User Guide
Everything you need to know about LiquidWorkspace, from first launch to advanced workflows.
Everything you need to know about LiquidWorkspace, from first launch to advanced workflows.
LiquidWorkspace is a macOS-native writing and research workspace designed for writers, researchers, students, and anyone who thinks best when their tools stay out of the way. It brings together a rich text editor, hierarchical project organization, PDF annotation, visual mind mapping, and an extraordinarily deep appearance system into a single, elegant window.
LiquidWorkspace is built around a few core principles that set it apart from other writing tools.
First, it is entirely local-first. Your projects live on your Mac as simple directories under ~/Documents/LiquidWorkspace/. There is no cloud dependency, no account to create, no subscription to manage. Your words belong to you, stored right where you can find them.
Second, LiquidWorkspace offers Liquid Glass, a translucent material system that lets your desktop wallpaper show through every surface of the app. Combined with per-element color control over more than fifteen independent UI surfaces, you can make the workspace feel like an extension of your personality rather than a generic tool.
Third, the app is built for parallel workflows. Open a PDF in a side pane while you write. Launch a Rogue Editor to work on a second note in its own floating window. Collect research snippets in the Liquid Clipboard. Visualize the connections between your notes in the Brain Map. Everything works together without forcing you into a single, linear mode.
Fiction writers drafting novels alongside research PDFs. Students annotating academic papers and extracting key passages into study notes. Screenwriters organizing scenes with custom icons and color-coded tags. Researchers building personal knowledge bases and discovering connections through the Brain Map. Anyone who wants a beautiful, private, deeply customizable place to think and write.
LiquidWorkspace requires macOS 26 or later. The app is built with SwiftUI and AppKit, taking advantage of modern macOS frameworks for smooth performance and native behavior.
Each project is a lightweight directory. A typical project with dozens of notes and a few imported PDFs will use only a few megabytes of disk space.
When you open LiquidWorkspace, you'll see the Projects screen, a grid of project tiles. Click the + button or choose File > New Window to create a new project. Give it a name, and you're in.
Each project is its own self-contained workspace with its own notes, folders, tags, and settings. Think of projects as separate notebooks or binders for different areas of your life.
The main workspace is a three-pane layout:
The Binder (left) is your project's table of contents. It holds all your notes and folders in a hierarchical tree. You can collapse it with Cmd+\ when you want more room to write.
The Editor (center) is where you write. It supports rich text formatting, headings, lists, images, shapes, tables, and more.
The Inspector (right) provides contextual information about whatever you're working on. It has three tabs: Text, Shape, and Document. Toggle it with Cmd+[ or Cmd+].
Click New Note in the binder (or press Cmd+N) to create a note. Start typing. LiquidWorkspace autosaves your work as you type, so you never need to worry about losing your progress.
The formatting toolbar lets you apply bold (Cmd+B), italic (Cmd+I), underline (Cmd+U), and strikethrough (Cmd+S) with a single click or shortcut. Choose heading levels from the Headings menu or press Cmd+1 through Cmd+6.
Press Cmd+Shift+N to create a new folder in the binder. Drag notes into folders to organize them. You can nest folders inside other folders to create any hierarchy that fits your thinking.
Drag a PDF file from Finder directly into the binder. LiquidWorkspace imports it into your project and displays it in the editor with full annotation support.
Right-click any note or PDF in the binder and choose Open in Side Pane. This opens it as a read-only reference alongside your main editor, perfect for writing while looking at source material.
Go to File > Export as PDF (Cmd+E), Export as Plain Text (Cmd+Shift+E), or Export as Markdown (Cmd+Opt+E). PDF export includes optional headers and footers with page numbers, document title, and custom text.
LiquidWorkspace's main window is built around a three-pane split view with smooth, native resizing behavior. The Binder occupies the left pane, the Editor fills the center, and the Inspector sits on the right. Toggle the Binder with Cmd+\ and the Inspector with Cmd+[. When both side panes are hidden, the editor expands to fill the entire window, creating a distraction-free writing surface.
Below the main toolbar, the Formatting Toolbar provides quick access to text styling controls. From left to right: paragraph style (Body, Heading 1–6), font family, font size (with increment/decrement buttons), bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text color swatch, the magic wand (writing tools), alignment buttons, indent/outdent, list style buttons, and table/image insertion. Toggle it with Cmd+Shift+T.
At the bottom of the editor, the status bar shows the current editor mode (Rich Text, Plain Text, or Markdown), word count, and additional context depending on what you're working on.
The thin strips along the left edge of the binder and the right edge of the inspector are called Rails. They provide a subtle visual frame for the workspace and can be independently colored in the Appearance settings.
Each pane has its own Quick Settings overlay. Access it by clicking the preset controls in the pane header. Quick Settings let you rapidly switch between saved appearance configurations: change the background color, toggle Liquid Glass, adjust glass strength and opacity, and lock the pane width. You get three presets per pane.
The Binder is your project's organizational backbone. Every note, folder, and PDF lives here in a hierarchical tree that you arrange however you like.
Cmd+N creates a new note. Cmd+Shift+N creates a new folder. You can also right-click in the binder to access creation options, including New Note from Template (Cmd+Shift+Opt+N).
When you select a folder in the binder, the editor area switches to a Folder Outline View showing a summary of the folder's contents: a header with the folder icon, name, and item counts, followed by a list of subfolders and notes with preview text.
Drag items to rearrange them or move them between folders. Choose from seven sort orders including manual, alphabetical, date created, and date modified. Pinning locks a note or folder to the top of its parent's list regardless of sort order.
Every note and folder can have a custom icon: SF Symbols, emoji, text characters, or imported images. Open the icon picker from View > Icons and Titles.
Tags are colored labels you attach to notes. Each tag has a name, a color, and optional aliases. Create and manage tags in Settings > Tags & Automation. Auto-Tagging automatically applies a tag's styling to matching words as you type, with configurable options for color, uppercase, bold, italic, underline, and font size boost.
The binder's Tags section shows all tags with colors and note counts. Click a tag to filter the binder to only notes carrying that tag.
Save a note as a template with File > Save as Template (Cmd+Shift+S). Create new notes from templates with Cmd+Shift+Opt+N.
Deleted notes go to the Trash within the binder. You can restore items or empty the trash permanently.
The Inspector provides detailed controls and metadata for whatever is currently selected. It sits in the right pane and has three tabs.
The Text Tab shows formatting controls that complement the formatting toolbar, including detailed paragraph spacing and line height adjustments.
The Shape Tab becomes active when a shape is selected, providing controls for fill color, stroke, arrangement, duplication, and deletion.
The Document Tab is your note's metadata headquarters: creation and modification dates, word count, tag management, version history, and manual Save Points. For PDF-derived notes, it also shows the PDF Source card with annotation counts and navigation links.
LiquidWorkspace supports three editor modes. Rich Text is the default, supporting full formatting: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, headings, lists, custom bullets, images, shapes, tables, colored text, and highlighting. Plain Text strips away all formatting for distraction-free drafting. Markdown activates live syntax highlighting for standard Markdown elements.
The app autosaves continuously as you type (configurable delay, default 3 seconds). Standard Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z for undo/redo. Zoom is independently configurable for the main editor and Rogue Editors.
The four core text styles: Cmd+B for bold, Cmd+I for italic, Cmd+U for underline, Cmd+S for strikethrough. These can be combined freely.
Choose fonts from the font picker in the formatting toolbar. Adjust font size with the size field or increment/decrement buttons. Apply text color using the color swatch (Cmd+Shift+C for the system Color Panel) or the Color Ring (Cmd+Shift+K). Highlighting supports three strength levels: Subtle, Standard, and Strong. Four alignment options: left, center, right, justified.
Six heading levels, H1 through H6, accessible from the Headings menu or with Cmd+1 through Cmd+6. Heading sizes are fully customizable in Settings > Editor & Writing > Heading Sizes (defaults: H1 at 28pt, H2 at 24pt, H3 at 22pt, H4 at 18pt, H5 at 16pt, H6 at 14pt).
The formatting toolbar includes buttons for creating bulleted and numbered lists, with 10 bullet styles and 5 numbered list styles.
The Bullet Ring (Cmd+Shift+J) is a floating HUD that gives you keyboard-first access to 12 custom bullet characters arranged in two rows. Navigate with arrow keys or click, and the selected bullet is applied to the current list item. All 12 bullets are fully customizable in Settings, and you can use any character or emoji.
The Color Ring (Cmd+Shift+K) is a floating HUD palette with 12 color swatches in two rows of six. Use arrow keys to navigate, Return to apply. All 12 colors are customizable in Settings. For more nuanced color control, use the macOS System Color Panel (Cmd+Shift+C).
Insert or edit a hyperlink with Cmd+K. Links open in your default browser when clicked.
LiquidWorkspace lets you connect one note to another without leaving the editor. Select text in a Rich Text note, then choose Edit > Link Selection to Note… or right-click the selection and choose Link Selection to Note…. A searchable note picker opens; choose the destination note and the selected text becomes a clickable internal link.
Clicking an internal note link opens the linked note in the main editor. You can also right-click any note in the binder and choose Copy > Copy Note Link to copy a liquidworkspace://note/... link for manual use.
Internal note links are one-way links in this version. They do not create backlinks or wiki-style pages, and they are only editable as attributed links in Rich Text mode.
Insert images by dragging from Finder into the editor, or through the formatting toolbar's image button. Resize with drag handles (hold Shift to maintain aspect ratio). Wrap modes control text flow: inline, top/bottom, behind text, or in front of text.
Insert a table with Cmd+Opt+Shift+T. Right-click within cells for row and column operations. Merge cells by selecting a range. Set background colors on individual cells or entire rows, and adjust table border width and color for clearly structured reference tables or planning matrices.
Open the Shape Picker Panel from the Inspector's Shape tab or the formatting toolbar. Shapes are organized into categories: Basic Shapes, Geometry, Arrows, Lines, Callouts, Objects, and Text. A search bar lets you filter by name.
Once placed, use the Inspector's Shape tab for fill, stroke, arrangement (front/back, lock/unlock), duplication, and deletion. Many shapes are text-capable, so you can type directly inside them. Connectors link shapes together and adjust automatically when you move connected shapes.
Page View simulates a printed page within the editor, giving you a WYSIWYG preview of how your document will look when exported as a PDF. Toggle it from the formatting toolbar, the View menu, or with Cmd+Opt+Shift+P.
Configure paper size and margins in Settings > Editor & Writing > Page Layout (default: US Letter with 72pt margins). Enable the ruler to display margin positions and tab stops.
Smart Paste preserves formatting intelligently when pasting from other apps. Auto-Bracketing inserts matching closing brackets and quotes automatically. Typewriter Mode keeps the current line vertically centered as you type. Focus Mode dims all text except the current paragraph. Word Completion offers autocomplete suggestions as you type.
Save Selection to New Note: select text, right-click, and create a new note with that content (preserving formatting).
The Transform menu provides: Make Uppercase (Cmd+Opt+Shift+U), Make Lowercase (Cmd+Opt+Shift+L), and Capitalize (Cmd+Opt+Shift+C).
When set to Markdown mode, the editor activates live syntax highlighting directly in the text. Headings render at scaled sizes (1.8× for H1 down to 1.0× for H6). Bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, fenced code blocks, links, blockquotes, lists, task lists, and horizontal rules are all recognized and highlighted. The highlighter uses incremental re-highlighting for responsive performance in long documents.
Find in Current Note (Cmd+F) opens a find strip for searching and replacing text. Find in Binder (Cmd+Shift+F) searches across all note titles and body text, filtering the binder to matching items. Project Search (Cmd+Opt+G) performs a project-wide search.
LiquidWorkspace treats PDFs as first-class citizens. Drag and drop from Finder into the binder to import. The PDF viewer provides page navigation tabs, zoom controls, and scroll-based page browsing. PDFs can also be viewed in Rogue Editors (with full annotation support) and in Side Panes (read-only, for reference).
The PDF toolbar provides: Highlight, Underline, Strikeout, Comment, Ink, and navigation controls.
Select text in a PDF and apply Highlight, Underline, or Strikeout annotations. Place Comments anywhere on the page as movable note icons. Use the Ink tool for freehand drawing, useful for circling passages, drawing arrows, or sketching margin notes. All annotations are automatically saved with the PDF.
Create Note from Selection turns selected PDF text into a new note linked to the source. Send to Liquid Clipboard collects selections for later use. Copy as Quote and Copy Source Reference format text for citing. Extract Highlights / Comments / All Annotations batch-creates notes from your annotations. The PDF Source Card in the Inspector's Document tab links derived notes back to their original location.
Side Panes let you view a note or PDF alongside your main editor in a read-only panel. Right-click an item in the binder and choose Open in Side Pane. The side pane supports navigation history (back/forward) and can display both notes and PDFs. Drag content from the side pane into the editor or Liquid Clipboard.
Rogue Editors are independent, floating editor windows that operate separately from the main workspace. Right-click a note and choose Open in Rogue Editor, or use File > New Rogue Editor.
Unlike side panes, Rogue Editors are fully functional: their own formatting toolbar, full text formatting, images, shapes, tables, and PDF annotation. You can have multiple open simultaneously, each editing a different note. Each has independent zoom and page layout settings.
The Liquid Clipboard (Cmd+Shift+V) is a persistent scratch pad for collecting text snippets. While researching, collect interesting passages, quotes, and ideas here. Later, review what you've gathered and decide what to keep.
The toolbar provides: System, Light, Dark (appearance toggles), Paste (from system clipboard), Copy All, Save as Note, and Clear.
The Brain Map (Cmd+Opt+B) is a force-directed graph visualization that maps the relationships between your notes based on shared tags. Nodes represent individual notes (colored by primary tag), and edges connect notes that share at least one tag. The physics simulation arranges nodes organically, connected notes pulling toward each other and unrelated notes pushing apart.
Pan by clicking and dragging. Zoom with scroll or pinch. Select a node to highlight its connections. Pin a node to lock its position. Double-click to open that note. The tag index sidebar lets you filter by tag. Physics parameters and visual style are customizable in Settings.
The Teleprompter turns your notes into an auto-scrolling reading experience for presentations, rehearsals, or hands-free review. Add notes to the Teleprompter Library in Settings > Teleprompter, each with its own speed setting.
During a session: Space to play/pause, Up Arrow to increase speed, Down Arrow to decrease speed (5% increments). The script text color is configurable.
LiquidWorkspace maintains version history through automatic snapshots at regular intervals and manual Save Points (created from the Inspector's Document tab). Browse the version timeline to see how your note has evolved, and restore any previous version to replace the current content, including full rich text formatting.
LiquidWorkspace's appearance system has over 200 customizable settings, giving you fine-grained control over every visual surface.
When Master Liquid Glass is enabled in Settings > Appearance, each pane becomes partially transparent, letting your desktop wallpaper show through. Each pane has its own on/off toggle, Glass Strength slider, and Background Opacity slider, so you can make the binder fully transparent while keeping the editor opaque for focused writing.
The Theme Studio in Settings lets you create, save, and switch between theme pairs. Each saved theme has both a Light and Dark variant. Click Apply Selected Dark/Light to switch, Update Selected to save changes, or Save Theme As to create new themes.
Beyond themes, you can individually customize over 15 UI surfaces: Document Surface (paper, font, canvas, cursor, highlight, border, with per-surface Liquid Glass), Panes (binder and inspector independently), Toolbar and status bar, Rails (left and right independently), Editor background, and Window. Every color supports full RGBA with opacity.
The Workspace Shield and Desktop Shield are privacy and aesthetic layers. The Desktop Shield overlays the desktop (useful for reducing busy wallpaper brightness, especially around the notch). The Workspace Shield applies specifically behind the workspace window. Both are toggleable and colorable.
Access the Projects screen from File > Projects (Cmd+Opt+P). Each project is a directory under ~/Documents/LiquidWorkspace/ on your Mac, containing notes, PDFs, and settings. Because projects are simple folders, you can back them up or organize them with Finder. LiquidWorkspace remembers your last-used project and launches into it by default.
The main toolbar is the macOS-native toolbar at the very top of the LiquidWorkspace window. It controls workspace-level actions like binder and inspector visibility, navigation, sharing and export, Teleprompter, Liquid Clipboard, Brain Map, note creation, and view commands. It is separate from the editor formatting toolbar and the PDF annotation toolbar.
Open toolbar customization from View > Customize Toolbar…, by right-clicking the main toolbar, or from Settings in the Main Toolbar / customization area.
Think of the toolbar customizer like Finder or Scrivener: the top field represents your actual toolbar. The customizer presents a sheet with the Main Toolbar field at the top (mirroring the real toolbar) and a palette of all available items below it. The toolbar updates live while you make changes, so you can see the real toolbar change immediately.
Drag icons from the palette into the toolbar field to add them. Drag existing items inside the field to reorder them. Click the small × on an item to remove it. Use Restore Default Set to return to the original toolbar layout. Click Done to save the current toolbar, or Cancel to restore the toolbar to the way it was before the sheet opened.
Space adds a fixed-width invisible gap on the real toolbar. Flexible Space stretches to push groups apart. Divider adds a visual separator line. Spaces are visible in the customizer so you can arrange them, but normal fixed spaces do not appear as visible buttons on the real toolbar.
The display mode picker at the bottom of the customizer sheet lets you switch between icon-only, icon-and-text, and text-only toolbar display.
Removing an item from the toolbar does not delete project data or change the underlying feature settings. The default toolbar set can be restored at any time.
LiquidWorkspace is designed as a local-first Mac app. Projects are stored on your Mac, the app does not require an account, and normal writing, editing, PDF annotation, theming, and export workflows work offline.
Optional crash reporting may be offered as an opt-in diagnostic setting. If enabled, crash reports are used only to diagnose reliability issues and are not used for advertising or tracking. If you do not opt in, LiquidWorkspace should not send crash reports.
External cloud integrations are not advertised as v1 features on the release-facing website. Future integrations should be documented only after their sandboxing, privacy, and App Store review requirements are fully verified.
PDFs: drag from Finder into the binder or use the file import dialog. Text files: import into new notes. Images: drag into the editor to embed, or into the binder to import as assets.
Export as PDF (Cmd+E) with optional headers/footers. Export as Plain Text (Cmd+Shift+E). Export as Markdown (Cmd+Opt+E). Print (Cmd+P) via macOS print dialog. Share (Cmd+Shift+S) via macOS sharing service.
Over 43 keyboard shortcuts, all customizable in Settings > Shortcuts. Click Record next to any command to assign a new key combination. Click Restore Defaults to reset.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| New Note | Cmd+N |
| New Folder | Cmd+Shift+N |
| New Window | Cmd+Opt+N |
| New Note from Template | Cmd+Shift+Opt+N |
| Export as PDF | Cmd+E |
| Export as Plain Text | Cmd+Shift+E |
| Export as Markdown | Cmd+Opt+E |
| Cmd+P | |
| Find & Replace in Note | Cmd+F |
| Find in Binder | Cmd+Shift+F |
| Project Search | Cmd+Opt+G |
| Insert / Edit Link | Cmd+K |
| Liquid Clipboard | Cmd+Shift+V |
| Brain Map | Cmd+Opt+B |
| Bold | Cmd+B |
| Italic | Cmd+I |
| Underline | Cmd+U |
| Toggle Formatting Toolbar | Cmd+Shift+T |
| Toggle Binder | Cmd+\ |
| Toggle Inspector | Cmd+[ |
| Heading 1–6 | Cmd+1 through Cmd+6 |
| Color Ring | Cmd+Opt+K |
| Bullet Ring | Cmd+Opt+J |
| Make Uppercase | Cmd+Opt+Shift+U |
| Make Lowercase | Cmd+Opt+Shift+L |
| Capitalize | Cmd+Opt+Shift+C |
| Toggle Page View | Cmd+Opt+Shift+P |
| Insert Page Break | Cmd+Opt+Return |
| Projects | Cmd+Opt+P |
LiquidWorkspace's settings are organized into eight tabs, accessible from LiquidWorkspace > Settings (Cmd+,).
Appearance: Theme Studio, Document Surface controls, Panes (per-pane Liquid Glass, background, font colors), Global Look (Master Liquid Glass, Shield, Backdrop).
Editor & Writing: Writing Defaults, Heading Sizes, Page Layout, Writing Assistance options, Export Headers & Footers, Color Ring, Bullet Ring.
Workspace & Windows: Startup destination, Autosave toggle and delay.
Binder & Navigation: Pane behavior, sort order, icons & titles, defaults.
Tags & Automation: Auto-Tagging options, Tag Library with colors, counts, and aliases.
Shortcuts: All 43+ key commands with Record buttons and Restore Defaults.
Teleprompter: File library with per-note speed, appearance settings, live controls.
Integrations: Reserved for future import/export bridges. The v1 release-facing website does not advertise external account integrations.
Notes not saving? Check that autosave is enabled in Settings > Workspace & Windows. The default delay is 3 seconds.
Liquid Glass not showing the desktop? Make sure Master Liquid Glass is enabled in Settings > Appearance > Global Look, and that the individual pane's toggle is also on. Adjust Glass Strength upward.
PDF annotations not appearing? Ensure you've selected the correct annotation tool before selecting text. Some types require a text selection (highlight, underline, strikeout), while others work by clicking or drawing.
Formatting toolbar missing? Press Cmd+Shift+T to toggle it, or check Settings > Editor & Writing.
Custom shortcuts not working? Verify in Settings > Shortcuts that the shortcut is correctly recorded. Use Restore Defaults if conflicts arise.
Theme changes not sticking? After adjusting appearance, click Update Selected Dark/Light in the Theme Studio to save. Without this step, changes are applied but not persisted to the theme.
Where are my projects stored? Locally in ~/Documents/LiquidWorkspace/ on your Mac. Each project is a simple directory.
Does LiquidWorkspace require an internet connection? No. LiquidWorkspace is local-first and works offline for normal writing, organizing, PDF, and export workflows.
Can I back up my projects? Yes. Projects are standard directories, so use Time Machine, external drives, or any backup tool.
What file formats can I export? PDF (with optional headers/footers), plain text (.txt), and Markdown (.md).
Can I import notes from other apps? Export them as text or PDF first, then import the files.
Is there an iOS or iPad version? LiquidWorkspace is currently macOS-only.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operating System | macOS 26 or later |
| Processor | Apple Silicon recommended; Intel compatibility not confirmed |
| Storage | Minimal; depends on imported PDFs and images |
| Permissions | Microphone and Speech Recognition (for dictation) |
Binder — The left pane containing your project's hierarchical tree of notes, folders, and PDFs.
Brain Map — Force-directed graph visualization showing tag-based relationships between notes.
Bullet Ring — Floating HUD with 12 customizable bullet characters (Cmd+Shift+J).
Color Ring — Floating HUD with 12 customizable color swatches (Cmd+Shift+K).
Editor — The center pane where you write and edit notes.
Focus Mode — Dims all text except the current paragraph.
Inspector — The right pane providing contextual controls and metadata.
Liquid Clipboard — Persistent scratch pad for collecting text snippets (Cmd+Shift+V).
Liquid Glass — Translucent material system that lets desktop wallpaper show through.
Page View — WYSIWYG mode simulating printed pages with margins and page breaks.
Quick Settings — Per-pane overlay panels for rapid appearance switching.
Rails — Thin visual framing strips on the binder and inspector edges.
Rogue Editor — Independent floating editor window with full editing and PDF annotation.
Save Point — Manually created snapshot of a note's current state.
Shield — Colored overlay layer between desktop and workspace.
Side Pane — Read-only panel for viewing reference material alongside your main work.
Teleprompter — Auto-scrolling mode for hands-free reading.
Theme Studio — Where you create, save, and switch between Light/Dark theme pairs.
Typewriter Mode — Keeps the current line vertically centered.
LiquidWorkspace — Made with care for people who love to write.