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Jotzen

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Getting started

What Jotzen is, choosing a vault, and finding your way around the window.

What Jotzen is

Jotzen is a notes and todo app for Markdown files that stay on your computer, in a folder you choose (your vault), plus any other folders you link, such as a project’s Git repository. Nothing is moved into a proprietary database: your notes stay ordinary files that any editor can open.

Todos written in any note (- [ ] something) come together in one list, calendar, board and timeline. Links, tags, backlinks, search and a graph work across all your folders. Sync between devices is optional and end-to-end encrypted: the service stores only text it cannot read.

Choose a vault

  1. Open Jotzen. The first time, it asks for a vault folder.
  2. Choose an empty folder to start fresh, or an existing folder of Markdown notes. An Obsidian vault works as it is: Jotzen reads its links, tags, callouts and other conventions.
  3. Jotzen adds a small hidden .jotzen folder for its own data (local history and trash) and an AGENTS.md that explains the vault’s layout to AI tools.

To work with other folders too, link them: Settings → Folders → Link a folder…. See Linked folders and projects.

Around the window

Jotzen with the sidebar of folders on the left, a note about a Japan trip in the middle with a table and todos, and the outline and backlinks panel on the right.
A note in the reading view, with the sidebar and the right panel.
  • Sidebar (left): views (Todos, Tags, Search, Graph, Review, Health), saved searches, bookmarks, and each folder’s tree. Click a folder’s name to list its notes; the arrow opens and closes it.
  • Tabs (middle): each note opens in a tab. Open a note to the side for a split view.
  • Right panel: the note’s outline, backlinks, unlinked mentions and history. Toggle it with Ctrl+\ (⌘\ on a Mac).
  • Note header: the note’s path, sharing, full width (↔), and the three modes: live preview, source and reading.

Write your first note

  1. Press Ctrl+N (⌘N) for a new note, or click the page icon at the top of the sidebar.
  2. Type a title as the first heading (# Weekend plans) and write below it. Edits save automatically.
  3. Link to another note with [[ and pick it from the suggestions. Add a tag with #.
  4. Add a todo: - [ ] Buy the train tickets !high due:fri. It appears in Todos at once.