Getting Started

Install to first save.

Five minutes to read, two to follow along.

The 4MB installer isn’t a typo.

Windows gets an installer, macOS a .dmg, Linux a distro package, Android an .apk.

The Windows installer is about 4.2MB.

Small, isn’t it?

That’s because MilkMind is built with Tauri. It uses the WebView2 that’s already on your machine.

It’s like not putting the refrigerator on the moving truck. The new place already has one.

This is where it parts ways with apps that ship an entire browser inside them.

Installing associates .md and .markdown files with MilkMind. Double-click one in your file browser and it opens.

The first launch opens a sample document.

Delete it and start writing, if you like.

To start with a blank document instead, turn off Settings ▸ General ▸ Start with sample. It takes effect from the next launch.

The screen has four layers.

Stacked from the top down.

Menu bar — File Edit Text Format View Theme Help. It collapses behind a ☰ button on mobile.

Properties panel — where you edit the YAML frontmatter at the top of the document. Collapsed by default. It’s kept apart from the body, so it stays out of your sight while you write.

Editing area — most of the screen. The editor or the mind map lives here.

Status bar — reads like 120 chars · 20 words · 1 min read · Tasks 2/5. Character count, word count, reading time, and task count, each of which can be turned on or off.

Three views, but only two shortcuts to remember.

The editor is the writing screen. That’s where you start.

Alt+Q turns the same document into a mind map. It’s a toggle. Press it again in the map and you’re back in the editor.

Alt+S puts the two side by side. Drag the divider in the middle to change the ratio.

There are four ways to open a file.

Press Ctrl+O, or double-click a .md file in your file browser.

Dragging a file onto the window works too. It takes .md, .markdown, and .txt.

File ▸ Recent files keeps the last 10.

Decide up front where it opens

Pick one in Settings ▸ General ▸ Window open mode.

The default is a new window. One window per file.

Single window replaces the document in the current window. Tab adds it to the current window as a tab.

Saving is automatic, but the first one is on you.

Ctrl+S saves. Ctrl+Shift+S saves as.

A file that already has a path saves itself about 0.6 seconds after you stop typing.

One thing is worth stopping on here.

⚠️ A new document you’ve never saved does not autosave.

You have to press Ctrl+S yourself, once.

The real reason to save first

It isn’t only about autosave.

Pasting images and relative-path links both use the folder the document lives in as their reference point. Before you save, there is no such folder.

It’s a house with no address yet. Nothing can be delivered to it.

The dot (●) in the title bar and on the tab means there are unsaved changes.

There are four kinds of new document.

File ▸ New has four entries.

Document (Ctrl+N) is a blank markdown document.

Mind map, Timeline, and Fishbone open in map mode. They use the both-sides, top-down, and fishbone layouts respectively.

Those three write mindmap_type into the document’s frontmatter, which pins the layout to that document.

That file opens the same way no matter where you open it.

The files stay in your folder.

They’re saved as .md files, in a folder you chose.

No account, no login. It isn’t a proprietary format — open it in Notepad and it reads fine. Uninstall MilkMind and the documents stay.

The only things MilkMind adds to your document are two frontmatter keys: mindmap-plugin and mindmap_type.

Settings, themes, and stickers live in the app, not in the document. They don’t get mixed into your file.

Postscript. That was the setup.

You’ve installed it, seen the screen, and saved once.

Now you can actually start.

The next chapter is syntax. Mostly the places where MilkMind behaves differently from everyone else.

(Skip the parts you already know. That’s what the subheadings are for.)