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Creating Notes#

New Note#

Press Cmd+N or click New Note in the toolbar. FoldNotes creates a new file in your collection and opens it in the editor. The file gets a temporary internal name (a unique identifier) and shows as "Untitled" in the note list until you give it a real name.

A naming banner appears at the top of the editor (macOS) or you can tap the title in the toolbar (iPhone/iPad) to name it. FoldNotes pre-fills a suggestion based on your content:

  • If you type a heading (# My Note), it suggests that heading text
  • If you type regular text, it suggests the first line (up to 60 characters)

Type a name and press Enter to confirm. The internal placeholder is replaced with your chosen name on disk.

Heading-tracking mode#

By default, new notes are in heading-tracking mode — your file's name follows the first H1 heading automatically:

  1. You type # Project Plan at the top of an untitled note.
  2. The file's name becomes Project Plan.md after a short delay (~2 seconds).
  3. You change the heading to # Project Plan v2.
  4. The file renames again to Project Plan v2.md. All wiki-links ([[Project Plan]]) in other notes update automatically to [[Project Plan v2]].

This is the "ad-hoc capture" mode — you can iterate on the heading freely and the filename and backlinks stay in sync.

Locking the name#

When you explicitly rename a note, FoldNotes locks the name. From that point on, the heading and the filename become independent — edit the heading freely without renaming the file.

Explicit-rename gestures (any of these locks the name):

  • macOS — confirm a name in the naming banner, OR click the title in the toolbar and type a new name, OR use the standard Finder-style title-bar rename.
  • iPhone/iPad — tap the title in the toolbar to bring up the rename popover and confirm.

After locking, the heading is purely visual content. Helpful when you want to add formatting, emoji, or descriptive flair to the heading without affecting the filename or the wiki-links pointing at it.

When the suggested name already exists#

If FoldNotes' auto-suggested name (or one you type) matches a file that already exists, a number is appended automatically: Meeting Notes → Meeting Notes 2. Your new note coexists alongside the original; nothing is overwritten.

This is silent during auto-tracking — the appended number is just how the filename lands. If you want to consolidate two similarly-named notes, use search or the doc list to find both and copy content manually.

The filename as it lands on disk is what other notes link to. After a collision:

  • [[Meeting Notes]] resolves to the original Meeting Notes.md
  • [[Meeting Notes 2]] resolves to the new Meeting Notes 2.md

Wiki-link resolution is exact-basename match — there's no fuzzy lookup. Whatever the file is called on disk (including any appended number) is what you type between the [[ ]] to link to it.

Backlinks ([[Note Title]] references in other notes) update automatically whenever the file is renamed — whether by heading-tracking, by explicit rename, or by the auto-numbering above. Each rename walks the collection (using a fast SwiftData index, with a filesystem fallback) and rewrites [[Old Title]] → [[New Title]] in every referencing note.

So if FoldNotes silently renames your new "Project Plan" to "Project Plan 2" because of a collision, every link that subsequently mentions the new note will say [[Project Plan 2]]. The original Project Plan and its existing backlinks are untouched.

Heading edits inside a locked note do not touch backlinks — the heading is just content at that point.

Disallowed characters#

These characters are not allowed in titles: : / ? * " < > | \ #. They're stripped automatically as you type in the rename field.

The names Untitled, Untitled 2, etc. (case-insensitive) are also reserved — they're how FoldNotes marks unnamed notes internally.

Deleting Notes#

To delete a note, right-click it in the sidebar and choose Move to Trash. Deleted notes move to a .trash/ folder inside your collection. They remain there until you empty the trash.

To permanently delete, right-click a trashed note and choose Delete Permanently, or use Empty Trash to remove all trashed notes.

Importing Notes#

FoldNotes can import Markdown files from other apps:

  • File → Import Files… (Cmd+Shift+I) — import .md files from disk
  • File → Import from Bear… — import from Bear's export format
  • File → Import from Capacities… — import from Capacities export

When importing, FoldNotes strips any foreign front matter and adds its own metadata header.

Opening in a New Window (macOS)#

Right-click a note in the sidebar and choose Open in New Window to view it in a separate editor window. Both windows share the same document — edits in one appear instantly in the other. This feature is not available on iOS.