User Guide

Sign in using Google, GitHub, ORCID, or email (one-time password). No credit card or installation required.

From the Dashboard, click New Document and choose a file type: .md (Markdown), .qmd (Quarto), or .rmd (R Markdown). You can also load an example document to explore the editor.

Your documents are automatically saved as you type. You can rename documents from the editor toolbar by clicking on the document title.

Codanote offers four view modes, switchable from the toolbar:

You can set your preferred default view in Settings. Use Ctrl/Cmd + +/- to zoom the editor between 75% and 150%.

Codanote uses Yjs (a CRDT library) for conflict-free real-time collaboration. When multiple people edit the same document:

• Each user sees live cursors with name labels
• Changes merge automatically without conflicts
• A presence indicator in the toolbar shows who is online
• If the collaboration server is temporarily unavailable, the editor loads content from the database as a fallback

Comments: Highlight any text and click the comment button (or use the sidebar). Comments are anchored to the text — they move with it as the document changes. You can reply to comments and resolve threads when done.

Suggest Mode: Toggle to Suggesting in the edit mode dropdown (top-right). In this mode, your edits are tracked as suggestions rather than applied directly. Co-authors can review, accept, or reject each suggestion. This works like Track Changes in Word or Suggesting mode in Google Docs.

Codanote automatically saves versions of your document at three triggers:

• Inactivity — after a period of no edits
• Session change — when a different user starts editing
• Daily checkpoint — once per day

You can also save a version manually at any time. Open the History sidebar to browse all versions, preview their content, and restore any previous state. The system keeps up to 25 automatic and 25 manual versions per document.

Connect your GitHub account from Settings to:

• Browse repositories and their file trees
• Import markdown files from any repo into Codanote
• Push document changes back to GitHub with a commit message

GitHub integration uses a Personal Access Token (PAT) stored securely in your profile. The token only needs repo scope.

Connect your Dropbox account from Settings to sync documents. When enabled, Codanote can read and write files to your Dropbox, providing an offline backup path for your work.

Codanote supports academic citations through two methods:

• BibTeX upload — Upload a .bib file via the Citations sidebar. All entries become available for insertion.
• Zotero search — Connect your Zotero account in Settings (user ID + API key), then search your personal library directly from the sidebar.

Insert citations by typing [@ in the editor — autocomplete will suggest matching entries from your bibliography. Citations render correctly in the preview panel.

For .qmd and .rmd files, switch to the Render view to execute code and see output.

WebR (browser mode): R code runs directly in your browser via WebAssembly. No installation needed. The first load downloads the WebR runtime (~20MB cached), after which code runs locally. Supports common R packages.

Local R server: If you have R installed locally, you can connect Codanote to a local rendering server for full package support and faster execution.