SempereUsing Sempere
Sempere on the Mac
Menus, keyboard shortcuts, note windows, the menu-bar item, and the things only the Mac does.
Menus, keyboard shortcuts and windows. You write with the mouse or trackpad (or a drawing tablet that acts as a mouse).
Windows
The main window shows the sidebar, the note list and a note side by side. Double-click a note in the list (or File ▸ Open Note in New Window, ⌥⌘N) to open it in its own window. Note windows come back when you relaunch. Closing a window never closes the vault; Close Vault (⇧⌘W) does.
Each vault lives inside the app, as a copy on this Mac. File ▸ New Vault… (⇧⌘N) makes one. File ▸ Open Vault… (⌘O) copies an existing vault folder into the app: a sync folder in iCloud Drive (it can keep syncing), or an export or backup (a one-time copy). Open Recent and Reopen Last Vault (⇧⌘T) open vaults already on this Mac. File ▸ Sync Targets… lists the folders and servers a vault syncs with. Double-clicking a .sempere folder in the Finder does not open Sempere.
Shortcuts you will use
| Command | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| New Note | ⌘N |
| New Notebook… | ⌃⌘N |
| Find Notes | ⌘F |
| Annotate / Hand | ⇧⌘P / ⌥⌘7 |
| Pen, Marker, Pencil, Eraser, Lasso, Text | ⌥⌘1 to ⌥⌘6 |
| Ruler | ⌥⌘R |
| Undo / Redo | ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z |
| Previous / Next Page | ⌘[ / ⌘] |
| Zoom In / Out, Fit Page Width | ⌘= / ⌘-, ⌘0 |
| Rename Note… | ⇧⌘R |
| Edit Tags… | ⌥⌘T |
| Paper… | ⌥⌘P |
| Save Version… / Version History… | ⌥⌘S / ⇧⌘Y |
| Start Recording / Recordings… | ⌃⌘M / ⌃⌘R |
| Start Voice Note | ⇧⌘M |
| Insert Photo… | ⌥⌘I |
| Export… | ⇧⌘E |
| Import PDF as New Note… | ⇧⌘I |
| Move to Recently Deleted | ⌘⌫ |
| Vault Keys | ⌥⌘K |
| Settings… | ⌘, |
Every menu item shows its shortcut, and every toolbar button has a tooltip.
Drawing with a mouse
Mouse strokes have an even width. Settings ▸ Writing ▸ Editor ▸ Smooth Mouse Strokes (Off, Light, Strong; Light by default) smooths them; strokes along the ruler are never smoothed. The pointer shows the ink’s size. Right-click an item for its menu.
Only on the Mac
- Vault Keys (View ▸ Vault Keys, ⌥⌘K): the vault’s device list in its own window. See Managing devices and keys.
- The menu-bar item: Quick Voice Note, New Note, Open Sempere. Turn it off in Settings ▸ General ▸ Show in Menu Bar.
- File ▸ Reload Vault (⌘R) reads the vault’s copy on the Mac again; Sync Now in the sync bar’s menu fetches what other devices wrote.
The Mac has no camera items, widgets or Keep Screen On. Attachments opened for display are kept unencrypted in a cache while the app runs, and the cache is deleted when you quit.