Grow a map.

Add and edit nodes.

A node is a short label in a tree. Notes, tasks, tags, dates and links all hang off a node.

Add a node

Select a node and press Tab for a child or Return for a sibling. The new node starts empty, ready for you to type.

• Press Tab while typing to keep the label and start a child of it, so a deep branch takes one key per level.
• Press Esc on a new node you haven't typed into to take it away, with nothing left to undo.

Also: with Apple Intelligence, ⌥Tab suggests children and ⌥⇧Tab breaks a node into subtasks. See Growing a map.

Edit a label

Double-click a node or press ⌘Return. On the canvas you can also start typing on a selected node: the first key replaces the label. Return or Esc finishes the edit and keeps what you typed.

Labels take a little Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, ~~strike~~ and `code`. The canvas shows the markers while you edit and the formatting once you finish. In the Document the label renders as you type, and selecting part of it brings up a bubble for bold, italic and code.

Fit a long label

A label has no length limit, but a card shows only so much. Point at a cut-off node, or select it, and the card grows to show the whole label.

To shorten a label for good, right-click it and choose Move Overflow to Note: the label keeps its opening, and the rest becomes the note.

Also: Condense Label asks Apple Intelligence for a short title. See Tidying text.

Delete a node

Press Backspace or Delete to remove the selected nodes and everything under them. The selection moves to the nearest node left.

Add more to a node

• A task: ⌘T. See Any node can be a task.
• A note: ⌘⇧Return. See The note.
• A picture or a file: see Pictures and files.
• Tags: ⌘⇧T. See Tags.

Set properties as you type.

While you type a label, on the canvas or in the Document, Kloni offers the words it can read as a dashed chip under the label. Press Tab to take it: the words leave the label and become the property, in one undo step.

Type Book dinner in Testaccio tomorrow, press Tab, and the node reads Book dinner in Testaccio with tomorrow as its date. Ignore the chip and nothing changes. With no chip showing, Tab adds a child, or indents in the Document.

Use the slash menu

Type / in a label for a menu of actions, and keep typing to narrow it: /task, /link, Link to Map (type /link and pick it), /date, /state and /priority. Notes have their own: see Writing and formatting.

Use keys while you type

• These keep the caret in the label: ⌘T (task), ⌘D (done), and ⌘⇧. or ⌘⇧, (priority).
• These finish the edit first: ⌘J (state), ⌘⇧T (tags), ⌘⇧D (date) and ⌘L (link).

Select, move and fold.

Select several nodes

• ⌘-click adds or removes a node. ⇧-click selects the run from the last node to this one.
• ⇧ and an arrow key extends the selection. ⌘A selects every node.
• Drag across empty canvas to select what the rectangle covers. Hold ⇧ or ⌘ as you start to add to the selection, or ⌥ to take nodes out of it. Esc abandons the drag.

With nothing selected, an arrow key selects the node nearest the pointer.

Delete, tags, dates, task state, priority and styling act on the whole selection as one undo step.

Move a node

Drag a node onto the middle of another to make it a child, or onto its top or bottom edge to put it before or after (its left or right edge in Top Down).

From the keyboard, hold ⌘ and press an arrow key. Each press steps a marker toward the new place, and the node lands when you let go of ⌘. Esc cancels.

Cut, copy and paste

⌘X, ⌘C and ⌘V work on whole branches, in either view and between maps. Copy the root to paste an entire map as a branch somewhere else.

Fold a branch

Press Space to fold a node's children away or bring them back. Expand All and Collapse All, in the right-click menu's Children submenu and the Node menu, act on the whole branch.

Also: the Children submenu has Sort by State, Sort by Priority and Sort by Date. See Dates.

Undo a change.

⌘Z undoes and ⌘⇧Z redoes. Each map has one history with no step limit, shared by the canvas, the Document and notes, so you can undo a note edit from the canvas.

• One step: a whole label edit, a move of several nodes, a layout or palette change, anything done to a selection.
• No step: folding, selecting, zooming and opening a note.
• While you type: ⌘Z takes back what you typed in this edit and leaves the field open.

The node that changed pulses, and Kloni brings it into view, unfolding its branch or climbing out of Focus if it has to.

Two things keep their own undo: archiving a map and changes made in Review. To go further back, or restore an earlier version, use History.

Switch between Canvas and Document.

Every map has two views of the same nodes, and a change in one shows in the other. Press ⌘1 for the Canvas and ⌘2 for the Document, or use the switch in the top bar.

Also: choose the view new maps open in under Settings › General › New maps open in.

The Document is the same map as a page: write in it, and read it in full, skimmed, or as only what's left to do. See Read and write in the Document.

Pan, zoom and focus.

Pan and zoom

Scroll, or swipe with two fingers, to pan the canvas. Dragging the root pans too; a drag on empty canvas selects. Pinch, or hold ⌘ and scroll, to zoom around the pointer, from 10% to 400%.

All of these are in the zoom menu, the figure in the bottom-right corner, with levels from 50 to 200%, and in the View menu. The Document has its own zoom, and neither fit command.

Find your bearings with Esc

Once nothing is left open, the first Esc on the canvas selects the root. The second returns to 100% around it, showing as much of the map as fits at that scale.

A map opens no smaller than 60%, then stays where you left it. Jumping to a node keeps your zoom.

Read a map zoomed out

Below 60%, the root and its first ring keep readable labels and deeper nodes become capsules in their branch color. The selected node and those around it keep their labels, so you can still add to the map.

Below 20%, each main branch also gets a soft wash of its color. Tree List, Columns and Tree Table always show everything, and so do exports.

Focus on a branch

Press ⇧Return to make the selected branch the root until you leave, with the rest of the map out of the way. A breadcrumb below the tabs shows where you are and takes you back up in one click.

Also: Focus on Node on the right-click menu and in the Go menu. To clear the screen around the map, see Full screen.

Choose a layout.

A layout changes how the canvas draws a map, never what's in it. Open the Map Style pane (⌥⇧I) and pick one under Layout. The Document ignores layouts.

Also: type "layout" in the Command Palette for Layout: Right Tree and the rest.

Change how a map looks.

A map's look belongs to the map. Open the Map Style pane (⌥⇧I) and click a choice; each is one undo step.

New maps start in the Depth shape, which gives each level its own form: a card for the root, tinted pills for the main branches, and text on a line for everything deeper.

Edges, fill and shape gray out in Columns and Tree Table, and fill with the Underline and Depth shapes. Picking Columns switches the map to Underline; leaving it puts your shape back. Styles apply on the canvas only.

Use This Style for New Maps, at the foot of the pane, makes this map's look the one new blank maps start with. Settings › General › New map style puts the built-in look back. Light and dark are under Settings.

Style one node

Press ⌘B, ⌘I, ⌘U or ⌘⇧X to make the selected nodes bold, italic, underlined or struck through.

The Text section of the Node pane (⌥I) sets a node's size (8 to 144) and label color: a palette color, a saved swatch, or + for your own. Reset to map style hands it back. These apply on the canvas. Branch colors always come from the palette.

Link nodes and maps.

A tree says what belongs under what. Links say what else relates.

Link to the web

Paste a web address into an empty label and the node becomes a link, named after the page's title. ⌃Return opens it in your browser.

Also: ⌘L or /link turns any node into a link, or back, with a field for the address. Press Tab to move from the label to the address.

When the page has structure, such as a video's chapters or a page's headings, the node offers Expand into nodes. Click it and that structure nests underneath, in one undo step. To get a summary instead, see Summarize Web Page.

Join two nodes with a cross-link

A cross-link joins two nodes in the same map.

1. Select one node on the canvas and press ⌘K.
2. Click the other node. Esc or a click on empty canvas cancels.
3. Type a label if you like, and press Return.

Two nodes are joined at most once. Cross-links appear when you select one of their nodes or the link itself, and the rest of the map dims around them.

• Reshape it: drag along a link to bend it, select it and drag an end around its node, or drag its label aside.
• Relabel it: double-click the link.
• Change it: right-click to reverse its direction, make it point both ways, or delete it. Backspace deletes a selected link too.

Also: Add Cross-link… in the Node menu and the right-click menu's Link submenu. In the Document, select a linked line for buttons that jump to each linked node. Tree Table lists links as chips in a selected cell.

Link to another map

1. Right-click a node and choose Link › Link to Map…, or type /link in its label and pick Link to Map.
2. Pick a map.
3. Pick the node inside it, or the map itself.

⌃Return on the link opens that map at that node.

Link › Copy Link to Node puts a kloni:// link on the clipboard. Paste it on an empty label, on the canvas or into a note, and Kloni makes a real link named after its target. Paste it into Notes, Mail or a browser, and clicking it opens Kloni at that node.

Renaming a map, moving it or archiving it doesn't break these links.

Fix a broken link

A link whose map or node has been deleted is drawn as broken. Click it for two fixes: Relink to another map… or Remove link. Put a deleted map back from the Trash and every link to it works again.

Moving a map to the Trash first says how many links point to it.

Build a map from text.

1. On the canvas, select the node to build under and press ⌘⇧I for Create from Text.
2. Write or paste an outline. A live outline beside it shows the tree you'll get.
3. Press Add Nodes (⌘Return).

Markdown headings, lists, checkboxes and #tags are read as such, and so is plain text from Apple Notes or an email. With nothing selected, the nodes land under the root.

Pasting does the same. Paste lines of text onto a selected node and they arrive as its children; paste into an empty root and the first line becomes its label. A rich copy keeps its headings and lists, and a line too long for a label continues in the note.

Also: on a Mac with Apple Intelligence, Improve Structure in the pad places the lines the outline is unsure of. See Improve Structure.

Also: to bring in a web page, a YouTube video or a Markdown file, see Importing.

Split a map.

When a branch has become its own subject, right-click it and choose Move To › New Linked Map. The branch moves into a new map, opens in a tab, and a link to it stays in its place. Move To › New Map does the same without the link.