Navigating the App
Move between screens using the bottom nav bar and More menu
Octarine uses a bottom navigation bar as the main way to move between screens. The app is locked to portrait orientation.
Bottom Navigation Bar
The nav bar is a rounded pill at the bottom of the screen that holds a few primary destinations, a More button (···), and a floating + button to its right.
Only the first three items in your nav order are shown as visible tabs. The rest live inside the More menu. You can reorder and hide items — see Customizing the Nav below.
The active tab is highlighted with a filled icon. The nav bar hides automatically when you're inside the editor to give you full-screen writing space.
The More Menu
Tap the More button (···) to expand a menu listing every nav destination (visible tabs included). The full set of items:
| Item | What it opens |
|---|---|
| Home | The dashboard with the week calendar, pinned notes, recent notes, unfinished tasks, and a random note |
| Notes | The file tree browser |
| Daily | The Daily Desk calendar |
| Search | The full-text search overlay |
| Pinned | Your pinned notes list |
| Tags | The tag hierarchy browser |
| Properties | The frontmatter properties browser |
| Templates | The templates list |
| Attachments | The media grid (images and videos) |
| Settings | Preferences, editor config, themes, and account |
The menu header shows the current workspace name and a slider icon that opens the Customize screen. Tap outside the menu or select an item to close it. When a More-menu page is active, the ··· icon in the nav bar changes to show the icon of the current page.
The + Button
A floating + button sits to the right of the nav pill. If you have no templates, tapping it creates a blank note immediately. If you have templates, it opens a sheet with two options:
- Blank Note — creates an untitled note.
- From Template — opens a submenu of your templates; tap one to create a new note from it.
If you're inside a folder in the Notes page, the new note is created in that folder.
Customizing the Nav
Tap the slider icon in the More menu header to open Customize. Here you can:
- Reorder items by dragging the handle on the right. The first three items in the order become the visible tabs.
- Show or hide items with the toggle. Hidden items move to a separate "Hidden" section at the bottom.
At least three items must remain visible. Changes save automatically when you close the screen.
Gestures
- Swipe back — swipe from the left edge to go back from the editor, the Notes folder view, or any detail screen.
- Pull down — pull down from the top of any screen to open the Command Bar (covered in the next section).
Portrait Only
Octarine is locked to portrait orientation. Rotating your device has no effect on the layout.