# Tomboy Notes Manual

Tomboy is a simple desktop note-taking application, with some powerful built-in features to help you organize your ideas.

2007
Alex Graveley
2006
Brent Smith
2006
Free Software Foundation
2007
Boyd Timothy
GNOME Documentation Project
Alex
Graveley
GNOME Documentation Project

    alex@beatniksoftware.com

Brent
Smith
GNOME Documentation Project

    gnome@nextreality.net

Boyd
Timothy
GNOME Documentation Project

    btimothy@gmail.com

Tomboy Manual 2.0
2007-02-28

Boyd Timothy

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version 0.6.0 of Tomboy

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the Tomboy application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

## Introduction

### Notes Application

Tomboy is a desktop note-taking application for GNOME. It is simple and easy to use, and allows you to organize the ideas and information you deal with every day. Tomboy has some very useful editing features to help you customize your notes, including:

- Highlighting Search Text

- Inline Spell Checking

- Auto-linking Web & Email Addresses

- Undo/Redo Support

- Font Styling & Sizing

- Bulleted Lists

Tomboy is accessed through the GNOME panel. To startup Tomboy automatically when you log into GNOME, see the section .

## Getting Started

### Adding Tomboy to the Panel

To add Tomboy to a panel, right-click on the panel, then choose Add to Panel . Select Tomboy Notes in the Add to the panel dialog, then click Add . You should see a yellow note icon appear in the panel, representing Tomboy. The panel icon is illustrated in .

### Creating Notes

Once you have successfully added Tomboy to the Panel, you can create new notes using one of the following methods.

To create a new note using the mouse:

1. Click on the Tomboy note icon present in the GNOME Panel. A menu will appear.

2. Select the Create New Note option in the menu.

To create a new note using the keyboard:

1. Open the Tomboy menu using the key combination Alt F12 .

2. Use the N key to select the menu option Create New Note .

### Editing Notes

After creating a new note, a new window will appear with the title `New Note N`. At the top of the note is a toolbar with several buttons and text. Directly below this toolbar is the content area of the note. This is illustrated in .

The note can be edited by clicking in the content area and using the keyboard to add and remove content. The first line is considered the title of the note. By default this is populated with the text `New Note N`. The title is changed by clicking in the content area on the first line and using the keyboard to change the title. By default, focus is given to the content area upon creation of a new note, so you can immediately start editing the note without the need to click on the content area with the mouse.

Using the toolbar available on each note is discussed in the section .

#### The default window for a New Note

### Table of Contents

To get an overview of all the notes managed by Tomboy, select the Search All Notes menu item from the panel menu. By default, the Search All Notes dialog will display the notes in the order that they were last modified. Click the Note or Last Changed column headings to change the sort order. Click the column heading a second time to toggle between ascending and descending order.

You can find specific notes by entering text into the search field in the Search All Notes dialog. The list of notes will automatically update to list only the notes which have matching text.

To open a note in the Search All Notes dialog, do one of the following:

1. Double-click on a note.

2. Highlight a note by selecting it and then select Open from the File menu.

3. Right-click on a note and select Open from the context menu that appears.

4. Highlight a note by selecting it and then press the key combination Ctrl O .

## Working With Notes

Notes are modified and edited through the main window for each note. The toolbar at the top of each note allows you to stylize the note and perform other note-related functions. We discuss the functions of each item on the toolbar in the following sections.

### Search

Clicking the Search button will open the Search All Notes dialog described earlier (.)

### Link

The Link button allows you to create a link to a new note from within the current note. For example, if your note contains the phrase FinalExam, you can select this text with the mouse and click the Link button to create a new note with the title FinalExam. A link will also be created in the current note that can be clicked to open the new FinalExam note.

Changing the title of a note will update links present in other notes. This prevents broken links from occurring when a note is renamed.

### Text

Formatting text within your notes can be done using the Text button. The Text button will display a drop down menu with several options from which you can choose. Each menu item is explained next.

Undo

  Support for Undo is available in Tomboy through this menu item. The Undo function allows you to revert previous changes made to your note during the current session. To undo your last change using the keyboard, use the standard keybinding, Ctrl Z .

Redo

  The Redo function is used to put back changes that were removed using the Undo feature. To redo your last change using the keyboard, use the standard keybinding, Shift Ctrl Z .

Bold

  To make text within your note bold, first select the text you want to modify. Then select the Bold option from the Text dropdown menu. You may also use the keybinding Ctrl B after selecting the text.

Italic

  To make text within your note italic, first select the text you want to modify. Then select the Italic option from the Text dropdown menu. You may also use the keybinding Ctrl I after selecting the text.

Strikeout

  The strikeout style will put a line through the selected text. To add a strikeout, select the text and then select the Strikeout option from the Text dropdown menu. You may also use the keybinding Ctrl S after selecting the text.

Highlight

  The highlight style will put a yellow background around the selected text. To add a highlight, select the text and then select the Highlight option from the Text dropdown menu. You may also use the keybinding Ctrl H after selecting the text.

Fixed Width

  The fixed width style allows text to use a fixed width font. To change existing text, first select the text you want to modify. Then select the Fixed Width option from the Text dropdown menu. You can also select the Fixed Width option from the Text before you start typing to have the text you type be in a fixed width style.

  The Fixed Width option is a feature provided by the Fixed Width Plugin. For more information on plugins, see .

Font size

  There are actually four options in this part of the menu:

  - Small
  - Normal
  - Large
  - Huge
  . Each one of these options represents a font size to use for the selected text in the note. To modify the font size, select the text and then select one of
  - Small
  - Normal
  - Large
  - Huge
  options from the Text dropdown menu.
Bullets

  Select the Bullets option from the Text dropdown menu to begin or end a bulleted list. If the cursor is inside a bulleted list, the

  - Increase Indent
  - Decrease Indent
  options will be enabled.

  With the cursor on a bulleted list line, select the Increase Indent option to shift the current line to the right or the Decrease Indent option to shift the current line to the left.

  For more information on bullets, see .

Find in This Note

  Use this to search for text within the current note. A small find bar will open up at the bottom of the note. To open the find bar using the keyboard, use the standard keybinding, Ctrl F .

  Enter text to find. After entering text, the matches will be highlighted. Click Find Next to highlight the next match and place the cursor there. Click Previous to move to the previous match.

  Use the Case sensitive checkbox to limit the matches to ones that match the case of the search string exactly.

  To close the find bar, click X (Close Button) on the far left or press the Escape key.

### Tools (gear icon)

The Tools button is represented by the icon. When you click the Tools icon on the toolbar present on your note, a dropdown menu will appear with the following items:

Open Plugins Folder

  This option will open the plugins folder for Tomboy in the File Browser application. For more information on plugins, see .

What links here?

  This option allows you to quickly see what other notes link to the current note. This feature is provided by the Backlinks Plugin. For more information on plugins, see .

Export to HTML

  You can create an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document from one or more notes by selecting this option. For more information, please see .

Print

  Select this option to print the current note. You will be presented with the standard GNOME print dialog.

Depending on the plugins that you have installed for Tomboy, you may have more or less items available in the Tools menu.

### Delete

The Delete button will pop up a dialog box asking if you want to permanently delete the note and its contents. Click the Delete button to discard the note permanently, or Cancel to abort the process. Links to this note from other notes will still exist, but will re-create the note upon activation.

## Panel Menu

Tomboy keeps the most recently used notes quickly available to you in a menu that appears when you click on the Tomboy Icon in the GNOME Panel.

### Note Pinning

To force a note to always be in the panel menu regardless of when you last accessed it, click the thumbtack icon to "pin" it to the menu. Notes that are pinned to the panel menu will have a thumbtack icons that look like this: . Notes that are not pinned to the panel menu will have thumbtack icons that look like this: .

#### Tomboy Panel Menu

## Bulleted Lists

### Begin a bulleted list

You may begin a bulleted list by using one of the following methods:

1. Select Bullets from the Text dropdown menu.

2. Begin a line with a single dash character (-), type some text immediately following the dash, and press Enter.

### End a bulleted list

End a bulleted list by doing one of the following:

1. Select Bullets from the Text dropdown menu.

2. Press Enter on a blank bulleted line.

3. Select Decrease Indent from the Text dropdown menu in succession until the current line is no longer part of the bulleted list.

4. Using the key combination Shift Tab in succession until the current line is no longer part of the bulleted list.

### Increase Indentation

To increase the line indentation in a bulleted list with the mouse:

- Select Increase Indent from the Text dropdown menu.

To increase the line indentation in a bulleted list with the keyboard:

- Press the Tab key.

### Decrease Indentation

To decrease the line indentation in a bulleted list with the mouse:

- Select Decrease Indent from the Text dropdown menu.

To decrease the line indentation in a bulleted list with the keyboard:

- Press the key combination Shift Tab .

## Preferences

To set preferences for Tomboy, right-click on the icon in the panel, and select Preferences from the menu. You will see a dialog similar to the one displayed in . There are two categories of preferences, Editing and Hotkeys. Preferences for each section will be described below.

### Editing

The editing section will allow you to set preferences related to editing notes. There are three checkboxes on this tab, which can either be turned on or off.

Spellcheck While Typing

  Enable this checkbox to underline misspellings in red, and provide suggestions in the right click context menu. Enable or disable the checkbox using the mouse or the key combination Alt S .

  The spellcheck option is only available if you have the GtkSpell package for your distribution installed.

Highlight WikiWords

  Enable this checkbox to create links for phrases `ThatLookLikeThis`. Clicking on the link will create a new note with the title corresponding to the link text. Enable or disable this checkbox using the mouse or the key combination Alt W .

Use Custom Font

  Enable this checkbox to set a custom font to be used in your notes. If this option is disabled, the default system font will be used. Enable or disable this checkbox using the mouse or the key combination Alt F .

#### Tomboy Editing Preferences

### Hotkeys

The hotkeys section allows you to set global key combinations to perform different functions in Tomboy. In order to set key combinations, you must have the Listen for Hotkeys checkbox enabled. Use Alt H to toggle this option.

Show notes menu

  Enter the key combination to open the notes menu.

Open "Start Here"

  Enter the key combination to open the Start Here note, which is preinstalled with Tomboy.

Create new note

  Enter the key combination to create a new note.

Search notes

  Enter the key combination to open the Search All Notes dialog.

#### Tomboy Hotkey Preferences

### Plugins

The plugins section allows you to enable and configure Tomboy Plugins.

The list of installed plugins shows on the left. A plugin is enabled by placing a check in the checkbox. Disable a plugin by unchecking its checkbox.

Please see the section for more information about the plugins that are installed with Tomboy.

#### Tomboy Plugin Preferences

## Plugins

By default, Tomboy comes with several pre-installed plugins:

- Backlinks
- Bugzilla URL Drop
- Evolution Mail Drop
- Export to HTML
- Fixed Width
- Note of the Day
- Print Notes
- and Sticky Notes Import.

Since these are preinstalled, they are ready to use and are automatically loaded into the Tomboy interface.

Some plugins exist that are not installed by default.

Backlinks (What links here?)

  This plugin allows you to know which notes link to the note you're currently editing. It makes it easier to keep track of the relationships between notes. If this plugin is enabled, the Tools menu will have a What links here? option. When you select this option, it will list all the notes which link to the current note in a submenu. Select a note in the submenu to open it.

Bugzilla URL Drop

  Allows you to drag a Bugzilla URL from your browser directly into a Tomboy note. The bug number is inserted as a link with a small bug icon next to it. Once the Bugzilla link has been inserted into the note, click on it to open the URL in your web browser.

  Customize the icons that are used by editing the plugin's settings in the Preferences Dialog. After highlighting the Bugzilla Plugin, click Settings to open the Bugzilla PluginSettings dialog. To add a new icon, click Add, select an icon on your computer, provide a Bugzilla host name (e.g., bugzilla.gnome.org), and click Open. Any Bugzilla URL that is dragged and dropped from one of these custom host names will now use the icon you specified.

Evolution Mail Drop

  This plugin allows you to drag and drag an e-mail message from the Evolution mail application to one of your Tomboy notes. Clicking on the mail icon in the note will then open the corresponding e-mail message in Evolution.

Export to HTML

  When this plugin is installed, the Tools menu will have the Export to HTML option available.

  After selecting this option, you will be presented with a dialog that allows you to choose where to save the HTML file. Enter the destination filename and click OK to save the file, or Cancel to abort the operation.

  To export any notes for which a link exists in the current note, select the Export linked notes button.

Fixed Width

  Allows you to use a fixed-width font when creating/editing notes. If this plugin is enabled, the Text menu will have a Fixed Width option.

Note of the Day

  This plugin automatically creates a "Today" note for jotting daily thoughts down. The current date is used as a basis for the title of the note. As an example, the title of a "Today" note created on February 28, 2007, would be, "Today: Wednesday, February 28 2007"

  If you leave a "Today" note unmodified, the Note of the Day Plugin will automatically delete the note.

  To customize the content of the default "Today" note, create a new note and change the title of the note to be, "Today: Template". Change the content of the template note to whatever you'd like. When new "Today" notes are created, it will then use the content of your "Today: Template" note.

Print Notes

  When this plugin is installed, the Tools menu will have the Print option available.

  Select this option to print the current note. You will be presented with the standard GNOME print dialog.

Sticky Notes Import

  When this plugin is installed, the Tools menu will have the Import from Sticky Notes option available.

  Use this option to import notes from the Sticky Notes application that is available in prior releases of GNOME. This option has been included in Tomboy to provide an upgrade path for users who would like to migrate from Sticky Notes to Tomboy for their note taking purposes.