surface. Which view a newly opened tab receives is set in the “Behaviour” section of the settings.

Live mode

Live mode renders the Markdown directly in the editor: bold and italic, links, tables, code, images, KaTeX formulas and Mermaid diagrams appear as they look in the rendered result. When the cursor sits in a line, exactly that line shows its raw source and stays editable. This removes the switch between writing and checking.

Tables are exempt from this rule. They stay laid out even while the cursor sits in them: a click hits the cell, Tab and the arrow keys move from cell to cell, and what you type lands at the right place in the source. If you need a table’s raw syntax — the separator row with its alignment colons, say — switch to the source or the split view.

Mind map

The mind map shows the headings and lists of the document as a tree and the body text as a note on the node. It belongs to the extension of the same name and goes with it; structure, handling, the five root positions and the default per document are described on the page Mind map view.

Canvas

The canvas shows a surface with cards and connections that lives inside the document itself. It belongs to the extension of the same name and goes with it; it is also the only one of the six views that depends on the document and can be chosen only when the document holds a canvas surface. Structure, handling, several surfaces and the storage format are described on the page Canvas surface.

Editing

Edit mode arms the editor and works in the source, the split and the live view (default Ctrl+E, pencil in the status bar, View → Edit). Clicking the pencil in the pure reading view automatically switches to an editing view and activates the editor there. Which one is set by “View when switching to edit mode” (File → Settings… → Behaviour; Split, Source and Live are available, Split by default). If the view is already one of the three, it stays — there the pencil only arms the editor. What is available for formatting in edit mode is described by the pages Editor context menu and Format toolbar.

Editor display

The submenu View → Editor Display bundles the five switches that concern the editor itself. The same switches sit as icons in the status bar.

• Folding shows the fold gutter at the left edge: headings, lists and blocks can be collapsed there, and the hierarchy stays visible as a trace.
• Line Numbers shows the number column.
• Word Wrap wraps long lines at the window edge instead of scrolling horizontally. The continuation of a wrapped line starts at the indent level of its content: for a list item behind the list marker, for a numbered one behind the number, for an indented line at its own indent. A paragraph without indent stays flush left.
• Scroll synchronisation couples both halves in the split view: when you scroll the source, the result follows by content, and the other way round. The switch applies per tab.
• Typewriter Scroll keeps the cursor line vertically centred as soon as the cursor moves. It only works in edit mode.

The first three switches are document-bound: their value goes into the frontmatter of the file (fold-gutter, line-numbers, word-wrap) and travels with it. Toggling writes the new value there and marks the file as changed; a document without its own entry follows the default under File → Settings… → Appearance. The resolution order is described on the page Frontmatter and properties.

Appearance

Light, dark and system

The application runs in a light or a dark theme; the default follows the theme of the operating system. It is switched via the theme icon in the status bar or via View → Appearance → Light/Dark/System. Which colors a theme uses is freely determined by color schemes, see Color schemes.

Under Linux the system default depends on the desktop environment: if it reports no light/dark preference, the light theme remains. Switching by hand works there unchanged.

Focus mode

Focus mode hides the tab bar, the status bar and the sidebar and leaves only the document (View → Appearance → Focus Mode, default Ctrl+Shift+F). The menu bar stays reachable via Alt. Esc leaves the mode unless a dialog or a menu is currently open. A collapsed sidebar state is untouched by this and continues to apply after leaving.

Active line

The line with the cursor is subtly tinted in edit mode, in the source as well as in the live view and including the line number column. In the pure reading view it stays unmarked, because there is no cursor there. The tint is semi-transparent and therefore lies over any color scheme; selection, search hits and linter markers stay visible on top of it. Switch: File → Settings… → Appearance.

Zoom

The content of each tab can be enlarged and reduced independently in ten-percent steps (default Ctrl + +, Ctrl + −, Ctrl + 0, plus Ctrl with the mouse wheel). If the factor differs from one hundred percent, the status bar shows it; a click on it resets. The zoom is volatile and does not survive closing the window.

Content width

The content width determines as a percentage how much room the rendered display uses (20 to 100, default 80). Narrower values stay centred. It applies to the rendered and the split view; the PDF export uses the full print width regardless. Setting: File → Settings… → Appearance.

Font family and size

Font family and size can be chosen separately for the editing surface and for the rendered view; the size lies between 8 and 32. The values apply to all documents and take effect immediately in all open windows. Setting: File → Settings… → Appearance.

Window state

Position, size and maximized state of a window are remembered on quit and restored on the next start. Nothing needs to be set for that. What brings back a whole session with its tabs beyond this is described on the page Applications, windows and areas.

Word statistics

The status bar shows words, characters and the estimated reading time of the active file. If something is selected in the editor, the display switches to the selection. A click opens a detail dialog with paragraphs, sentences and the number of headings per level. Frontmatter, code blocks and KaTeX formulas are not counted.

Settings

The settings open as their own tab (File → Settings…, default Ctrl+,). Their navigation is divided into four blocks:

• General — everything that applies to the whole application, such as appearance, behaviour, keyboard shortcuts and export.
• Current area — the settings of the open area. The block only appears while an area is open.
• Extensions (internal) — switching the bundled extensions on and off, including their own sections.
• Extensions (external) — the management of extension packages you installed yourself.

Changes first act as a draft with live preview of the appearance. Apply and OK save them; both are highlighted only when there are unsaved changes, and without changes Apply is dimmed. Cancel or closing the tab discards the draft. Saved values apply immediately in all open windows. More on the two extension blocks is on the page Extensions.

Language

The interface is available in German, English, French, Spanish and Italian. It is switched via the language selector in the status bar; open manual pages switch along immediately.

Menu bar

The menu bar carries the three menus File, View and Help. Alt turns on keyboard control, and the underlined letters jump straight into the respective menu, for example Alt+F for File. The currently effective shortcuts of all commands are listed on the page Keyboard shortcuts.

At the very end of the View menu sit the developer tools. They are deliberately fixed to F12 and cannot be rebound: they are a tool for troubleshooting and not part of daily work.