Workspace and windows

The root folder and the window

The opened root folder is your Workspace. Just opening it creates nothing; when you close it, LightNote only writes a small session file (open tabs and position). Turning on Versioning (Git) or the MCP in Tools → Workspace → Workspace settings... does not change what the folder is: the workspace just gets a Git or MCP mark next to its name in the lists of recent workspaces. To only look at a folder without making it a workspace, use the Standalone files window.

The General Settings apply to the whole application; the Workspace Settings apply only to the opened folder. Configuration and state live in a central database, not scattered across the folder.

LightNote runs as a single instance: opening a second folder reuses the process (multi-window, less memory). There is a tray icon and a launcher with a search box listing the Workspaces (pin your favorites to the top via the context menu) — see Daily notes and tray. Each tab can get a color label through the tab bar's context menu. For repetitive notes, create a Modelos (or Templates) folder at the workspace root with .md files and use File → New → New note from template... Four academic templates come ready in the same list — Academic paper, Reading note, Lab notebook and Experiment protocol: picking one writes the .md into that folder, and from then on it is yours to edit.

Organizing and writing templates. Subfolders of Templates become categories: Work/Meeting.md shows up as Work/Meeting, and that is the name a folder records when it adopts the template. The fields {{title}}, {{date}}, {{time}} and {{date:dd/MM/yyyy}} are filled in on creation — the title is the note's name, and renaming the note right after creating it, before writing in it, redoes the title — and nothing is replaced inside code (between backticks or in a block), so a template can teach its own syntax. In a template they are marked like the fields to fill in, with the same background — in the formatted editor, with the solid border of syntax —, and in an ordinary note they get no colour, because there they do nothing. The template's frontmatter goes into the note, except description:, which describes the template, and citation-style:, which belongs to the folder. Templates and prompts (the Prompts/ folder) are tools, not content: they stay out of search by meaning and of the AI Chat context, and the tags and aliases: declared in them do not count — text search still finds both. With a template open, a strip at the top of the editor says that it is a template and offers Insert field, Show syntax and the Preview — the note as it is born right now.

The Template library (under Tools, and the same one File → New → New note from template... opens) lists them all with search by name and description, groups them by subfolder and shows the preview; it is also where a new template is created — including from the open note, where its title and today's date become fields. The gallery also brings a From the site group: templates we publish, in the interface language, fetched only when you open it. Importing is a copy — the template becomes a file of yours under Templates, and nothing links the two afterwards: a template fixed on the site does not chase what you already imported, and a template of yours with the same name always wins. Without a connection the gallery says it could not fetch them and goes on showing what is already on this machine.

Fields to fill in. A template can leave gaps: {{ask:Meeting subject}} is a free field and {{choice:draft|review|final}} is a list. They are not replaced on creation — the note is born with them marked in the text, and that is what makes them work in Today's note, in lnote and in the MCP too, where there is no screen to ask anything. In a note, the formatted editor shows each field as a tag with a dashed border around its label (the question, or the first option); clicking it selects the whole field, and the next key replaces it. On a choice field the click also opens the list: picking an option swaps the field for it, and closing the list without picking leaves the field selected, ready for you to type something else. When the note is created, the cursor already lands on the first field; from there Tab and Shift+Tab move from field to field — the status bar says which one you are on —, Alt+↓ opens a choice's list from the keyboard, and Esc (or leaving the field's line) gives Tab back its usual job. In the template itself, Show syntax is on: the fields appear as {{…}} with a solid border and a click puts the cursor inside them, so you can fix the question or the options; off, the template looks like the note that will be created from it. The six fields are also in the / menu and under Insert → Template fields — only in template files. In the text editor a field appears exactly as it is in the file, with coloured braces, and the spell checker stays out of it.

Creating files

Creating a file and choosing its type. The New menu (☰ File, the New button on the activity bar, or Create new in a folder's context menu) offers New note (.md), New text file (.txt) and the New code file submenu with the most used languages. In all of them the file is created on disk right away with a default name, and the tree opens the name editor — only the base name is preselected, so typing a title does not erase the extension. To accept the suggested name, just click in the editor and start writing. For an extension outside the submenu, create a file and rename it (F2): changing the extension changes the view — renaming .txt to .md reopens the same tab as a note, with the reading view and outline, and the other way round brings back the code editor. LightNote's own extensions (.lnc, .lne, .lnq, .lnh, .lns and the bundles) are the exception: there the extension declares the format of the content, so renaming asks for confirmation and is refused while the tab is open.

A new file you never got to use. If you close the tab of a just-created file without naming it, without saving and without typing anything, it goes to the Recycle Bin and the status bar offers Undo — so a New triggered by accident leaves no trace in the folder. Any sign that the file is yours makes it permanent: renaming it, saving it (Ctrl+S) or typing anything into it.

The scratchpad is a code editor. The Scratchpad tab (which is not a file on disk) uses the same editor and toolbar as code files: find and replace, Lines, Case, Comment, bookmarks, folding, macros and the AI assistant. It starts with Markdown highlighting, and the language can be changed as in any file. The Edit as Markdown button switches to the notes editor (spell checking, [[ completion and clicking wikilinks), and Edit as code switches back; the text goes along. Running and linting need a file: Ctrl+S (or Save to disk...) writes the scratchpad and the tab becomes that file. Without a file there is no autosave; the content survives closing the app and is gone if you close the tab.

Where the new file is created. New always creates in the marked folder in the Explorer, and exactly one is always marked. At the top of the tree sits the root folder row, named after the workspace: it is an item like any other — click it to send the destination back to the root. Selecting a folder moves the mark to it; selecting a file marks the folder that contains it. In List mode, which shows no folders, the mark stays on the root row and that row displays the effective destination. The root row's context menu offers Create new and Create folder.

Standalone files and favourites

To open a loose file without turning it into a workspace, use Open loose file… (tray menu): the standalone window shows the file tree, but without Git, MCP or theme override. If enabled in Settings → General → Features, LightNote integrates with the Windows Explorer menu (per user, no administrator required): besides the "Open with" list, the context menu gains "Open with LightNote" on any file and "Open as LightNote workspace" on folders (on Windows 11, under Show more options). Files open in that standalone window; folders open as a workspace.

If you select several files at once in Windows Explorer — even from different folders — they all open in the same standalone window, tab next to tab (instead of scattering one window per file). That window's tabs are remembered: close it and open it again, and the same files come back. Since the focus here is on the tabs, the file tree starts collapsed — press Ctrl+B (or the button at the top of the activity bar) to show it.

Getting back to a session. The standalone files window is called Standalone files everywhere — including in the title bar, where other windows show the workspace name, so you can tell them apart in Alt+Tab. In the tray menu, under Open, the item gains a (N tabs) suffix when there are saved tabs — clicking it brings them all back. It is also the first row of the launcher, next to your workspaces. And when you reopen LightNote, it comes back with everything that was open when you quit: each window in its folder, plus the standalone window. To open only the last folder used instead, change Settings → General → Interface → On startup, open. A window you closed before quitting is left out — closing is how you say "I'm done with this space".

Favorites: the sidebar has a Favorites section with whatever you pinned (context menu of the tree or of a tab → Add to favorites) plus the recently opened files. Pinned items are per folder and are stored as relative paths, so they survive moving the workspace. Enter opens the selected item, and the context menu has Copy... and Show in Explorer. On a recent file, Remove from recent takes it off the list while its tab stays open (the recent files are the open tabs); reopening the file brings it back. A pinned item whose file is no longer on disk stays on the list, with Open and Show in Explorer disabled.

Open a tab in its own window: in the tab's context menu, Open in new window reopens that file in a standalone window (handy to keep a note beside your code). File types that depend on the workspace (.lnc, .lne, .lns and the bundles) cannot be detached.

The Explorer

Moving a file while its tab is open. Dragging the file to another folder in the tree takes the tab with it — it stays open, now pointing at the new location — and the same holds for cut and paste and for moving a whole folder, in which case the tabs of the files inside follow along. Hold Ctrl to copy instead of moving. Out of LightNote, a drag always COPIES: take a file from the tree — or drag the tab itself from the tab bar — onto a Windows folder, an e-mail or a Teams conversation, and the original stays in your workspace. Inside the program a tab is still just a tab: dragging it to another pane moves the tab, and passing over the editor or the tree with it writes and moves nothing.

Multiple selection. The tree accepts Ctrl+click (individual) and Shift+click (range) in all three view modes. With several items selected, the context menu acts on the whole selection: Cut and Copy (interoperating with Windows Explorer), Delete (a single confirmation for all), Duplicate, Copy hash, Compress to .zip (one archive, each item under its own name at the top), Apply color, Favorites, Git (add/restore) and Copy paths (one line per item). Actions that only make sense for a single item — inline rename, Properties, Open as, Convert — are disabled, with the reason in the tooltip. Right-clicking inside the selection keeps it; clicking outside selects just the clicked item. Selecting a folder and something inside it does not run the operation twice: the inner item is dropped.

Peek without opening. A single click on a file already opens a preview tab (recycled, shown in italics on the tab bar). While walking the tree with the arrow keys, Space does the same and returns focus to the tree, so you can keep moving down the list. In the middle of a type-ahead search — typing the first letters of a name jumps to it — Space counts as a letter of the name; peeking works again after a pause.

Sorting the tree. The view mode button, at the top of the Explorer, has a Sort by submenu: Name, Date modified, Size or Type, in Ascending or Descending order. Folders always stay on top, and the criterion applies within each group. Choosing date or size puts the newest or largest first right away. The order is remembered per folder. In the List view, you sort with the column headers.

Sorting by the header. In Tree with columns, clicking the Name, Size or Modified header picks the same criterion as the menu, and clicking again reverses the direction; the arrow shows the order in effect, and folders stay on top. In the List, names follow natural order (arq2 before arq10) and the chosen column is remembered. The width of Size and Modified is adjusted by dragging the header border, and it is remembered too. In the Standalone files window, the view mode button holds only the order and hidden files.

Copy and paste from the keyboard. With focus on the tree, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+X copy and cut the selected file — not its path — and it pastes into Windows Explorer or into another folder of the tree with Ctrl+V, which pastes into the selected folder or the folder of the selected file. Ctrl+F5 refreshes the file list (F5 still runs the file).

Menu on empty space. Right-clicking an empty area of the tree opens the menu of the folder shown: Create new, Create folder, Paste, Sort by, Refresh, Collapse all (closes every open folder; also in the view mode button) and Properties. In the List, the scan skips folders such as node_modules and build, shows up to 20,000 files and tells you when the folder has more; from it you can drag files out, always as a copy, and rename with F2 right on the row.

File tools. The Explorer context menu has a File tools submenu: Batch rename (filter by extension/wildcard/regex + a rule pipeline with live preview and collision detection), Split file (by lines, size or regex separator), Merge files (optionally keeping only the 1st CSV header), Duplicate, Copy hash (MD5/SHA-256) and Compress to .zip / Extract here. With several items selected, Batch rename and Join files receive exactly the chosen items (instead of scanning the folder) — and Join honors the selection order. In the Join window, a folder's files come in natural order (part2 before part10), Add files… or dropping files from Explorer adds more, and dragging an item in the list changes the order.

Navigating the standalone window. Above the tree there are back (Alt+←), forward (Alt+→) and up buttons, plus a clickable folder trail — each segment jumps to that level. The mouse side buttons also go back and forward. To type a path, click the empty area of the strip or press Ctrl+L; Esc cancels and restores the trail. Switching tabs also moves the shown folder: since the standalone window gathers tabs from different folders, clicking a tab navigates to that tab's folder.

Menus and zoom

Menus. The ☰ button (top of the activity bar) holds the File, Edit, View, Window, Tools, AI and Help menus. AI actions have their own menu (also on the wand button in the activity bar). Under Tools, the groups live in submenus: Run (F5/F6/F8, lint, send to terminal, macros), Capture (today's note, quick capture, quick task, record audio, sticky notes) and Workspace (settings, snapshot, export copy, move folder) — the latter also in the gear menu. The New menu is the same in the three places it appears: ☰ File, the New button and Create new in a folder's context menu.

Zoom, in every view. The zoom level lives in a single place: the − 100% + group on the right of the status bar. The middle button opens the standard list — Fit width and Fit window (only where the content has a size of its own, such as PDF and images), the levels 200%, 150%, 120%, 100%, 75% and 50%, and Custom… —, with a mark on the active one. The shortcuts are the same in every view that has zoom (code, notes, PDF, images, HTML and spreadsheets): Ctrl++, Ctrl+−, Ctrl+0 to go back to 100% and Ctrl+mouse wheel. In a view without zoom the group simply does not appear; under a fit mode the label reads Width or Window instead of a percentage. Zoom belongs to the tab, not to the file: a tab that sat idle and had its memory released — or that came back when you reopened LightNote — returns at the zoom you left it; opening the file again, from scratch, starts at 100%.