The bottom toolbar floats along the foot of the canvas, with the buttons that act on your graph: arranging it, bringing things in, connecting, finding routes and exporting.
Where: Space Studio › bottom of the canvas · Keys: [1], [4], [5], [G], [C], [R]
What it is
This is where you do things in the graph, as opposed to the Top Bar, which is about the whole project and the app. Hover over any button and its tooltip names it, with its key in brackets. Left to right:
How to use it
Left: arranging and physics
- Dark Energy [1]: our auto-arrange, which spreads the graph out by how it's connected. Press it again for a fresh take. See Dark Energy and Layers.
- Layers [4]: stacks your nodes in rows by classification. See Dark Energy and Layers.
- Group [5]: gathers each classification into a cluster of its own. See Dark Energy and Layers.
- Grid [G]: shows or hides the grid, the floor that gives you a reference point while you build. It's remembered for the project.
- Physics: opens Forces, the sliders that shape how the graph spreads, live as you drag them. See Forces.
- UFO Spin: flies the camera once round your structure, or round your selection. See Images and Previews.
With two or more nodes selected, or any selection for Layers, the layout buttons work on the selection alone, and their tooltips say how many.
Middle: building
- Insert into graph (＋): Mermaid diagrams, link and file nodes, explorations with AI, Classify notes by folder, and folder bridges. See Insert Menu.
- Change node type: with nodes selected, lists your classifications and sub-types to move them all into one. See Classifications.
- Change connector type: with connectors selected, or nodes, changes the type of those connectors, or of every connector touching the nodes. See Connector Types.
- Connect [C]: joins two selected nodes, asks for the other end with one selected, or turns on connect mode with none. See Connectors.
- Pathfinder [R]: lights the shortest route between two nodes. See Pathfinder.
Right: text and exports
- Smaller graph text and Larger graph text: the size of node and connector labels in Space Studio, shown as a percentage. The Publisher keeps a size of its own.
- Export workspace image: saves a picture of the window as a JPG. See Images and Previews.
- Export for AI: saves your whole project as one Markdown file, ready to attach to an AI chat. See Export for AI.
Tips
- After you've clicked Dark Energy or Layers a few times, a tip reminds you of its key, once.
- Change node type and Change connector type stay greyed until something is selected.
- In a read-only project Connect is off and the explorations and Classify notes by folder are greyed, while Pathfinder still works, since it changes nothing. See Open a Folder as a Project.
- Not to be confused with the Projects window in the top bar, which is about switching between whole projects. These buttons act on the graph you have open.
- Backgrounds and themes live in Settings. See Backgrounds and Themes.
- The Publisher has a toolbar of its own under its graph. See Publisher Studio.
How this helps you
- Use the left group when the graph needs tidying, the middle when you're building, and the right when you're handing something on.
- Learn [1], [4], [5], [C] and [R], and most of what this bar does is a keypress away.
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