Notebooks are the core of XNote. Each notebook contains pages of your handwritten notes, synced from your XNote Pen.
3.7.1 View Notebooks
All your notebooks are displayed on the Notebooks page in a responsive grid (up to 5 cards per row). Each notebook card shows:
- Notebook type badge (Mini / Standard / Large)
- Title
- Page count (e.g., "23 / 192 pages")
- Primary star icon (filled blue if primary)
- Pin indicator (blue border and ring if pinned)
Pinned and primary notebooks appear first, followed by most active.
Click a notebook to open it.
3.7.2 Create a Notebook
1. Click "+ New Notebook" on the Home page or Notebooks page.
2. A dialog appears. Select the notebook size:
- Mini (144 pages)
- Standard (192 pages)
- Large (192 pages)
3. The notebook is created automatically. If it is the first of its size, it becomes your primary notebook. If multiple notebooks of the same size exist without a primary, a selection modal will ask you to choose one.
3.7.3 Set Primary Notebook
Click the star icon on any notebook card to set it as primary. The star turns filled blue with a "Primary" label. You can also open the notebook's settings dialog and click "Set as Primary".
In Settings -> Primary Notebooks, use the dropdown selectors for each size.
See 3.5 for full details on what primary notebooks are and why they matter.
3.7.4 Pin a Notebook
1. Open the notebook settings dialog (click the three-dot menu on a notebook card).
2. Click "Pin Notebook".
The pinned notebook moves to the top of the grid with a blue pin badge and ring. Only one notebook can be pinned at a time.
3.7.5 Browse Pages
Click a notebook to view its pages in a responsive grid (up to 8 columns on wide screens). Each page shows a thumbnail with rendered handwriting strokes and a page number label below.
To export multiple pages, click "Export Pages" to enter selection mode. A selection banner appears with "Select All" / "Deselect All" toggle. Check the pages you want, then click "Export" in the floating action bar at the bottom.
3.7.6 View Page Details (Canvas & Text)
Click a page to open the detail view in a fullscreen canvas layout.
Canvas:
The main area displays your handwriting at full size with the notebook background (if enabled). Navigate between pages with the arrow buttons in the toolbar or keyboard arrow keys (left/right).
Text Panel:
Click the "Aa" icon in the toolbar to slide open the text panel from the right (520px wide). It shows the OCR-extracted digital text of the page. The panel includes:
- Font size controls (+/- buttons, range 12-24px)
- Tab selector for "Text" and "Diagram" (if diagrams exist on the page)
- Word and character count at the bottom
- "Edited by user" indicator if the text has been manually modified
Press Escape to close the text panel.
Toolbar:
The top-right toolbar (white, blurred background, rounded) provides quick access to:
- Page Navigation (Arrows + number) : Navigate between pages (previous/next, current page display).
- Digital Text (Aa icon) : Toggle the OCR text panel on/off.
- Tags (Label icon) : Open the Page Tag Manager (see 3.15.6).
- Background (Lines icon) : Toggle notebook background lines on/off.
- Chat (Message icon) : Open AI Chat with this page as context (see 3.10).
- Export (Download icon) : Quick export the current page.
- Share (Share icon) : Create a shareable link for this page (see 3.16.1).
- Folder (Folder+ icon) : Add this page to a folder (see 3.15.4).
- Pen Color (Palette icon) : Change the display color of your handwriting. Opens your device's native color picker; the dot on the icon shows the current color.
- Presentation Mode : Click the screen icon in the toolbar to open the current page in a distraction-free, full-screen view for presenting. Move between pages with the on-screen arrows or the left/right arrow keys, and press Esc to exit.A floating control bar provides the essentials while presenting: Pen Color, Digital Text, Toggle lines, and Export. The current page number is shown so your audience can follow along.
Top-left shows a back button and the notebook title with last edited time.
Canvas drawing: Drawing on the canvas is available only via the connected XNote Pen.
3.7.7 Edit Page Content
Edit Text:
1. Open the text panel (click "Aa").
2. Click "Edit" in the panel header.
3. Modify the text in the textarea. Word and character counts update in real-time.
4. Click "Save" to apply changes, or "Cancel" to discard. An unsaved changes indicator (red dot) appears while editing.
If the page contains diagrams, a "Diagram" tab appears next to the "Text" tab in edit mode, allowing you to edit diagram labels without changing the diagram structure.
Canvas: Drawing on the canvas is available only via the connected XNote Pen mouse/touch drawing is not supported on web.
Note: Editing the text does not change your handwriting on the canvas it only modifies the digital text representation used for search, export, and AI features.
3.7.8 Delete a Notebook / Page
Delete a Notebook:
1. Open the notebook settings dialog (click the three-dot menu on a notebook card).
2. Click the trash icon in the top-right of the dialog.
3. Confirm in the dialog: "Are you sure you want to delete '[notebook title]'? This action cannot be undone."
If you delete a primary notebook, XNote will automatically assign another notebook of the same size as primary.
Delete a Page: Individual page deletion is not available on web. Pages are removed when their notebook is deleted.