The workspace

Each vault is a folder of files, and Accent gives it its own window. Open one with Open Local… from the menu, or use Open Remote… for a folder over SSH. The start screen lists recent vaults, so picking up where you left off is quick. See Remote hosts if your files live on another machine.

Files and tabs

The Files pane shows the vault’s folders and files. Choose New File (Ctrl+N) or New Folder (Ctrl+Shift+N) to add one. To make a note, give the file a .md ending, such as Journal/Wednesday.md. You can type / in a new file’s name, and Accent will make the folders along the way. The Notes page covers links, attachments and templates.

Click a file to open a temporary preview tab. Click another and it replaces that tab, which keeps a quick browse from filling the tab bar. Edit the file, double-click its tab, or click its eye to keep it open. Double-click a tab that is already kept to find its file in the Files pane. You can also pin a tab from its menu, which offers the same file commands as the file’s row in the Files and Git panes. Drag a tab or a file to an edge of the document area to open a split pane. The active pane is the one you last worked in, and Ctrl+Tab walks recently used tabs across every pane in the window.

Hidden files appear dimmed by default, and you can hide them under Preferences → Files. Ignored folders still appear in the tree, but search skips their files until you open them. Markdown files ignored by name remain searchable when their folder is indexed. Opening an ignored text file adds that file to search. Files in dependency trees such as node_modules open read-only, while their top folder can still be moved, renamed or trashed as a whole. You can open a file from outside the vault with Open File… (Ctrl+O), though it will not have vault backlinks.

Find your way

Use the sidebar’s pane icons to switch between Files, Search, Info and Outline. Other panes appear when they apply, such as Git, remote ports or a diagram’s Properties. Press F9 to show or hide the sidebar. Press Ctrl+E to find a file by name, or Ctrl+P to run a command by name. In the same palette, start with # for tags or @ for symbols. The Keyboard shortcuts page has a small cheat sheet. Use Alt+Left and Alt+Right to go back and forward through places visited across the window, including files whose tabs you closed.

Images open fitted to the window, and you can zoom with Ctrl++ or Ctrl+-. For scans and screenshots, Accent can recolour the image to match the theme. You can adjust that in Preferences. For other document types, see PDFs, diagrams, notebooks and code.