OnEdit User Guide

• Quick Notes: Create, organize, edit, and recover rich local notes in an app-owned library.
• One note across the app: Move the same note between its manager, a main-workspace rich tab, and a floating Sticky Note.
• Local and portable: Keep versioned .onedit files locally, or use Save As for .onedit, Plain Text, or HTML.
• Workspace reliability: Long Markdown synchronized scrolling is more stable, the Files sidebar refreshes automatically, the default background migrates to Plain, and transformed or clipped SVG rendering is repaired.

OnEdit 6.0 is the current public release, available now on the Mac App Store.

Create and Manage Quick Notes

1. 01
   Create a note

   Open the Quick Note Manager and create a note. The default native rich editor keeps JSON and HTML implementation details out of view.

2. 02
   Write with native rich text

   Apply text styles, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullets, fonts, and text color. Copy the selection as rich text or plain text. Shared app Background themes and adaptive automatic ink keep content readable in Light and Dark.

3. 03
   Organize the library

   Use search, tags, Favorites, and Archive to manage active notes without changing their local file format.

4. 04
   Recover or remove

   Recently Deleted supports Restore and Delete Permanently. Notes left there expire automatically after 30 days.

Open in Editor, Make Sticky, and Return

• Open in Editor moves the same note into a rich .onedit tab beside text and code files; it does not make a second note.
• While the rich tab owns the editable session, the manager links to that tab instead of presenting a competing editor.
• Press ⌘S in the rich tab to flush pending changes immediately.
• Choose Save As to export a portable .onedit file, Plain Text, or HTML. Normal Save continues updating the local-library note.
• Choose Make Sticky from the rich tab to move the note into a floating window above normal windows.
• A Sticky Note stays editable and focusable. Frameless mode is reversible, and the note remembers its local frame, position, and size.
• Choose Back to Quick Notes from a rich tab or Sticky Note to return the note to its library workflow.

Import, Autosave, and Local Privacy

Get Started

• Choose File > New Tab (⌘T) to create a document.
• Click and hold the tab bar + button or choose File > New from Template to start with one of 17 extension-aware Starter Templates.
• Choose File > Open... (⌘O) or drag a file into the window.
• Choose File > Open Folder... (⇧⌘O) to set a workspace.
• Choose View > Toggle Preview (⇧⌘P) on previewable files.
• Use the sidebar segmented control to switch between Files and Bookmarks.

Workspaces and Tabs

• Choose File > New Window (⌘N) for a separate workspace.
• Close a tab with ⌘W; close all tabs with ⌥⌘W.
• Control-click a tab for Close Other Tabs and Close Tabs to the Right.
• When another OnEdit window is already active, opening a file prefers that active window when possible.
• Use the sidebar hidden-files toggle when you need to browse dotfiles or hidden workspace items.
• Click the scope button beside Files/Bookmarks to reveal the active file in the open folder.
• Copy Path and Reveal in Finder are available from file-tree rows, file tabs, and image preview file menus.
• Refresh the open folder with the circular arrow in the Files sidebar; expanded folders stay expanded while their contents reload.
• In OnEdit 6.0, the Files sidebar also refreshes automatically when the workspace changes.
• If an active file changes on disk, OnEdit reloads an unchanged editor automatically. If both copies changed, choose whether to keep the editor version or reload from disk.
• The main window restores tabs and the workspace on launch.

Editing

• Standard text and code tabs edit plain text; OnEdit 6.0 Quick Notes and rich .onedit tabs use the native rich editor described above.
• Syntax highlighting is applied automatically by file extension.
• Syntax colors remain visible while moving the cursor onto blank lines or elsewhere in the document.
• Toggle the toolbar with View > Hide Toolbar (⌃⌘T).
• Toggle line numbers with View > Show Line Numbers (⇧⌘L) or the editor context menu.
• Press Option (⌥) or ⌥⌘C to toggle Column Selection Mode; press again to exit.
• Drag to select a column block; typing edits multiple lines at once.
• Paste Most Recent Copy: ⌥⌘V.
• Show Copy History: ⌃⌥⌘V or Edit > Show Copy History....
• Paste from Copy History is available in the Edit menu and editor context menu.
• Format Document (⌘L) supports JSON, JSON Lines, and C-style languages.
• Use Vim-style navigation shortcuts: ⌃H left, ⌃J down, ⌃K up, and ⌃L right.
• Print text or the current rendered Markdown/HTML preview with ⌘P.

Markdown Workbench

• Open a Markdown file in Preview, then click Trust workspace to execute or Trust document to execute. Trust is scoped to the current workspace or document origin.
• Execution is always explicit, user-initiated, and local; opening or previewing a document never runs its code blocks automatically.
• Runnable fence languages: sh, bash, zsh, python, python3, node, javascript, js.
• Add optional metadata (title, timeout, module mode) in the code-fence info string.
• Run one block or click Run all commands to execute blocks in document order.
• Each runnable block captures output and a structured execution receipt.
• Longer process runs execute off the main actor, keeping OnEdit responsive while commands finish.
• For saved Markdown files, results persist across edit/preview switches and app relaunch until cleared.
• Shell, Python, and Node availability follows the local environment and shell PATH.

Search & Replace

Preview & Media

• Use Edit/Preview for Markdown, HTML, and CSV files; ⇧⌘P toggles preview from the keyboard.
• Markdown Preview and HTML Preview support inline local images and media when file access is available.
• Markdown Preview renders Mermaid fences locally as diagrams instead of raw code blocks.
• Markdown Preview renders inline $...$ and display $$...$$ LaTeX math locally with bundled KaTeX, including multiline display expressions.
• Markdown and HTML keep the proportional vertical reading position synchronized between Edit and Preview, including HTML's Native and Web renderers.
• In OnEdit 6.0, synchronized scrolling remains stable across long Markdown documents.
• Rendered Mermaid diagrams include Copy Image and Save PNG… actions in the preview card.
• Rendered Markdown and HTML code blocks include copy actions, and preview text selection remains available.
• Use Print or Export PDF from Markdown and HTML Preview. Markdown output preserves formatting, local images, LaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, and current Workbench output and receipts.
• HTML Preview can use the Web renderer for higher-fidelity WebKit rendering of saved web pages, scripts, styles, and local asset folders after access is granted.
• Word and Excel files render in-app; PowerPoint uses macOS Quick Look.
• Media files (images, videos, audio) open in a dedicated preview tab; SVG files open directly as read-only image previews.
• PDF Preview shows current and total pages. Use previous and next, or enter a page number and press Return or click Go to jump directly.
• Drag files into the editor to insert their file path; supported media files show a preview when available.

LaTeX Source Editing

• OnEdit opens .tex and .ltx files as editable plain-text documents with dedicated LaTeX syntax highlighting.
• Commands, environments, groups, math delimiters, and comments receive language-aware colors.
• LaTeX source files remain source documents in this release; OnEdit does not compile them or provide full-document PDF preview.
• Markdown Preview math is separate and renders $...$ and $$...$$ expressions locally with KaTeX.
• Use your existing LaTeX build workflow when you need to compile a complete document.

Bookmarks & Recents

• Press ⌘D or click the bookmark icon in the toolbar to bookmark a file.
• The "Recents" section in the sidebar tracks your last 10 opened files.
• Bookmarks are persisted across app launches.

Tools

• Base64 Encode / Decode: Works on selected text.
• Sort Lines: Sort selected lines alphabetically (ascending/descending).
• Remove Duplicate Lines: Clean up lists instantly.
• Change Case: Convert selection to Upper Case, Lower Case, or Title Case.

Appearance

• Switch themes in View > Theme (Light, Dark, System).
• Toggle "Vibrancy" (glass effect) in the View menu.
• OnEdit 5.0 introduced Sketchbook Glass with Sketchbook Sky. OnEdit 6.0 migrates the default document background to Plain while retaining shared Background themes.
• View Scale applies from 50–300% to editor and rendered content, while app-owned controls, spacing, panels, and sidebar geometry scale within a restrained companion range.
• Use Presentation Mode for demos and focused review sessions.
• Editor background textures (Paper, Wood, Iron) are available in View > Texture.

Status Bar

• Shows current line and column for the cursor position.
• Displays selected character count.
• Displays current file encoding (for example, UTF-8).
• Provides quick access to per-tab background style selection.

Syntax Highlighting

• Supported languages include: Swift, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, JSON, JSON Lines, Markdown, LaTeX, YAML, XML, SQL, C, C++, Ruby, PHP, Java, Go, Rust, and Shell Script.
• JSON Lines files are associated with OnEdit and open with .jsonl highlighting automatically.
• SQL files are associated with OnEdit and open with SQL highlighting automatically.
• The editor auto-detects language based on file extension.
• Manually change language via View > Syntax.

Troubleshooting

• A file opens in preview and can't be edited: Some formats are preview-only. Convert to a text format to edit.
• File access prompts: Files outside your workspace require permission the first time you open them. Choose File > Open or drag the file into the window.
• Format Document doesn't change anything: Formatting currently targets JSON, JSON Lines, and C-style languages.
• A .tex or .ltx file does not produce a PDF: OnEdit edits and highlights LaTeX source but does not compile complete LaTeX documents.
• An external edit conflicts with unsaved work: Choose whether to keep the editor version or reload the copy from disk; OnEdit does not silently discard the editor changes.
• An external .onedit file is not changing: Finder and Open With import an external .onedit into the local Quick Notes library. Continue editing the imported library note, or use Save As when you need a new portable copy.