macOS Interface

Jotaid on Mac is a single window: a left pane for navigating, a main area for whatever you're working on, and an optional AI chat panel on the right. Nothing is hidden behind tabs — the same window changes shape as you move between the three views. This page is about what each region of that window does.

The Left Pane

The left pane is the navigation column. Top to bottom it has three sections.

Top toolbar

Control	What it does
Sidebar button	Hides or shows the left pane (⌃⇧S)
Three view icons	Switch between Note (⌃1), Node (⌃2) and Theme (⌃3)
+	New note (⌘N)

Narrow the window and the group collapses to + and a ⋯ menu that keeps the same actions, plus New Project (⇧⌘P) and Import Markdown (⇧⌘I).

Projects

A horizontal strip of your projects, starting with Inbox. Click one to scope everything — list, canvas and graph — to that project. The search icon turns the strip into a Search notes… field that searches inside the current scope; the collapse arrow folds the strip down to just the active project's name.

The list header and the list

The header row reads NOTES, THEMES or TRASH with a live count, and it is clickable: in Note view it toggles the Trash, in Theme view it returns you to the theme overview.

To its right sit two controls:

• Trash — switch to deleted notes, where you can restore or permanently delete
• Filter funnel — one menu with two sections. Sort (By: Name / Created / Modified, and Order) and Filter (by tag, by node, by theme). The funnel turns coloured whenever sorting or filtering is off its default, and a small clear button appears next to it to reset the filters in one click.

The list below changes with the view:

• Note view — your notes, with title, preview and metadata. Right-click a row for Move to…, Convert to Theme, and delete.
• Theme view — your themes, each with its card count.
• Node view — your concept nodes, each with a reference count and a Core / Bridge / Emerging badge.

TIP

Hide the left pane (⌃⇧S) for a distraction-free editor. It also collapses on its own when the window gets too narrow to seat three columns — push the pointer against the left edge of the window and it slides back out for as long as you need it.

The Main Area

Note view — the editor

The note editor fills the main area. Its top toolbar carries, left to right: a round close button that returns you to the note overview, the formatting toolbar, a Theme Summary button on project notes, the AI chat toggle (⇧⌘B), and a ⋯ menu.

The formatting toolbar adapts to the width you give it:

Width	Buttons shown
Any	Headings menu, paragraph, bold, italic, strikethrough, highlight
Wider	Lists, task list, link, image
Widest	Superscript, subscript, footnote, quote, inline code, code block, clear formatting

The ⋯ menu holds Preview / Edit (⌃⇧P), Smart Format (AI formatting, ⇧⌘F), Show / Hide Toolbar (⇧⌘T) and Export as Markdown (⇧⌘E). Typing [[ in the body opens node autocomplete — see Backlinks.

Node view — graph, backlinks, matrix

With no node selected, the main area is the overview: your whole knowledge graph, or the co-occurrence matrix, switched from the tab strip. Select a node in the left pane and the area becomes that node's workspace with three tabs:

• Content — the node's own note, edited like any other
• Backlinks — every note that mentions it, sortable and filterable
• Co-occurrence — which other nodes it keeps appearing alongside

Theme view — the board

An infinite board of note cards. A floating button column sits at the top right:

Button	What it does
Focus	Centres the view on all your cards; click it again to return to 100% zoom
Tidy Up	Re-flows the board (layout rules in Interface Views)
Sticky note	Adds a new card where you're looking

A capsule at the bottom right counts loose cards, themes and grouped cards. Zooming and panning are trackpad gestures — the buttons only ever recentre the view.

The Right-Edge Info Panel

Rich detail never covers your work: push the pointer against the right edge of the window and an information panel slides in. Move away and it slides back out. What it shows follows the view you're in:

• Note — the note's connections: how many nodes, related notes and potential links it has, the nodes it already links to, the ones it could link to (with a one-click Link button), and the notes it shares nodes with
• Node — the hovered node's stats and connections, or the network overview when nothing is selected
• Theme — the focused theme's concepts, or a project-wide roll-up

In Node view you can click a node to pin its panel open instead of relying on hover.

The AI Chat Panel

⇧⌘B opens a browser panel on the right side of the window with one-tap presets for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Kimi — signed in as you normally would, in tabs, plus a plain web tab. It's for asking something without leaving your note. Drag its edge to resize. Select text in the panel and the toolbar's Save to Note button files it as a note along with its source, heading and surrounding context (see Quick Capture). This panel is separate from Jotaid's own AI features, which run on your own API key (AI Setup).

Quick Note

⇧⌘J summons a small floating capture window over whatever you're doing. It keeps its draft when it loses focus, so you can glance away and come back. See Quick Capture.

Menu Bar and Settings

The menu bar carries everything the toolbar does, plus import/export and backups: File (new note / theme / project, Quick Note, import and export Markdown, backup), Window (view switching, preview, Smart Format, AI chat), Help (website, privacy policy).

Settings (⌘,) is organised into five tabs:

Tab	Contents
General	Theme and appearance, interface language, node appearance, import & paste behaviour
AI API	Provider credentials — your own API keys
Agent	Which AI features are on, and how they behave
Sync	iCloud sync status and diagnostics
Storage	Storage usage and database maintenance

Next Steps

• iPhone Interface — The same features on a single screen
• Quick Capture — Quick Note, PopClip clipping and templates
• Shortcuts — Every shortcut in one table