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User guide

The Cnotely sidebar has four core modules: Capture (inbox) → Knowledge → Cards → Review. This guide walks through each module along that workflow.

1 · Capture — collect ideas and content

Capture is your inbox — everything you want to organize lands here first. There are five ways to capture:

  • Quick capture: type a thought in the input box, or paste a link and press Enter.
  • Parse web pages: click the “Parse URL” pill, paste an article link and the full body is parsed into Markdown (including images); edit it in the editor before collecting.
  • Screenshot OCR: click the “Screenshot OCR” pill — on desktop you can select any screen region (including other apps); on the web upload a local image or paste from the clipboard with Ctrl+V in the input box. Text is recognized by local OCR (mixed Chinese/English) and lands in the editor.
  • Import files: supports .md / .txt / .html, automatically converted to Markdown on import.
  • Quick card: skip the note and create a card directly — ideal for vocabulary, formulas and concepts. Enter the question and answer, pick a project, and the card joins today's review queue immediately.

When the content grows long, the input area suggests switching to long-note editing (the wide editor): edit the title, style it with Markdown, then collect it to the inbox.

Notes and cards projected from the browser extension also land in the inbox, with a toast notification.

Organize the inbox

  • Archive to knowledge base: click “Archive”, pick a target project, and the item becomes a proper note.
  • Edit: modify the title and content, then save.
  • Delete: after deleting, click “Undo” on the toast to restore (within 5 seconds).

2 · Knowledge — organize your notes

Projects

Click New Project to create categories — projects support nested sub-projects (choose a parent) and custom colors. Deleting a project cascades to its sub-projects, notes and linked cards, so export a backup first.

Notes

  • New note: click New Note and write with the built-in editor (Markdown and rich text), auto-saved as you type.
  • Favorite: star important notes and find them fast on the Favorites tab.
  • Fullscreen: enter fullscreen for an immersive reading experience.

Make cards

Open a note and click Make Card to enter card mode — card editing on the left, the original note on the right, and any paragraph can be copied or inserted into the answer with one click. Two card types are available:

  • Q&A card: enter a question + answer, optionally set the initial difficulty (Easy / Medium / Hard).
  • Reading card: enter a topic and a summary; the full text is shown during review. You can also “Review whole note” to turn the entire note into a reading card in one click.

Created cards join today's review queue immediately and can be seen on the Cards page.

3 · Cards — manage and explore the graph

Card management

  • New card: create an independent card — attached directly to a project, not linked to any note; great for standalone facts.
  • Filter & sort: filter by All / Due today / Archived, sort by newest, oldest or review time, and search card content from the top.
  • State actions: cards can be archived (leave the review queue, restore anytime), restored, or permanently deleted (irreversible); under the Archived filter you can clear the archive in one click.
  • View note: cards linked to a note jump straight back to it.

Memory graph

The Memory Graph visualizes your knowledge network in three layers: Project → Note → Card. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, drag nodes to rearrange; toggle each layer from the legend; click a node for details. Independent cards appear as standalone nodes directly under their project.

4 · Review — daily review

The Review page shows every card due today, with progress and an estimate at the top (e.g. “Card 3 / 12 · ~5 min”).

  1. Recall: look at the question first and try to recall the answer (for reading cards, read the summary).
  2. Flip: click the card to reveal the answer.
  3. Rate: choose “Again / Hard / Good / Easy” based on how well you remembered — the SM-2 algorithm schedules the next review from minutes to days to months.
  4. Finish: once every card is rated, “Today's review is complete” appears. Need fewer distractions? Enable Focus Mode to hide the surrounding UI.

You can also “Archive this card” mid-review — it leaves the queue and can be restored from the Cards page.

5 · Search & settings

  • Search (Ctrl+K): global quick-jump across notes, projects and cards, with shortcuts into every module.
  • Appearance & language: switch between light / dark / system themes and the English / Chinese interface in Settings.
  • Data: auto-sync when signed in; you can “Sync now”, export everything as JSON, or import a backup; also reset local preferences or restore the demo data.

More help in the FAQ, or read about cloud sync.