Notely

Workspace Overview ​

A workspace is the single source of truth for your notes in Notely. It maps to a folder on your local filesystem containing Markdown documents and asset subfolders.

1. Landing Dashboard ​

When you open a workspace, you are greeted by the landing dashboard, which provides quick access to recent work and workspace health:

  • Continue Writing: Shows the single most recently edited note to resume editing instantly.
  • Recent Notes: Displays a chronological list of recent notes.
  • Favorites: Starred notes for immediate access.
  • Open Tasks: Summarizes unchecked tasks across the workspace.

2. Note and Folder Creation ​

  • New Note: Create notes from File → New Note (Ctrl + N).
  • New Folder: Create subfolders inside the sidebar list view to group notes logically.
  • Rename & Delete: Available from the note context menu. Deleted files are safely moved to the "Removed" folder pool managed by Notely.
  • Drag & Drop to Folder: Drag any note card, table row, or tree node directly into a folder to move it immediately.
    • Spring-Loading: Hovering a dragged note over a collapsed folder for 600ms automatically expands the folder.
    • Breadcrumb Navigation Drop: Drag notes onto any ancestor folder in the breadcrumb path to move them up the directory tree.
    • Drop Between Files: In Tree View, dropping onto or between files displays an accent insertion line and moves the note into that containing folder.
  • Recycle Bin Panel: Drag notes directly to the Recycle Bin panel at the bottom of the dashboard rail. A confirmation prompt confirms the action before moving the note to .notes-app/removed/notes/, with 1-click Undo toast support.

3. Density & Layout Views ​

Customize how you browse your workspace contents:

  • Tile View (Ctrl/Cmd + 1): Card-style layout showing note content previews and media thumbnails.
  • Table View (Ctrl/Cmd + 2): Compact, grid-based list view for scanning large note lists quickly. Double-click any note row in Table View to open it immediately.
  • Tree View (Ctrl/Cmd + 3): Hierarchical tree layout displaying nested subfolders and notes with expandable/collapsible nodes, custom icon badges, color accents, and modification dates.
  • Comfortable Density (Ctrl/Cmd + 4): Added margins and breathing room.
  • Compact Density (Ctrl/Cmd + 5): High-density display for reviewing many documents at once.

4. Workspace Tools & Embedded Terminal ​

Notely includes integrated workspace utilities for project productivity:

5. Workspace & Document Reloading ​

Keep your workspace and active notes synchronized with external changes on disk:

  • Reload Workspace: Click the Reload button in the landing list controls, select Workspace → Reload Workspace (Ctrl + Alt + R), or run Reload Workspace from Disk in the Command Palette to re-scan all workspace documents, folder structures, open note tabs, and git status.
  • External Change Banner & Reload Note: When an active note is modified externally by another tool or process, Notely detects the change, temporarily disables autosave to prevent overwriting disk state, and displays a warning banner. Click Reload content from disk, select File → Reload Note from Disk (Ctrl + Shift + R), right-click the note tab and choose Reload from Disk, or use the Command Palette to force-load the latest file content from disk.