Settings

MarkNode uses a multi-tier settings system. Some settings apply globally across all projects, others apply to a specific project, and some can be set on a per-file basis. Settings are saved automatically as you change them.

Settings Pages

Open settings from the application menu (Cmd+, on macOS, Ctrl+, on Windows and Linux). The dialog has General, Editor, and Mind Map pages, plus a Project page when a project is open.

General

  • Appearance — pick an application theme from the theme picker. There are six built-in themes plus a System option that follows your operating system’s light/dark setting. See Application Themes for what each one looks like and how the mind map and preview follow along.
  • Image Import — where pasted or dragged-in images are saved: a default folder in the project (media by default) or the same folder as the document.
  • Outline — Confirm before moving or deleting headings, a safety prompt for outline edits.
  • Interface zoom — scale the whole interface from 50% to 200% with the −/+ buttons (Reset returns to 100%).

Editor

  • Auto-save files — write changes to disk automatically after a short pause.
  • Max content width — the maximum width of the editing area.
  • Content padding — the padding around the document content.
  • Enable line wrap — wrap long lines within the editor instead of scrolling horizontally.
  • Single-click to open files — whether one click in the file explorer opens a file (on by default) or only selects it.
  • Enable top toolbar / Enable floating toolbar — show or hide the main formatting toolbar and the contextual toolbar that appears on selection.

Mind Map

  • Default theme — the mind map theme applied to documents that have no theme of their own. Left on Follow app theme, the mind map matches your application theme automatically; pick a specific theme here to pin it instead (see Themes and Styling).
  • Default Layout — the layout style applied to new documents (see Layouts and Directions).
  • Mind Map Location — where the mind map panel sits relative to the editor: Left, Right, Top, or Bottom.
  • Show node type badges — show small H1–H6 / list badges on nodes (off by default).
  • Max heading level — the deepest heading level (H3 through H6) that appears as a node.
  • Bullet item marker — the marker (dash or asterisk) used for list nodes, plus toggles to include bullet and include numbered list items.

Project

The Project page appears only when a project is open:

  • Document root — the base directory used to resolve relative image paths in your documents. Set this if your images are stored in a subfolder and links are not resolving correctly.
  • Auto-show outline panel — whether the outline opens automatically for this project: remember the last state, always show, or always hide.

Per-File Settings

Mind map theme and layout can be set individually for each file. Changes made in the mind map toolbar apply only to the current file and are stored in the file’s metadata. The global mind map defaults apply to any file that has not been configured individually.

Always Show Patterns

MarkNode hides files from the file explorer using these ignore sources:

  • .gitignore (and your global Git ignore file)
  • .docstr-ignore
  • .marknode-ignore

Any change to an ignore file takes effect immediately — the file explorer updates without requiring a restart.

Always Show Patterns let you selectively keep specific ignored files or folders visible — for example, .markdown source files a build tool ignores — without exposing everything else the ignore sources hide, like node_modules or build output. See File Explorer for how to configure them from the sidebar and the right-click menu.

Patterns use .gitignore syntax: * and ? wildcards, ** for any depth, a trailing / to match directories only, and a leading ! to negate a pattern. Patterns exist at two levels:

  • Global patterns — configured on the General page here, apply to every project.
  • Project patterns — configured on the Project page here, apply to one project only.

A project’s effective pattern list is its global patterns followed by its own — a project pattern can extend the global list, or disable one inherited global pattern (without touching the global list) by adding a negation for it. Both pages show the same Import Patterns… / Export Patterns… actions for backing up a list or reusing it across projects.