EtherPK User Docs

EtherPK On A Phone

Which layout you get depends on the width of the window, whatever the device. A window narrower than 1024 pixels gets the phone layout, even a narrow browser window on a desktop. A window at least that wide gets the desktop layout, on a tablet as well as on a desktop. Resize or rotate a window across that width and the layout switches at once, with your open documents still open.

Both layouts show the same graphs, documents and editor. Only the controls around the editor are in different places. With a hardware keyboard, the Keyboard Shortcuts work in the phone layout too.

The phone layout shows one document at a time and has no side-by-side panes. The documents from every desktop pane share one list, and you reach them from the top bar above the document. Kanban Boards show one lane at a time, and The Graph View needs a wider window.

The desktop sidebars become drawers that open over the document from the left and the right. The command bar along the bottom of the screen has buttons for the editor actions that a touch keyboard has no key for.

On a touch screen, a tap does what a click does on a desktop, and a long press does what a right-click does. Controls that a desktop shows on hover are always visible instead, or sit in a menu.

EtherPK on a phone: the top bar with the drawer, search and today buttons around the document name, the Monstera page with its map, and the command bar along the bottom

Top bar

From left to right, the top bar has:

Control What it does
Toggle document tree Open or close the left drawer.
Search Open Search.
Document name Open the list of open documents.
Open today's journal Open today's journal entry (see Journal Entries).
Toggle backlinks Open or close the right drawer.

Above the top bar is the app header, which is hidden while a PDF is in front (see PDFs: Reading, Annotating and More), with a menu button (Open navigation menu) on the right. The menu has Sync+, Graphs with your graphs listed under it, Docs and the theme control, plus Install app while the browser can install EtherPK and you have not installed it yet.

Open documents

Tap the document name to list every open document, in tab order with pinned documents first. Tapping a row brings its document on screen and closes the list. Tapping the cross at the end of a row (Close) closes that document and leaves the list open. To close the list itself, press Escape or tap outside it.

Long-press the document name or a row to open the tab menu, with items such as Rename… and Add to favourites. See Tabs And Panes for more information.

Drawers

A drawer opens below the top bar and covers the document, so it closes when you open a document from inside it. Only one drawer is open at a time: opening one closes the other. To close a drawer, tap outside it or tap its button again.

The left drawer has tabs for The Graph Sidebar and Quick Notes. It is already open, over today's journal entry, the first time you open a graph on a device, and again after Reset workspace. The phone layout has no toolbar, so you open Graph Settings from Settings, a row at the bottom of the Graph Sidebar.

The left drawer on a phone: the graph's tab with its buttons as icons, the calendar and the protection control, with Quick notes as the second tab

The right drawer has tabs for Backlinks and The Tasks View, plus an Agent Chats tab while Agent Chat is switched on.

Command bar

The command bar's buttons act on the document on screen. While the on-screen keyboard is up, the bar moves above it so the buttons stay in reach as you type, and tapping one leaves the keyboard open. When the buttons do not all fit, the row scrolls sideways.

While a drawer is open, every button on the bar is greyed out, until you close the drawer. With a PDF in front, the bar holds the PDF's own tools instead. See PDFs: Reading, Annotating and More for more information.

From left to right, the editing buttons are:

Button What it does
Fix spelling Open the spelling menu for the underlined word.
Commands Type / and open the command menu.
Add row, Add column, Remove row, Remove column Change the table at the cursor.
Bullet Turn the line into a bullet, or turn a bullet at the left margin back into prose.
Insert [[, Insert ]] Type [[ and open page name suggestions, or type ]] and close them.
Toggle task Cycle a bullet through open task, done task and bullet.
Undo, Redo Undo or redo the last edit.
Upload Pick a file and add it at the cursor.
Insert table Pick a size and insert a table.
Outdent, Indent Move the block and its children one level out or in.
Move up, Move down Move the block and its children past its neighbour.
Fold Fold or unfold the block's children.
Decrease font size, Increase font size Make the text in every document smaller or larger.
Agent Chat Open Agent Chat at the cursor while you type, or at the end of the document.

While Agent Chat is switched on, its button stays pinned at the right end, outside the scrolling row.

Fix spelling appears only while the cursor is in a word that Spell Check has underlined, and the buttons for Tables only while the cursor is in a table. Every other button is always in the row, greyed out where it would do nothing at the cursor.

To turn words into a link, select them on one line and tap Insert [[ or Insert ]].

read about Physics today
read about [[Physics]] today

See Formatting Text for more information.

Touch gestures

Touch has no modifier key, so tapping a link opens it: a page link takes you to its page, a website link opens in a new tab, and a file link downloads the file. To edit the link text, put the cursor beside the link, then move it inside.

Long-press a link, image or file to open its menu. The same works on your favourites, recent documents and bookmarks in the Graph Sidebar, and on the rows in All documents and the Tasks view.

Tap a checkbox to tick or untick one of your Tasks, nested ones included.

Opening a document brings up the cursor and the on-screen keyboard only when the document is empty, since the keyboard would cover a document you opened to read. Tap the text to start typing.

Browsers, installing and storage

Local graphs need a browser that can open a folder, and on a phone only Chrome on Android can. See Choosing Where To Store Your Notes for more information.

A phone browser can clear EtherPK's storage to free up space, and you can then lose edits to a synced graph that had not yet reached the Sync Server. Installing EtherPK As An App on the home screen usually gets the browser to keep the storage. See Where Your Data Is Stored for more information.

If you use a Device Passcode, the Encryption Keys on a lost phone stay encrypted. EtherPK hides the text in Protected Documents as soon as you switch to another app.

  • Drawings
    • In a narrow window, such as a phone's, Excalidraw uses its own phone layout, with its tools along the top and its menu, Undo and Redo along the bottom. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Formatting Text
    • On a phone, the [[ and ]] buttons in the command bar do this in one tap. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Glossary
    • | command bar | A row of editor buttons at the foot of the screen in the phone layout. | EtherPK On A Phone |
    • | drawer | A panel over the document that takes the place of a sidebar in the phone layout. | EtherPK On A Phone |
    • | phone layout | The layout for windows narrower than 1024 px, which shows one document at a time. Wider windows get the desktop layout. | EtherPK On A Phone |
    • | top bar | The row across the top in the phone layout, with the document's name and the drawer, Search and today buttons. | EtherPK On A Phone |
  • Journal Entries
    • To open today's entry, select Today at the top of the Graph Sidebar. On Windows and Linux you can also press Alt+J, but on a Mac Option+J types a character instead. On a phone, tap the calendar icon in the top bar. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Kanban Boards
    • In the phone layout, which any window narrower than 1024 pixels gets, a board shows one lane at a time. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information on the layout.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
    • On a phone, the buttons in the command bar take the place of most editor keys. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Outliner Blocks
    • On a phone, the Bullet button in the command bar turns a line into a bullet, or a top-level bullet back into prose. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Planned Features
    • | Dragging blocks with the mouse | Move the block at the cursor and its nested blocks with Alt+Up and Alt+Down (Option on a Mac), or with Move up and Move down in the phone command bar. | Outliner Blocks, Keyboard Shortcuts, EtherPK On A Phone |
    • | Bold, italic and highlight buttons in the phone command bar | The command bar has none, so select words on one line and type the marker over them. | Formatting Text, EtherPK On A Phone |
  • Search
    • In the editor, type / and choose Search from the menu. On a phone, tap the magnifying glass in the top bar. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Spell Check
    • To open the spelling menu, right-click an underlined word, or put the cursor in it and press Shift+F10 or the Menu key. On a phone, put the cursor in the word and select the Fix spelling icon on the command bar (see EtherPK On A Phone).
  • Tables
  • Tabs And Panes
    • On a phone, or in a window narrower than 1024 pixels, you see one document at a time. The top bar shows its name and lists your open tabs, and the sidebars become drawers. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • Templates
    • On a phone, you can also type the / with the Commands button in the command bar. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.
  • The Tasks View
    • The view is a tab beside Backlinks in the right sidebar, or in the right drawer on a phone. See Tabs And Panes for more information on the right sidebar, and EtherPK On A Phone for the right drawer.
  • Using AI Agents With Your Notes
    • On a phone, a chat opens over the whole window instead of under the line, and leaves a short line in the document with Open to reopen it. The Agent Chat button on the Command Bar opens a chat at the caret, or at the end of the document. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.