Settings¶

Open from "⚙ Settings…" at the bottom of the Sidebar. There are nine tabs.

Most settings are per-device

These settings are generally stored on the device, not in the library (think browser localStorage). They do not travel when you copy the library folder to another machine — a trade-off to keep libraries portable.

The Backup tab is the exception. Backups are written into that library's backups/, so the settings live with the library and travel with the folder.

Appearance¶

Theme¶

Option	Behavior
Follow OS	Follows the OS light / dark setting (default)
Light	Always light
Dark	Always dark

Language¶

Switches the UI language.

Option	Behavior
Follow system	Follows the device language (Japanese → Japanese, anything else → English) (default)
日本語	Always Japanese
English	Always English

Switching applies immediately, without a restart, across the whole UI
The macOS menu bar switches language as well

Note

Some error messages generated deep inside the app may still appear in Japanese for now.

File names in lists¶

Tick "Show file extensions" and names in lists change from meeting notes to meeting notes.md (off by default).

It applies to four views: grid, list, calendar, and map.

View	Extensions off	Extensions on
Grid	`trip photo`	`trip photo.jpg`
List	`trip photo`	`trip photo.jpg`
Calendar / Map	`trip photo`	`trip photo.jpg`

Quick Open and link suggestions always show extensions

Quick Open (Cmd+P) and the Inspector's "Links" field show the extension regardless of this setting. There is no thumbnail and no kind column there — the name is all you have, so you need to tell a .md and a .pdf of the same name apart.

The change applies right away
This setting is stored per device and never travels with the library
Only the display changes; the file on disk is untouched (renaming in the Inspector never changes the extension either)

Calendar¶

Controls how the calendar view looks.

Week starts on¶

Choice	Behaviour
Sunday	The leftmost column is Sunday (default)
Monday	The leftmost column is Monday; Sunday moves to the right edge

The weekday headings and the position of the 1st shift together
Up / Down still move by exactly 7 days, whichever start you pick

Tint Sunday and Saturday cells¶

Tick this and calendar cells are tinted: Sunday in pale pink, Saturday in pale blue (off by default).

The colours are chosen to keep text readable in both the light and dark themes
Hover and the keyboard focus outline still take precedence over the tint
The weekday headings (Sun / Sat) keep their coloured text regardless of this setting

Fonts¶

You can pick the font for the interface and for the note editor separately.

Field	Where it applies	Default
Interface	The whole app — sidebar, grid, inspector, dialogs	The OS system font
Note editor	The body text of the note editor	A monospace font

The list holds the fonts installed on this device — the app asks the OS for them, so there is no font name to type
Your choice applies right away — check the sample just below
Pick "Default (…)" at the top to go back

Text never breaks

The default font always stays behind the one you choose, so characters your font lacks — Japanese in a Latin-only font, for instance — still render with the default.

Font settings are stored per device

Fonts are not written into the library; they are saved on that device only. Windows and macOS ship different fonts, so sharing a library never carries a font choice from one machine to the other — pick whatever you like on each device.

If a font later disappears from the device, the setting shows as "(not found on this device)" and text falls back to the default until you pick another.

Import¶

When importing a folder¶

Dropping a folder imports the files inside it recursively. This setting decides whether the folder names along the way are applied as tags.

Choice	Tags on `Photos/2024/Okinawa/sea.jpg`
Tag with every folder level (default)	Photos, 2024, Okinawa
Tag with the innermost folder only	Okinawa
Do not add tags	(none)

The same setting applies to subfolders inside watched folders. See Importing Files for details.

Dates on import¶

When an image has an EXIF capture time, choose whether to overwrite the file's dates with it. When off, the original file's modified (mtime) / created (btime) times are used as-is.

Setting	Default	Effect
Use the capture time as the modified date	Off	Modified-date ordering and the calendar (modified basis) follow shooting dates
Use the capture time as the created date	Off	The calendar on the created basis follows shooting dates

Turn these on when importing batches of photos. The "Updates" chart in Statistics also becomes shooting-month based.

Note

EXIF rotation (Orientation) is always honored to keep thumbnails upright, regardless of this setting. The actual file is never modified.

This setting only applies at import time

For photos already in the library, select the images and right-click → "Set Created / Modified Date from EXIF" (Importing).

Watched folders¶

Files placed into the folders you register are imported automatically and then deleted from the folder — a watched folder is an inbox, not a mirror.

Pick a folder with "Add Folder…"
Optionally type tags to apply, comma separated, in that row's field
The "×" on the right stops watching

Drop a file in and it is imported within a few seconds.

This setting is per computer

Watched folders are stored in that computer's app settings, not inside the library. Register them on each computer where you use the same library.

See Importing Files for details.

Notes¶

Templates¶

Sets the tag name that marks a note as a template (default template). Notes with that tag are listed by Cmd+Shift+N / Ctrl+Shift+N.

Today's note¶

Sets the name format of the note opened by Cmd+Shift+D / Ctrl+Shift+D, and the template used when it has to be created.

Format	Example
`YYYY-MM-DD`	`2026-07-25` (default)
`YYYY/MM/DD (ddd)`	`2026/07/25 (Sat)`

Available tokens: YYYY YY MMM MM DD ddd HH mm. See Writing Notes for details.

Shortcuts¶

Reassign the shortcuts that only work while a note is open. The defaults are below (on Windows read Ctrl for Cmd).

Action	Default
Insert a template	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`T`
Toggle checklist	`Cmd`+`Enter`
Go to the previous day's note	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`Left`
Go to the next day's note	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`Right`
Bold the selection	`Cmd`+`B`
Italicize the selection	`Cmd`+`I`
Insert a link	`Cmd`+`K`
Open the full preview	`Cmd`+`E`
Open the outline (heading list)	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`O`
Select the next occurrence (multiple cursors)	`Cmd`+`D`
Select every occurrence (multiple cursors)	`Cmd`+`Shift`+`L`
Add a cursor above	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`Up`
Add a cursor below	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`Down`

To change one: click the field — it switches to "Press a key…" — then press the keys you want. Esc cancels, × clears the assignment, and "Restore defaults" resets all of them.

Which combinations are allowed

Only combinations with a modifier (Cmd / Ctrl / Alt) can be assigned; unmodified keys are needed for typing
A key already used by another action is refused (the conflicting action is named). Clear that one first
On macOS, Alt + a letter (without Cmd) can't be assigned, because macOS turns that into typed text (Alt+T → †). Add Cmd, as in Cmd+Alt+T

What each action does: Writing Notes and Multiple cursors.

Moving lines and friends are not listed here

Moving lines (Alt+Up / Alt+Down), duplicating and deleting them come from CodeMirror's default keymap, which the editor is built on. They work out of the box but cannot be changed on this screen → CodeMirror's default keymap

Opening Files¶

Configure which app "Open" uses, per extension. Extensions without a rule open with the OS default.

Three choices per extension:

Option	Description
Built-in editor	Edit inside Melanite. For text formats (`.md`, `.txt`, …)
OS default	Open with the OS default app
App:	Open with the app you chose

Adding a rule¶

Type an extension (e.g. txt) into the field at the bottom, press "Add", and pick the behavior. Remove a rule with the "×" on its row.

Examples

Open .psd in Photoshop
Open .xlsx with the OS default (Excel)
Peek into .log files with the built-in editor

Privacy¶

What Melanite sends — and what it never sends — is collected on the Privacy page. This section covers the setting itself.

Remote images in notes¶

When a Markdown note references an external image — ![](https://…) — opening that note contacts the remote server every time. That server learns your IP address and when you opened the note. Melanite is built around staying local, so these are not loaded by default.

Setting	Default	Effect
Load remote images	Off	Turn on to show `http(s)` images in the preview

Blocked images are replaced by a "Remote image not loaded" placeholder. Turn this on if you only handle notes you wrote yourself and want to embed external images.

This covers more than Markdown's ![](…). If a note contains raw HTML, images, video, audio, <iframe>, SVG image references, background attributes and style="background-image:url(…)" are all blocked too — anything that reaches out to a remote server just by being displayed.

Note

Images you imported into the library — including pasted ones — are not "remote images" and always display, regardless of this setting. Only images referenced by URL from note text are affected.

Backup¶

Keeps snapshots of the database (melanite.db) — which holds your tags, links and memos — in backups/ inside the library. Your files (files/) stay in their original format and are not included.

Setting	Default	Meaning
Generations to keep	5	Oldest generations are removed first. The one taken before an app update is kept regardless of this number
Automatic interval (days)	1	Taken when you open the library, if this many days have passed. Set to 0 to turn automatic backups off

"Back up now" creates a generation immediately. The current generations are listed below.

→ See Library for details

Metadata export¶

Below the backup settings, "Export as JSON…" writes the library's metadata into a single JSON file. You choose where to save it in the dialog.

What it contains:

Items (display name, file name, kind, size, memo, location, favorite, dates, the tags on them, and the path within the library)
Tags and tag groups (including colors and sort order)
Links
Smart filters

What it does not contain:

The contents of your files (including note bodies). They stay in files/ in their original format, so each item simply carries a files/<ID>/<file name> path instead
Per-device settings (watched folders, UI language, view settings, …)

Items in the trash are included too (they carry trashedAt, and their path points into trash/).

There is no way to read it back in

You cannot import the JSON to restore a library. Restoring is what backups are for. This export is for inspecting what a library holds from outside the app, or for handing the metadata to another tool.

Maintenance¶

Integrity check¶

Detects mismatches between the database and the actual files, generates missing thumbnails, and rebuilds the search index. (To rebuild thumbnails that already exist or failed before, see Regenerating thumbnails.)

Press "Run Integrity Check…" to see the report.

→ Details: Libraries

Library info¶

Shows the currently open library's name and location (full path). Check here to see which folder to copy when making a backup.

Licenses¶

Shows the Melanite version and every piece of open source software it is built with. Select a package name to read its full license text in place. The filter box matches license names (MIT, MPL-2.0, …) as well as package names.

→ Details: Licenses