Go deeper.

Write a note.

Every node can hold a note. Select a node and press ⌘⇧Return: the note opens in the Note pane beside the map, with the caret in it. A node with a note shows a small lines glyph beside its label.

Also: click a node's note glyph, the Note button in the top bar, or Edit Note on the right-click menu.

Your words save as you type. The note's title is the node's label: edit one and you've edited the other. Return in the title moves into the body; ↑ on the body's first line, or Backspace at its very start, goes back.

Esc returns to the map and leaves the pane open, so you can step through a map's notes with the arrow keys. ⌘Return, ⌘⇧Return or a click on the lit Note button closes the pane.

Set properties from the header

The note's header shows the title, the node's path, then its state, date, priority and tags as chips. Click a chip for its usual picker. Past three tags they fold into a +N, and a node with a date and no title shows the date as its title.

In the Note pane, the + (Add property) offers what the node lacks, and Open in Document jumps to the same note in the Document. Below the note, Inside lists the node's children: click one to select it.

Write on a full page

Press ⌘⌥Return (Bring to Centre) to move the note into the writing sheet, a page in the middle of the window, with its caret and undo steps. Everything around the page fades while you type. Once the caret passes 40% of the page, the line you're typing stays at that height.

The node's path stays in place as you scroll: click an ancestor to write in its note. Point at the header card for its +. While the sheet is open, any note you open stays there.

⌘⌥Return or Dock Beside moves the note back beside the map. Esc, ⌘Return, ⌘⇧Return or a click outside closes the sheet.

Also: ⌥-click a note glyph to open its note in the sheet.

Format your text.

Type Markdown and it formats as you go. There's no toolbar: use the slash menu, the format bubble or the keys.

Use the slash menu

Press / in a note and keep typing to narrow the list: /table, /code, /image, /attach. Rows show their shortcuts.

Use the format bubble

Select text for a small bubble: bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, Link and Turn into, which changes the block or makes child nodes. With Apple Intelligence it ends in a sparkle for Improve Writing.

Add checkboxes

A checkbox is a round marker, the same ring as a task: click it to tick it. Press ⌘⇧9, or type [ ] and a space. Notes still save checkboxes as plain Markdown (- [ ]).

Open checkboxes appear in All open and Not planned and in the Document's Actions mode; ticked ones go to the Done log. Each can become a real task: see Turn notes into nodes.

Format from the keyboard

Move a block

Press ⌘⇧↑ or ⌘⇧↓ to move the block at the caret, or every block a selection touches. A list line moves as its whole item, a table line as the whole table.

Also: drag the six-dot handle in the gutter beside the block you point at.

Add tables, code and callouts

• Tables: /table adds a two-by-two table with a header row. Right-click a cell to add or delete rows and columns, or delete the table. A cell holds a single line.
• Code: Kloni colors a code block for the language it detects. Change it with the picker in the block's header, where Plain text turns coloring off. Click the header to fold the block, or Copy to copy it. Turn on line numbers under Notes & code in the Map Style pane.
• Callouts: a quiet panel, from the / menu or Turn into. Click its name to change the kind: Note, Tip, Important, Warning or Caution. It saves as the quote GitHub reads (> [!NOTE]), so other apps still show a quote.

Paste text

Markdown copied as plain text, from a code editor or a chat app, pastes as formatting. Rich text keeps its formatting, and a code block stays literal. To keep the symbols, press ⌘⌥⇧V.

Notes are stored as Markdown, so they read well outside Kloni. Three things don't survive reopening: an empty spacer line, more than one line in a table cell, and a table column's alignment.

Set a map's note type and spacing under Notes & code in the Map Style pane. Text contrast is under Settings → Appearance → Notes.

Use Writing Tools.

Apple's Writing Tools work in your notes on a Mac with Apple Intelligence. Select text, then choose Writing Tools from the note's right-click menu or the Edit menu. Apple's panel shows the result; Replace puts it in your note as one undo step.

Each line keeps its bold, links and list. If Writing Tools writes a list or a table, it becomes a real one in the note.

Kloni's own Improve Writing shows its changes in your text instead of a panel: see Tidying text.

Link from a note.

To link another map or one of its nodes, type [[ and pick it from the list, or paste an address. The link reads as the node's title or the map's name. Esc puts the brackets back as text.

Also: Link to Map or Node in the / menu.

To link some text, select it and press ⌘K: paste a web address, or type to search your maps and nodes.

Point at a link, or put the caret in it, for a card with Open, Copy, Edit and Remove. Open goes to a linked map, sends a web link to your browser and an email link to your mail app.

Turn notes into nodes, and back.

Each conversion is one undo step, and a toast says what it did. Offers in the gutter wait until the caret leaves the list or heading, so they never appear while you write.

Make checkboxes into tasks

• One line: point at a checkbox and click the chevron at its right edge. The line becomes a child task of the node.
• The whole list: when a note holds a single checklist of two or more, click Promote N tasks in the gutter beside its first line. Nesting is kept.

A ticked line becomes a Done task and an unticked one an Open task.

Also: Promote N Checkboxes to Tasks on the node's right-click menu and in the Command Palette, once its note holds two or more. Promote to Task Node on a checkbox's row in the Tasks list.

Make text into nodes

Select list items, a heading or paragraphs, then choose Turn into › Child Nodes or Child Tasks in the bubble; each says how many it will make. Nested items become nested nodes, checkboxes become tasks, and the text under a heading becomes that node's note.

A note with two or more top-level headings offers Make these sections in the gutter beside its first heading. Every heading from there to the end becomes a child node, with its text as the note.

Also: Outline Note as Child Nodes, with Apple Intelligence, for a note written as prose.

Merge nodes into a note

Select siblings and choose Merge into Parent's Note on the Node menu or in the Command Palette. They and everything under them become a list in the parent's note, or headings if they have notes of their own. Checkboxes and links are kept.

Kloni refuses when something would be lost, and the menu says which node is in the way: a task that isn't Open or Done, or a node with Someday, a priority, a date, tags, a picture, a cross-link or its own style.

Also: Move To › Parent's Note on the right-click menu.

Add pictures and files.

Put a picture on a node

On the canvas, drop an image onto a node or paste one with ⌘V. It shows on the node itself, on the canvas and in the Document.

Also: Add Image… on the right-click menu, in either view, with Replace Image… and Remove Image once it has one.

Put a picture in a note

Drop or paste an image into the note, or type /image to enter an address or browse for a file. Click a picture to see it full size; point at it to remove it.

Attach a file

Drop a PDF, a recording or a spreadsheet onto a node on the canvas or into its note. It lands in the note as a chip with an icon for its type. Several images dropped at once go into the note too. Right-click a chip for Open File or Show in Finder.

Also: /attach in a note, or ⌘⇧A.

Limits

• Files and pictures can be up to 50 MB; anything over 10 MB asks first.
• Pictures can be PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, SVG, BMP or ICO. Large photos are resized to 1920 pixels on the long side.
• Everything is copied into the map, so moving or sharing the map takes it along.
• A file you remove from a note goes to the Trash when the map closes, so you can get it back until you empty the Trash.

Read and write in the Document.

The Document is the same map as a page you read top to bottom. Press ⌘2; ⌘1 goes back to the canvas. A node with a note, a picture or children is a heading, a bare leaf is a line in a list, and notes sit open beneath their headings.

Click a label or a note to write in it. A line's date, priority and tags show as chips, with a + for what's missing. A chevron folds a section and says what it hides.

Write from the keyboard

Typing with a line selected but no caret does nothing, so a stray key never replaces a label. A line with no note shows an Add Note icon when you point at it.

Choose how it reads

Pick a mode with the controls in the corner of the window. It stays on until you change it. While Skim or Actions is on, a pill at the top says what's hidden, and Show all goes back to Read.

Also: View › Reading Mode, the Command Palette, and Reading mode under Settings → Appearance → Document View.

In Actions, a task you mark done stays, dimmed, until the selection moves, and Return adds a new task. Dates, priorities and tags stay on the label line; point at a date or a tag for an × that removes it.

Reading width, Row density, Indent guides and Fold triangles are under Settings → Appearance → Document View. ⌘= and ⌘- change the text size.

Tag a node.

Tags cut across the tree: a node can carry several, and a tag can appear in any map. Select a node, press ⌘⇧T, type a tag and press Return. The list suggests the tags you use most and marks the row Return will take. Return on the empty field closes it.

Also: Tags… in the Node menu and on the right-click menu; #tag in a label, then Tab on the chip; #tag in a Quick Capture title. Suggest Tags offers them with Apple Intelligence.

With several nodes selected, tags on only some of them show as partly applied. Tags show as pills under their node on the canvas and as chips in the Document.

Click a tag and every node carrying it lights up, the rest of the map dims, and the library column turns to Search with that tag as its chip. Remove the chip to put the light out.

With nothing selected, ⌘⇧T opens the Tags sheet, to rename, merge or delete a tag everywhere: see Tags in the Library.

See everything about a node.

Press ⌥I, or click the Node button in the top bar, to dock the Node pane beside the map. It lists Type (Default or Link), Task, Priority, Due, Tags, Link, Note and Image. Click a value to change it with the same picker the map uses.

Also: Node Properties on the right-click menu and in the Command Palette.

• Task opens the state picker, whose last row makes the node plain.
• Note opens the Note pane on the canvas; in the Document it puts the caret in the line's note.
• Link edits a web address in place or links a map through the map picker.
• Text styles the node on the canvas: see Map style.

With several nodes selected, a value they don't share reads Mixed, and a change applies to all of them as one undo step. On a read-only map the rows are disabled, and a note can still be read.

The line at the foot counts depth, children and words. Click it for more: descendants, word and character counts, when the node was made and finished, and why a task is or isn't in Not planned.