A quick tour of Varlig

Varlig is a Mac notebook where your writing and your numbers live side by side. Take five minutes here to learn the main ideas, then follow the links to the pages that go deeper.

Notes are plain Markdown

Press ⌘N for a new note and start typing. The first line becomes the note’s title, and everything you write is saved as you go.

Every note is Markdown, the simple plain-text format for headings, lists and emphasis. Varlig styles it as you type, so a line starting with ## becomes a heading and - [ ] becomes a checkbox you can tick. Tables, images, link cards, code, Mermaid diagrams and TeX formulas all display right inside the note you’re writing, and your text stays readable and portable.

Go deeper: Markdown at a glance.

Calculations beside your words

A calc block turns part of a note into a calculator. Choose Format › Calculation Block (⌘Y) and type one sum per line. Each answer appears beside its line.

calcCopy

# Weekend in Lisbon

hotel = €145 * 2 gives €290.00

flights = €89 * 2 gives €178.00

total = hotel + flights gives €468.00

total / 2 gives €234.00

Give a value a name with = and use it further down. Change a number and every answer that depends on it updates straight away. Calc blocks understand percentages, units, currencies, dates and times, as well as everyday phrases such as £64 with 12.5% tip or split £90 among 3 people. A click on any answer copies it.

Go deeper: Your first calculation.

Tags and links

Type a tag such as #recipes or #work/clients anywhere in a note. Tags collect notes in the sidebar, and a slash nests one tag inside another.

Link one note to another with [[Note title]]. Click the link to jump there, and open a note’s backlinks (⌘⇧B) to see every note that points back to it.

Go deeper: Tags, links and backlinks.

Find anything

• Quick Open (⌘O) jumps to a note, tag or section as you type its name.
• Search All Notes (⌘⇧F) filters the note list and accepts filters such as #work, @todo and "exact phrase".
• Find in Note (⌘F) finds text in the current note, including text Varlig recognises in images and PDFs.

Go deeper: Finding anything.

Your notes stay on your Mac

Your library is stored locally on your Mac, and you don’t need an account. Give a sensitive note its own password with Note › Note Password…, and open it later with Touch ID if you like. Lock the whole app with Note › Lock Varlig, and keep a recovery copy with File › Back Up Library….

Go deeper: Privacy and locking, and Import, export and backups.

Find your way around the window

The main window has three panes: the sidebar with sections and tags, the note list, and the editor. Choose how many you see from the View menu:

The sidebar’s sections gather notes for you: Untagged, Todo (notes with unfinished tasks), Today (notes changed today), Locked and Pinned, plus Trash.

Varlig runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later. When you’re ready for the details, Keyboard shortcuts lists every shortcut on one page, and Settings explains every option.