Your first notebook

This page walks through the parts of DunneNote you'll use on day one. If you'd rather follow numbered steps, try the first notebook tutorial.

The launch screen#

When no notebook is open, DunneNote shows the notebook picker:

• New notebook… creates a notebook. Choose a folder and a name, and DunneNote creates YourName.dunnenote there.
• Open notebook… opens an existing .dunnenote folder.
• Recent lists notebooks you have opened before.
• Lost a notebook? finds a notebook in a backup and restores it. See Backup and restore.

A notebook is an ordinary folder, so you can copy it, move it or back it up with any tool you already use. Close DunneNote before copying a notebook with other tools.

The window#

• The app rail runs down the side, with Search, Tags, the Item inspector and Settings.
• The notebook tree shows the notebook, its groups and its pages. Right-click an item (or press Shift+F10) for New Page, New Group, Rename, Move to…, Clone, Make as Template…, Archive and Delete.
• The toolbar runs across the top. Its rows change with what you have selected. See Toolbars.
• The page is where your canvases live.

Adding a page#

Choose New (+) ▸ Page. If no notebook is open, the row says "Open a notebook first". You can also right-click a notebook or group in the tree and choose New Page.

Adding canvases#

With a page open, the New (+) menu offers every kind of canvas:

Each canvas row says "Open a page first" until a page is open. A page can hold as many canvases as you like, of any mix of kinds. See The canvas kinds for what each one does.

Selecting and editing#

Click a canvas to select it. A selected canvas shows its frame and handles, and the toolbar shows the controls for that kind of canvas. To type or draw inside it, enter it by pressing Enter or using the toolbar control (for example Enter table). Press Escape to leave.

From the keyboard, Tab moves into the page, the arrow keys move between canvases, Enter enters one and Escape leaves. See Keyboard.

Saving#

There is no save button. DunneNote writes your changes to the notebook as you work. If you quit with unsaved typing in a text canvas, DunneNote saves it before closing, and it will be there when you open the notebook again.

Where next#

• Notebooks, pages and canvases: how it all fits together
• Arranging canvases: moving, stacking and tidying a page
• Search: finding things once you have more than a few pages
• Backup and restore: keeping a copy somewhere else