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.

General

The everyday behaviour of the app and the editor.

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

Writing

Setting	What it does	Default
Auto-fill titles when pasting web links	When you paste a web address on its own, Varlig fetches the page’s title and turns it into a link.	On
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
Keep tags when exporting	Keeps `#tags` in exported notes. The Export sheet’s Include tags switch is the same setting.	On

Pasting a web address over selected text always makes a link, whatever Auto-fill titles 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

Privacy

Setting	What it does	Default
Lock when idle	Locks password-protected notes you’ve opened once your Mac has had no input for this long. Choose from Never, 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes, or 1 hour.	5 minutes
Lock protected notes when Varlig is inactive	Locks password-protected notes you’ve opened as soon as you switch to another app.	On

These lock individual notes, not the whole app. To lock Varlig itself, see Privacy, locking and backups.

Keyboard shortcuts

Two shortcuts work from any app, once you set them:

Open Varlig brings the main window to the front.
Create a new note brings Varlig forward with a new note, ready to type.

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.

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. Themes, fonts and icons covers each one.

Themes

The colours of your workspace. System follows macOS light and dark mode. See Themes, fonts and icons.

App Icon

Choose Varlig’s icon in the Dock and Finder. See Themes, fonts and icons.

Sync

iCloud sync isn’t available in current versions of Varlig. The Sync pane says so, and your notes are saved locally on your Mac. To move notes to another Mac, use a backup: see Import, export and backups.

Calculations

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

Numbers

Setting	What it does	Default
Number format	How numbers are read and answers are written: North America (`1,234.5`), Western Europe (`1.234,5`), Eastern Europe (`1 234,5`) or System Region, which follows your Mac. It also sets which way round slashed dates go: `05/06/2026` is May 6 in North America, and 5 June in Europe or with a region that writes the day first. 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.	North America
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
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.

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.

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. 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`, `VAT in £120` or `VAT off £120`.	Empty
Sales tax rate	The rate for that tax, from 0 to 100%.	0%

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

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

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 your public holidays and days 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. See Workdays.

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.

Imports

Button	What it does
Import from Bear	Finds Bear on this Mac and copies in your notes and attachments. Bear’s library isn’t changed.
Import from Soulver	Finds your Soulver sheetbook. Each sheet becomes a calculation note with its original file attached, and Soulver’s library isn’t changed.

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.

Advanced

Editor

Setting	What it does	Default
Check spelling while typing	Underlines misspelt words as you write.	Off

Privacy and Integration

Setting	What it does	Default
Require Mac authentication at launch	Opens Varlig to a lock screen. Choose Unlock with Mac Authentication and use Touch ID or your Mac password.	Off
Show pinned notes and tasks in widgets	Shares up to 10 pinned notes, and their unfinished todos, with Varlig’s widget. Protected, trashed and archived notes are never shared.	Off
Include unencrypted notes in Spotlight	Lets macOS Spotlight find your notes. Password-protected and trashed notes are never included, and turning it off removes them all.	Off

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.

Options outside Settings

A few preferences live in menus instead:

Option	Where	What it does
Show Word Count	View menu	Shows the note’s word count at the bottom of the editor.
Show History Navigation	View menu	Adds Back and Forward buttons to the note header (⌘[ and ⌘]).
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.