User Manual

Getting Started

Org-notes works with .org files — plain text files using Org-mode syntax. Open any .org file to start editing, or create a new one from the app.

The interface has two panes: an editor on the left and a live preview on the right. Changes in the editor are reflected instantly in the preview at 120 fps.

File header

Start your file with optional metadata:

#+TITLE: My Document
#+AUTHOR: Your Name
#+DATE: <2026-06-15 Sun>

Autosave

Your work is saved automatically — every 300 keystrokes and after 30 seconds of inactivity. A backup copy is also maintained for crash recovery.

Editor Basics

The editor supports Emacs-style navigation alongside standard macOS shortcuts. Text is stored in a rope data structure for fast editing of large documents.

Inline formatting

Checkboxes

- [ ] Unchecked item
- [X] Checked item
- [-] Partial item

Toggle a checkbox by placing the cursor on it and pressing C-c C-c.

Headings & Structure

Headings start with one or more asterisks. The number of asterisks sets the level:

* Level 1
** Level 2
*** Level 3

Folding

Press Tab on a heading to cycle its visibility: folded → children → subtree. Press Shift-Tab globally to cycle the entire document: Overview → Contents → Show All.

Structural editing

TODO keywords

Press C-c C-t to cycle a heading through TODO states: (none) → TODO → DONE → (none).

** TODO Write the report
** DONE Ship version 1.0

Tables

Org-notes includes a full-featured table editor. Tables are plain text, but behave like a spreadsheet — with auto-alignment, navigation, sorting, and formulas.

Creating a table

Type a pipe character | followed by your column headers and press Tab:

| Name | Age | City |

Pressing Tab auto-aligns the table and moves to the next cell. Pressing Enter moves to the next row in the same column.

Horizontal rules

Type |- and press Tab to insert a horizontal separator:

| Name    | Age | City        |
|---------+-----+-------------|
| Alice   |  30 | New York    |
| Bob     |  25 | Los Angeles |
| Charlie |  35 | Chicago     |

Navigation

Column & row operations

Column alignment

Add an alignment row using <l>, <c>, or <r> to control left, center, or right alignment in the preview:

| Left     | Center   | Right    |
| <l>      | <c>      | <r>      |
|----------+----------+----------|
| aligned  | aligned  | aligned  |

Table Formulas

Tables can compute values with the #+TBLFM: directive placed immediately below the table. Formulas reference cells by column ($N) or by exact position (@row$col).

Basic syntax

| Item   | Price | Qty | Total |
|--------+-------+-----+-------|
| Apple  |  1.50 |   3 |       |
| Banana |  0.75 |   2 |       |
#+TBLFM: $4=$2*$3

This fills column 4 with Price × Qty for every data row. Press C-c * to recalculate the current row, or C-u C-c * to recalculate the entire table.

Cell references

Multiple formulas

Separate multiple formulas on the same #+TBLFM: line with :::

| a | b | sum | product |
|---+---+-----+---------|
| 2 | 3 |     |         |
| 4 | 5 |     |         |
#+TBLFM: $3=$1+$2::$4=$1*$2

Aggregate functions

These functions operate on ranges of cells:

Example: Sum column

| Item   | Amount |
|--------+--------|
| Rent   |   1200 |
| Food   |    400 |
| Travel |    150 |
|--------+--------|
| Total  |        |
#+TBLFM: @>$2=vsum(@I..@II)

Math functions

Format specifiers

Append ;format to a formula to control output formatting:

| a | b | ratio |
|---+---+-------|
| 1 | 3 |       |
#+TBLFM: $3=$1/$2;%.2f

This formats the result as a decimal with 2 places (e.g., 0.33).

Recalculation

LaTeX & Math

Org-notes renders LaTeX math expressions in real time. Formulas are converted to SVG using Mitex/Typst and displayed inline or as display blocks in both the editor and preview pane.

Inline math

Wrap expressions in single dollar signs or \(...\) delimiters:

The equation $E = mc^2$ describes mass-energy equivalence.

The Greek letters \(\alpha + \beta = \gamma\) are common in physics.

In the editor, inline math is highlighted with a purple background and dimmed delimiters. In the preview, it renders as a crisp SVG image.

Display math (block)

Use double dollar signs or \[...\] for centered, block-level equations:

$$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2}\, dx = \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$

\[\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^2} = \frac{\pi^2}{6}\]

LaTeX environments

Standard LaTeX environments are fully supported:

\begin{equation}
  \nabla \times \mathbf{E} = -\frac{\partial \mathbf{B}}{\partial t}
\end{equation}

\begin{align}
  a &= b + c \\
  d &= e + f
\end{align}

Subscripts & superscripts

Outside of math mode, Org-notes can display sub/superscripts as Unicode characters (configurable in settings):

H_{2}O renders as H₂O
x^{2} renders as x²
e^{i\pi} renders as eⁱᵖⁱ

Greek letters & entities

Org-notes renders Org entities as their Unicode equivalents:

\alpha → α    \beta → β    \gamma → γ
\pi → π       \infty → ∞   \sum → ∑
\rightarrow → →   \leq → ≤   \geq → ≥

How rendering works

LaTeX expressions are rendered to SVG via Mitex (a Typst-based converter). Results are cached by content hash in a temporary directory, so repeated expressions render instantly. If the primary renderer is unavailable, a fallback pipeline using pdflatex → PDF → MuPDF is used.

Footnotes

Org-notes supports the full Org footnote system:

This sentence has a footnote[fn:1] and a named one[fn:details].

[fn:1] This is a numbered footnote.

[fn:details] This is a named footnote with more information.

Inline footnotes

This has an inline footnote[fn::The definition is right here].

Footnote commands

In the preview, footnotes appear as superscript numbers with back-references.

Links

Org-notes supports multiple link types:

** URL links
[[https://orgmode.org][Org Mode Homepage]]
[[https://orgmode.org]]

** File links
[[./other-file.org][Open another file]]
[[~/Documents/notes.org]]

** Internal links (to headings)
[[*My Heading][Jump to heading]]
[[#custom-id][Jump to ID]]

Link commands

Radio targets

Define a radio target with <<<target>>> and every occurrence of "target" in the document becomes a clickable link to that location.

Code Blocks

Source blocks provide syntax highlighting for 50+ languages:

#+begin_src python
def fibonacci(n):
    a, b = 0, 1
    for _ in range(n):
        yield a
        a, b = b, a + b
#+end_src

Other block types

Fixed-width lines

: This line starts with a colon and space.
: It renders as preformatted monospace text.

Keybinding Reference

Org-notes uses Emacs-style key notation. C- means Ctrl, Alt- means Option/Alt. Many operations are context-sensitive — the same key behaves differently inside a table vs. on a heading.

Navigation

Editing

Org structure

Tables (inside table context)

Links & footnotes

View