The editor

Live Markdown

HelloNotes styles Markdown as you type. Headings grow, emphasis takes effect, lists and task lists gain bullets and checkboxes, tables align — all while the file on disk stays exactly the Markdown you typed. Nothing is rewritten behind your back.

Move the caret into a construct and its raw syntax is revealed so you can edit it; move away and it tidies itself again. This is the “caret-driven concealment” you may know from Obsidian or Bear.

View modes

The Preview is rendered with cmark-gfm, the same engine GitHub uses, so a note that looks right here looks right in a README.

Code, maths and diagrams

• Code blocks are syntax-highlighted by language, using the GitHub theme.
• LaTeX maths renders natively — $inline$ and $$display$$.
• Mermaid diagrams in a ```mermaid block are drawn inline, natively.

None of these use a browser engine, so they scroll and type as smoothly as plain text.

Callouts, comments and properties

Obsidian-style callouts work as you would expect, with icons and collapsible bodies:

> [!note] Worth remembering
> The body of the callout goes here.

Text wrapped in %%double percent signs%% is dimmed as a comment. YAML front matter at the top of a note is hidden from the prose and presented in a typed, editable Properties panel — text, number, checkbox, date and list fields, rather than raw YAML.

Finding and replacing

⌘F opens the find bar for the current note, with replace and replace-all. To search across the whole collection instead, use the search field above the note list — see Organising notes.

Images and attachments

Paste an image and it is written into your collection as a PNG with a relative Markdown link — by default into an assets folder beside the note, which you can change in Settings. Non-Markdown files in the folder (PDFs, images, CSVs) appear in the tree and open in a native viewer.

Pasting rich text from a browser converts it to clean Markdown rather than pasting HTML.

Tabs, windows and export

• Notes open in tabs along the top of the editor.
• Open in New Window puts a note in its own window for side-by-side work.
• File ▸ Export writes the current note to HTML or PDF.
• A note with Marp front matter gains a native slide-deck preview.

Statistics and outline

The status bar shows a live word count. The outline popover lists the note’s headings — click one to jump straight to that section — alongside character, paragraph and reading-time figures.