Docs / The Writing Surface
Core concept

The Writing Surface

A clean, full-page editor designed to feel like paper. Not a notes widget attached to a task manager — a serious place to think, with nothing competing for your attention until you decide something belongs on your task list.

The editor

Headings, bold, italic, lists, checklists, blockquotes, code blocks, and in-place tables — available from a toolbar or standard shortcuts like ⌘B and ⌘I. The body text can be set to a sans-serif or a serif typeface, a personal reading-comfort choice rather than a formatting decision.

The header date

The date shown at the top of a note can be left as the real creation date, set to a custom date, or hidden entirely. The real creation timestamp itself is never changed by this — it's a display choice layered on top, not a rewrite of history.

Sorting and filtering, separately

Notes can be sorted by date created, recently edited, Folio, or name. Tags sit apart from sorting entirely — as a filter you layer on top. Sort by Folio and filter by a tag, and you get that theme's notes grouped by project, cutting across every Folio at once. The Connection Map's Activity view uses recency of edit specifically, not creation date and not the custom header date, to decide what pulls toward the center. A note you're still actively shaping stays alive on the map even if its displayed date is old.

Autosave and offline writing

Notes save continuously as you type, with a visible save indicator — nothing is ever lost to a forgotten save. If the connection drops, the editor keeps working and saves locally, syncing automatically once you're back online. If a save genuinely can't complete, a "Save as Markdown file" escape hatch appears, so a bad connection is never the reason a thought disappears.

Tags and the properties panel

Any note can carry free-form tags, used for filtering and search across the workspace. A side panel — open it or tuck it away — shows the note's Folio, tags, linked tasks, references, and metadata, without ever crowding the writing itself.

From thought to task, without losing the thread

This is the reason the editor exists in this shape. Write freely, without stopping to organize — and when a sentence becomes something you need to act on, highlight it and turn it into a task, right there, without leaving the page.

Note editor
Brussels: who really drove the vote

The official version and the real version are probably different. Find out whether the board saw the risk assessment before or after the vote.

Cross-reference the timeline with the leaked February memo. Check if her name appears in the subsidiary filings→ Create a task — it might. Send a thank-you within 24 hours.

Linked task · created from note
↳ from “Brussels: who really drove the vote”
Check if her name appears in the subsidiary filings

The task that's created carries a permanent link back to this exact note — not a copy, not a snapshot, a live connection. Rename the note, move it to a different Folio, rewrite the paragraph around the highlighted sentence: the link holds. Open the task six months from now and the source is still one click away, showing you exactly why it exists.

What "permanent" actually means

The link survives editing the note, renaming it, reorganizing it into a different Folio, even nesting it under a new parent as a sub-note. The only way to break it is to delete the note itself or deliberately unlink the task — and even then, the task doesn't disappear. It stays exactly where it lives, as a task with no source, rather than losing its home along with its context.

Focus mode

A distraction-free writing mode, one keyboard shortcut away — ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + F to enter, Escape to leave.

Everything but the page disappears — the sidebar slides away, both editor toolbars collapse, the side panel hides. The only control left on screen is a single Exit button. The surround deepens in tone, so the writing surface lifts gently toward you. On desktop, the body text grows slightly and the page settles a little lower, so your eye lands inside the writing rather than at the top edge. The column width never changes — your line length stays exactly as you set it.

It's a temporary mode, not a saved setting — nothing to configure, nothing to remember to turn off. A quiet indicator still appears if a save fails or you go offline. Focus mode removes distraction, never a real problem you'd need to know about.

Typewriter mode

Keeps the line you're currently typing vertically centered on screen, so your eye stays in one place as the page scrolls beneath it rather than your attention drifting down and back up. Like Focus mode, it's pure writing comfort — no settings, no configuration, just there when you want it.

Quick Capture

A fast way to drop a thought before it disappears, without opening a note first. The same composer surface used throughout Tareea for capturing tasks, notes, and Day Pins in one place.

No AI in the writing surface

Nothing here reads your note as you write it. There's no built-in AI, and even with a connected BYOAI provider, nothing runs in the background — every AI action is a deliberate, per-call step you reach for after you've written something, never something ambient sitting inside the editor. Focus mode, Typewriter mode, and the editor itself are AI-free by design, not by omission.

What's Free, what's Pro

FeatureAvailability
Rich text editorFree
Choice of writing fontFree
Editable header dateFree
TagsFree
Note properties panelFree
Autosave & offline-safe writingFree
Focus modeFree
Typewriter modeFree
Quick CaptureFree
Version historyFree — last 10 versions · Pro — last 50 versions

Writing comfort is never gated. The line only appears around depth and scale — how much history you can look back through, not whether the writing experience itself feels complete.