Notebook tools

#Keyboard shortcuts

On Windows and Linux use Ctrl instead of ⌘ and Alt instead of ⌥. On an iPad with a keyboard the same shortcuts apply.

#Tools, favourite pens and eraser

Tap the selected tool again (or the gear) to open its settings: line width with presets and a slider, colour with a custom colour (colour area, hex value, eyedropper where the browser has one), and for text the size and font. + saves the current setting as a favourite pen (up to 8, text too); favourites appear in the toolbar and can be reordered or removed with the pencil button next to them. Favourites are kept per device. The eraser has three kinds: whole strokes, parts only (strokes are split, adjustable size) and highlighter only – the writing underneath stays. "Clear page" deletes everything on the sheet after asking; Undo brings it back.

Restyle text afterwards. With the Text tool, tap an existing text box: it opens for editing with a bar above it – font, size (presets, slider or a number, 8–96 pt), bold, italic, underline, alignment (left, centre, right) with line spacing, and colour; ⌘B, ⌘I and ⌘U work while typing. Several text boxes at once: select them with the lasso – the selection bar then shows a second row with the same settings, applied to every selected text box; where they differ it shows "—". Each change can be undone on its own. "Edit text" in the selection bar opens a single text box for typing. The Text tool's panel sets how new text looks. In the PDF export, bold and italic use the standard Helvetica, Times and Courier fonts; the handwriting fonts appear as Helvetica there. Older app versions show such text without this styling; if they save the page, the text stays but the styling is lost.

#Shapes and ruler

Hold the pen still at the end of a stroke and it straightens into a line, arrow, rectangle, circle, triangle, diamond, polygon or star – squares and circles come out exact, lines snap to 15° steps, ends attach to the corners of other shapes. Keep moving without lifting to resize; Undo brings back the freehand stroke. The Shapes tool (S key) draws shapes directly or recognises them when you lift, optionally with a semi-transparent fill or dashed lines; in the tool's panel you pick the line style by its line sample (the name shows as a tooltip). Tap a shape with the lasso to move its corners, rotate or resize it, or change its colour, fill, line style and arrow heads. The ruler in the toolbar lies on the page at real scale (cm or inches): move it with one finger, turn it with two (it snaps at 0/15/30/45/60/90°); strokes along its edge come out straight and show their length. The set square measures angles between lines, and the compass draws circles and arcs of a set radius.

#Selecting with the lasso

With the lasso (key L), tap a stroke or text to select just it, or draw a loop around several. Drag the selection to move it; the four corners resize it (Shift or a finger keeps the proportions), the round handle above it rotates it (snapping to 15° steps). On the iPad, two fingers on the selection scale and rotate it. The bar above the selection changes the colour (custom colours too) and line width, cuts, copies, duplicates, brings to front or sends to back, and deletes. Paste cut ink onto another sheet: tap the sheet, then ⌘V or "Paste". Copied ink is also put on the clipboard as a picture for other apps. Every action can be undone on its own.

#Converting handwriting to text

When AI is set up on your instance and allowed for the page, "Convert to text" turns the selected handwriting into text with the instance's AI model (it must understand images, e.g. a vision model in Ollama). The selected snippet is sent to the model as a picture. You can edit the recognised text, then insert it in place of the handwriting or next to it, or copy it. The feature is not offered in journals with a PIN or on pages closed to the AI.

#Pictures, stickers and own paper templates

Pictures and stickers. Use Insert (picture icon) to put a picture from a file, straight from the camera, from the page's pictures, or a sticker on the sheet; you can also paste pictures (⌘V) or drag them onto a sheet. A picture appears in a frame: drag to move, drag a corner to resize (Shift: freely), use the handle above to rotate. The frame offers crop, bring to front/send to back (over or under the handwriting), opacity, duplicate, delete and "Save as sticker". Tap a picture with the lasso to edit it again. Pictures are attachments of the page, included in search and in the PDF export. Your own stickers (from pictures or lasso selections) are visible only to you, in every notebook of the workspace.

Own paper templates. In the paper dialog, Own › Add template … turns a picture or a PDF page (a planner page, say) into paper, stretched or tiled. Templates belong to the workspace; whoever added one (or an owner) can rename or delete it. Sheets keep their paper even when the template is deleted.

#Recording audio

Tap the microphone in the notebook bar and choose Start recording. While it runs (up to three hours), Flowplan remembers for everything you write the moment in the recording. The bar shows the time and the level; you can pause and stop. When you stop, the recording is uploaded and attached to the notebook; it counts against your storage. If the page reloads or the connection drops, the recording stays on the device and Flowplan offers to save it the next time you open the notebook.

To play it, choose the recording in the list. What was written during it starts out faded and appears as the recording reaches it. With Play from here (hand icon) or a long press with your finger you jump to the moment something was written. Speed: 1×, 1.5×, 2×. Recordings can be renamed, downloaded and deleted (they go to the trash); they come along with copies and exports of the notebook. In the app, Flowplan needs access to the microphone (Settings › Flowplan › Microphone).