Settings

Varlig works well straight away, and Settings is where you make it yours: how notes start, when private notes lock, how answers look, and what Varlig may do online. This page walks through every pane in the order Varlig shows them, with each option’s default.

Open Settings with Varlig › Settings… (⌘,), or click the gear at the top of the sidebar.

Settings is laid out like System Settings. Its sidebar starts with Search settings, which finds the pane for a word such as backup or currency, then a card showing what iCloud sync is doing, then the panes in groups, each with a colored icon. Every pane opens with a short description of what it’s for. On iPhone and iPad, see Themes and Settings on iPhone and iPad.

General

The everyday behavior of the app and the editor.

Language, in this pane, chooses the interface language. System follows your Mac’s language preferences. A new choice applies after restarting Varlig; Restart Now saves your work and reopens the app. Calculation input and answer formats are separate, under Calculations.

On launch

Setting	What it does	Default
Resume where I left off	Reopens the last note with its scroll position, cursor and selection. Turning it off forgets them.	On
Remember window position and size	Reopens the main window where you left it, or on another screen if that one is disconnected.	On

Workspace

Setting	What it does	Default
Show word count	Shows the note’s word count, and its writing target, at the bottom of the editor.	Off
Show back and forward buttons	Adds Back and Forward buttons to the note header (⌘[ and ⌘]).	Off
Show formatting toolbar	Shows formatting buttons above the note (⇧⌘Y).	Off

While the toolbar is shown, this group pins more buttons after the standard ones: Undo and Redo, Calculation Block, Code Block, Math and Current Date. None is pinned to begin with. A pinned button never pushes out a standard one — in a narrow window the pinned ones go first — and each stays in the toolbar’s More menu and the menu bar either way.

Setting	What it does	Default
Show Varlig in the menu bar	Puts Varlig beside the clock, where it opens the scratchpad.	Off
Show Dock icon	Appears once the menu-bar item is on. Turning it off keeps Varlig running in the menu bar alone.	On

Keyboard shortcuts

Three shortcuts work from any app: Open Varlig, Create a new note and Show scratchpad. Show scratchpad starts as ⌃Space; the other two work once you record them.

Click Record Shortcut and press the keys you want. A shortcut must include ⌘ or ⌃. Press Escape to cancel, or click the clear button to remove a shortcut.

Editor

How writing behaves, and what a new note starts with.

Writing

Setting	What it does	Default
Check spelling while typing	Underlines possible mistakes without replacing your words.	Off
Autocomplete tags, wiki links and emoji	Shows suggestions as you type a `#tag`, a `[[` note link, a `:` emoji, a code block’s language or a calculation.	On
Move completed tasks to the bottom	Moves a todo below the unfinished ones when you tick it.	Off
Close code blocks automatically	Typing three backticks adds the closing fence.	On
Insert matching brackets and quotes	Adds the closing `)`, `]`, `}`, `"` or ` after the caret. Typing it again steps over it, and Delete removes an empty pair.	Off

A note can override spelling on its own: the … menu’s Spelling submenu turns checking on or off for that note and pins its language.

Pasted links

Setting	What it does	Default
Auto-fill titles when pasting web links	Contacts the linked website to fetch its title. Links still work without it.	Off

Pasting a web address over selected text always makes a link, whatever this is set to.

New notes

Setting	What it does	Default
Start with	What a new note begins with: a heading from Heading 1 to Heading 6, today’s date or date and time (long or ISO 8601 format), or nothing.	Heading 1
Add tags at	Where the tag goes when you create a note while a tag is selected in the sidebar: Top of note or Bottom of note.	Bottom

Record time spent editing each note is off by default. Turned on, the word-count capsule also shows something like 12 min editing. It counts the time between edits you make in the editor and stops after a minute without one, while Varlig is in the background, and while the app is locked — so thinking, reading and leaving a note open overnight count for nothing. It is kept on this Mac only, never in the note, in sync or in a backup, and Remove All deletes it. It records the edits Varlig saw; it is not a record of who wrote anything.

Scroll long code lines instead of wrapping is described in Long lines.

Remember answer formats in Markdown files is on to begin with. It keeps each line’s answer format with a Markdown file you open in place, in the file’s metadata; see Answer formats stay with the file.

Text Transformations

Saved find-and-replace rules you apply yourself from Format › Transformations, after a preview. The list is empty to begin with, and nothing runs a transformation on its own. Saved transformations need Varlig Pro. See Saved text transformations.

Journal & Review

Daily and weekly notes chooses what today’s note and this week’s note start from: a date or week heading, or one of your templates. Starting them from a template needs Varlig Pro; making notes from any template is free.

Review sets how many notes the review queue offers each day, from 1 to 50, and the tags never to review; Review needs Varlig Pro. Review choices and the daily and weekly templates are stored on this Mac; when each note was reviewed is stored in the library.

Typography

Fonts, text size and the shape of the page: the interface, text, heading and code fonts, plus font size, line spacing, line width, paragraph spacing and paragraph indent, with a preview that changes as you do. Themes, fonts and icons covers each one.

Themes

The colors of your workspace, as a gallery you can search, with your own themes beside Varlig’s. System follows macOS light and dark mode. System, Light and Night are free; the other themes, and your own, need Varlig Pro. See Themes, fonts and icons.

App Icon

Choose Varlig’s icon in the Dock. Classic is free; the others need Varlig Pro. See Themes, fonts and icons.

Calculations

How calc blocks read numbers, show answers and fetch exchange rates.

Numbers

Setting	What it does	Default
Number format	How numbers in calculations are read, and how answers are written unless Answers says otherwise. Choose System Region, which follows your Mac, or one of 15 languages and regions, each shown with a sample, such as English (United States) · 1,234.56, German (Germany) · 1.234,56 or French (France) · 1 234,56. It also sets which way round slashed dates go: `05/06/2026` is May 6 in English (United States), and June 5 in most of the others. With System Region and a day-first English region, such as the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa or Switzerland, answers show the day first too: `14 June 2025` rather than `June 14, 2025`. An example shows the result.	English (United States)
Convert foreign numbers when pasting	When you paste into a calc block, converts numbers written in another format, as long as they can only mean one thing. Something like `1,234` is left alone.	Off

Answer formatting

Setting	What it does	Default
Answers	How answers write numbers, money and dates. Same as Number Format writes them the way calculations are read; choose another to read one way and answer another. With Number format on German (Germany) and Answers on English (United States), `1,5 + 1` answers `2.5`.	Same as Number Format
Round to … dp	The most decimal places an answer shows, from 0 to 15.	10
Show thousands separators	Writes `12,500` rather than `12500`.	On
Use notation for large numbers	Shortens numbers of 100,000 or more with k, M, G, T and P, and money of a million or more with M and B.	On

These are the defaults for every line. To change one line, use the menu on its answer.

Answers changes only how answers look. What a line means, the order of a slashed date and which currency $ or kr names still follow the number format, and an answer copied back into the note is written the other way; Convert foreign numbers when pasting converts a single pasted number. A note can have its own Number format and Answers in Calculation Settings for This Note…, from the Calculation Line menu when you right-click a calculation or under Calculations in the note’s … menu.

Currency

Setting	What it does	Default
Round to currency precision	Rounds money answers to the currency’s usual decimal places. Named values keep full precision.	On
Use currency symbols	Shows `$15.00` instead of `15.00 USD`.	On
Keep trailing zeros	Shows `$15.00` instead of `$15`.	On

Calculation summary

While you work in a calc block, or select some lines, a floating summary adds them up. It only adds lines in the block’s main unit or currency and leaves counts and other units out, as The summary under each block explains.

Setting	What it does	Default
Show floating summary	Turns the summary on or off.	On
Statistic	What the summary shows: Total, Average, Count or Median.	Total
Include variable declarations	Counts lines like `rent = £950` in the summary.	On
Include referenced lines	Counts lines that other lines refer to.	On

Each block’s summary menu can change these for that block.

Variables

Setting	What it does	Default
Update references when renaming	When you rename a value and move to another line, updates the lines below that use the old name.	Off
Reset local variables and tags at dividers	A line of three or more hyphens (`---`) inside a calc block starts fresh: names, units and functions defined above it stop applying, and the running total restarts. A `total` line also starts a new section at a `---` divider or a `#` heading. When off, the line is a comment.	On

Everyday calculations

Setting	What it does	Default
Hours per workday	How long a `workday` is, from more than 0 up to 24 hours.	8
Sales tax name	The name of your sales tax, such as `VAT` or `GST`. Once it has a name, you can write lines like `£120 plus VAT`, `£120 after VAT`, `£144 without VAT` or `VAT off £120`.	Empty
Sales tax rate	The rate for that tax, from 0 to 100%.	0%
Public holiday calendar	The country whose public holidays you keep. Workday counts and workday shifts then skip those days as well as weekends, including lead times such as `second business day after 3 December 2026`, and short lines like `holidays in 2027`, `next public holiday` and `is 25 December 2026 a holiday` have a calendar to answer from. Choose from the 23 built-in calendars.	None
Income tax country	The country whose tax schedule answers `income tax on £55k` and the other income tax phrases when a line doesn’t name one.	None

Type these numbers with a full stop as the decimal point, whatever your number format.

Both of the last two settings are shortcuts rather than switches: a line that names a country of its own always wins, so public holidays in Ireland in 2027 and income tax on €55,000 in Germany give the same answer whatever you’ve chosen, and they work before you choose anything. Leave a setting on None and the short forms ask you to name a country instead of guessing one from your Mac’s region.

Income tax answers are estimates for a single person claiming the standard allowance, so treat them as a guide rather than a tax return. Income tax lists every country, its tax year and what the figure leaves out, and Public holidays covers the holiday phrases.

Shared definitions

Values, units and functions you write here work in every note, so you don’t have to define them again. For example:

calc

discount = 10%

1 widget = 5 meters

Workday holidays

Extra days off that workday counts should skip, one date per line in YYYY-MM-DD form. Out of the box only Saturdays and Sundays are skipped. Add days and lines like December 24 2026 + 2 workdays or workdays until 4 January 2027 skip them too:

2026-12-25
2026-12-28
2027-01-01

With those three dates listed, December 24 2026 + 2 workdays lands on December 30 instead of December 28.

This list and the Public holiday calendar above work together rather than replacing each other. The calendar brings in a whole country’s public holidays without any typing, and this list adds days it doesn’t know about: your company shutdown, a regional day such as a German Land’s Fronleichnam or an Australian state holiday, an inset day, or a Friday you’ve booked off. Use the list on its own if your country has no built-in calendar or you’d rather pick the days yourself. See Workdays and Public holidays.

Exchange rates

Refresh currency and crypto rates hourly is on to begin with. Varlig then:

downloads daily exchange rates from the European Central Bank and cryptocurrency rates from Coinbase when a calculation first needs them, and again once they’re an hour old
downloads exchange-rate history and US inflation figures soon after Varlig opens, for historical conversions and inflation calculations.

Turn it off and Varlig downloads nothing on its own. Refresh Now fetches everything once, whenever you choose. The pane shows when each source was last updated, and any problem in red. Varlig keeps the last rates it downloaded, so conversions keep working offline.

Live data

Two lookups that leave your Mac, each on to begin with: a line that names a place has asked for that lookup. They run only for an expression that needs them, never send the rest of the note, and take effect immediately.

Setting	What it sends	Default
Look up places and time zones	The place named in an expression, to Apple’s geocoder.	On
Look up weather conditions	The place’s coordinates, to Apple WeatherKit. Needs place lookup.	On

Turn one off and the lines that need it show no answer; everything else is unaffected. If you turned live data on or off in an earlier version of Varlig, that choice is kept. A status line under the switches says how the lookups are doing, including when Apple WeatherKit didn’t answer and that Varlig will ask again in a few minutes. Under the weather switch are the Apple Weather mark and its Other data sources link; see Weather.

Privacy

Locking, protected tags and where your notes may appear. What’s protected, at the bottom of the pane, explains exactly what encryption covers. See Privacy and locking.

Group	Setting	What it does	Default
Protected notes	Lock after Mac is idle	Locks opened protected notes after this long with no input: Never, 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes, or 1 hour.	5 minutes
Protected notes	Lock protected notes when Varlig is inactive	Locks them as soon as you switch to another app.	On
Protected tags	Tags	Tags whose notes must be password-protected, such as `private, finance/taxes`. Adding or changing them needs Varlig Pro.	Empty
App access	Lock all of Varlig after inactivity	Hides the whole library after the idle time, rather than only locking protected notes.	Off
App access	Require Mac authentication at launch	Opens Varlig to a lock screen. This does not encrypt the library.	Off
Outside Varlig	Show notes and calculations in widgets	Shares unencrypted pinned notes and their tasks, and the answers of unprotected notes’ calculations, with Varlig’s widgets.	Off
Outside Varlig	Offer recent notes when sharing to Varlig	Lets the Share menu append to a recently edited note.	Off
Outside Varlig	Include unencrypted notes in Spotlight	Makes note content searchable from macOS.	Off

Varlig has two widgets on the Mac, and both stay empty until Show notes and calculations in widgets is on: Varlig Notes & Tasks, with your pinned notes and their unfinished tasks, and Calculation, with one answer from a note you choose, as on iPhone and iPad. Neither ever shows a password-protected note, and while Varlig is locked both are empty.

Sync & Backup

Group	What’s in it
iCloud	Sync notes with iCloud (off until you turn it on), what sync is doing, and Sync Now or Try Again. Open at Login (off) opens Varlig when you log in, so your notes keep syncing. See iCloud sync and shared notes.
Automatic backups	On by default: how often, how many to keep, which folder, and Back Up Now. See Version history and automatic backups.
Library backups	Back Up Library… and Restore Backup… for a copy you keep elsewhere.
Local storage	Where your library is, and a reminder that note history keeps up to 30 versions per note.
Storage	What the database, attachments and pending recordings use, the largest attachments, Clear Preview Cache, and Unused attachment files › Review… for attachment files nothing uses.

In the TestFlight beta, a group after iCloud holds Live Editing (Preview) and Faster live editing, which you can turn on once live editing and sync are both on. See Edit together, live.

Import & Export

Files holds Import Notes…, and Export holds Keep tags when exporting, which is the same setting as the export sheet’s Include tags.

Button	What it does
Import from Bear…	Asks you to choose Bear’s library, the folder Application Data, then copies in your notes and attachments. Bear’s library isn’t changed.
Import from Soulver…	Asks you to choose your Soulver sheetbook, or sheets saved from Soulver. Each sheet becomes a calculation note with its original file attached, and nothing in Soulver changes.

Export Bear notes you’ve encrypted in Bear unlocked first, and let Bear download all attachments before importing. For other apps and files, see Import, export and backups.

Published snapshots lists every folder of read-only pages this library has written, says whether the notes have changed since, and holds Show in Finder, Update Snapshot… and Remove…. See Publishing a snapshot.

Advanced

Automation

Allow authenticated automation lets other tools and scripts work with your notes through varlig:// links. Turning it on creates a private token: Copy API Token copies it, and Reset Token replaces it. The token can read your unprotected notes and change the ones that aren’t read-only, so keep it private.

Desktop connector

Allow local MCP connections lets an AI assistant on your Mac search and read your notes through Varlig’s connector. It’s off to begin with.

Allow changes to notes also lets the assistant edit notes.
Only tags and Exclude tags limit which notes it can see. Separate tags with commas; nested tags are included, and exclusions always win.
Password-protected notes are never available.

An assistant may send the notes it reads to its own service, so choose tags carefully.

Crash and hang reports

The crash, hang and resource reports macOS gives Varlig: the last 20, and 10 days of performance figures, kept on this Mac and never sent by themselves. The line at the top says how many are kept and when the latest happened. Send Report… opens a sheet that lists each report and shows the file as it will be sent, then Email… addresses it to [email protected] and Share… sends it another way. Delete Reports… removes them. See Crash and hang reports.

Plan

The last pane, about Varlig Free and Varlig Pro. Varlig › Varlig Plan… opens it, and so does Varlig › Restore Purchases…, which starts restoring straight away. Varlig is free to download and to use, and one Pro purchase covers your Mac, iPhone and iPad when they use the same Apple Account in the App Store; on iPhone and iPad this page is Settings › Plan.

The pane says what this Mac has now: Free, or Pro with your plan and when it renews or ends. Its summary line reads “iCloud sync, shared notes and every calculation are free.” A card for Free lists what it includes: unlimited notes, iCloud sync and shared notes, every calculation and live data, attachments, scanning, capture and import, templates, export as Markdown, plain text, TextBundle, rich text, PDF and calculation values (CSV), printing, password-protected notes, app lock, backups and version history.

Beside it, before any price, Pro’s tools are shown as cards in five groups:

Group	What’s in it
Numbers	Charts from your calculations and what-if scenarios
Share and publish	Word, EPUB, web page and image export, Copy As HTML, and published snapshots of notes and tags
Routines and review	Templates for daily and weekly notes, repeating reminders, saved searches, Review, On This Day and the link graph
Research and capture	Text recognition in photos, PDFs and scans, PDF and image markup, recording and transcribing audio in notes, web clip updates from the source, and Read Together and reading lists
Make it yours	More themes and your own, alternate app icons, tags that protect new notes, text transformations, and the desktop connector for AI assistants and scripts

Then come Monthly, Yearly and Pay once, with their prices from the App Store, in your own currency and with any local taxes; until the App Store answers, the prices are loading and nothing can be bought. Yearly’s card shows how much it saves against twelve months of Monthly, worked out from those prices (“Save 16%”). If your Apple Account is eligible, Yearly’s button reads “Try 14 days free”, and Yearly then renews at the price shown unless you cancel. Monthly and Pay once have no trial, and Pay once never renews. Only Yearly can be shared with up to five family members through Apple’s Family Sharing. Under the plans are how subscriptions renew and are charged, and links to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

Restore Purchases is always there, so Pro bought with this Apple Account, on this Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, comes back without buying it again. Manage Subscription… opens your subscriptions in the App Store, to switch between Monthly and Yearly or to cancel. A canceled subscription keeps Pro until the end of the period you’ve paid for.

If Pro ends, nothing you made is taken away, and everything in Free carries on. Protected tags keep protecting new notes, recognized text stays searchable, your theme and icon stay as they are, saved searches and reading lists still open, repeating reminders keep running and recordings still play. Only starting something new with a Pro tool asks for Pro.

Trying a Pro tool without Pro opens a short sheet that says what it needs and what stays free; close it and carry on. Nothing else asks you to buy, and Varlig has no account to sign in to: nothing about your notes leaves this Mac when it checks your plan.

Options outside Settings

A few preferences live in menus instead:

Option	Where	What it does
Typewriter Scrolling	View menu	Keeps the line you’re typing vertically centered.
Show Scratchpad	View menu	Opens the scratchpad without the menu-bar item.
Toggle Style Bar	View menu (⇧⌘Y)	Shows formatting buttons above the note.
Zoom In / Zoom Out / Actual Size	View menu (⌘+, ⌘−, ⌘0)	Changes the text size, the same as Font Size in Typography.
Layouts	View menu (⌃1, ⌃2, ⌃3)	Shows the editor only, the notes and editor, or all three panes.
Tags › Sort By	View menu	Sorts tags in the sidebar by title or by note count.
Preview Style	The menu at the top of the note list	Small, medium or large previews, with or without attachments, and Group by Date for date headings.
View As	The menu at the top of the note list	List or Gallery. See Date headings and the gallery.
Customize Sidebar…	View menu	Which places are tiles at the top of the sidebar. See The sidebar.