Using Noto
Open a file with Cmd+O, or open a folder with Cmd+Alt+O to get the workspace tree. Open notes sit behind a quiet Recent strip in the status bar rather than a classic tab bar. The rail on the left holds Files and Outline by default; Links (graph / related) stays off until you turn it on in Settings → Appearance. The one control at the top left opens and closes the rail, and Cmd+Shift+L and Cmd+Shift+O open it directly on the view they name. Cmd+F finds, Cmd+Alt+F finds and replaces, Cmd+K opens the command palette, and Cmd+, opens Settings (and closes it again) — a full-page shell with categories, where plugins are turned on under the Plugins section. On Windows and Linux, read Control for Command.
The title bar carries the filename and nothing else that is not an action you can take right now: Save appears when there is something to save and is absent when there is not. The gear is the single Settings entry; Plugins is reached from Settings' left nav, not a second top-bar icon.
Settings carries the document's typography, so text size, line height and line width are yours to set rather than fixed: the width is a character count, not a pixel width, so it holds as the size changes. Saving automatically is there too, off by default and debounced against typing, and it refuses in exactly the cases the Save button refuses. A custom stylesheet can be pointed at any absolute path and wins over the built-in theme, so :root { --accent: … } is enough to retheme the app without editing it. See Theming.
Cmd+P is quick open: type part of a note's name or its path and it ranks the whole folder by how well it matches and by how often and how recently you open it, so an empty box already shows the few notes you probably want. Enter opens the note; Alt+Enter writes a [[wiki link]] to it at the caret instead. Wiki links render inline wherever they appear, and Cmd+click follows one.
The links are decorations rather than a node type, so they cannot reach the saved bytes: [[a note]] is ordinary text in the file, exactly as you typed it.
Cmd+Shift+F searches inside the notes rather than across their names, and Tab switches between the two without leaving the box. A content result shows the lines it was found on, and opening one lands on the match with the find bar already carrying the query.
The open folder names itself on the tree's first row; an ellipsis on that row holds what acts on the folder: open another, reveal it in the file manager, refresh, and the folders you opened before. Cmd+Shift+R reveals the current note instead.
Cmd+/ opens Source Code Mode: the whole note as the Markdown it is saved as, the way Typora's Command-slash does. Cmd+Alt+/ still toggles source for the single block under the caret, which is the escape hatch when you want to fix one paragraph, one table or one fence without leaving the rest rendered.
Markdown input rules work as you type: # for a heading, - for a list, ``` for a code fence. The syntax markers for the block you are editing appear while you are in it and fold away when you leave, so the document stays readable without hiding what it is made of.
Byte-exact saving
This is the property the rest of the design is arranged around. Most editors that render Markdown round-trip it through a serializer, so opening and saving a file rewrites parts of it you never touched: a list marker changes, emphasis switches from _ to *, a table's padding is normalized, trailing whitespace disappears.
Noto parses the file into blocks, records the exact source bytes of each one along with its origin and hash, and on save writes back the recorded bytes for every block that was not edited. Only blocks you actually changed are serialized. A document you open and save without touching is identical to the byte.
The same block record is what detects an external change: if the file on disk no longer matches what was accepted, the save is refused and you are offered a copy rather than an overwrite.