Settings

To change how Notes works for you, choose the gear icon (Settings) at the right of the top bar. The Settings dialog has four tabs: General, Canvas, Defaults and Account.

Changes on General, Canvas and Defaults show on the board as you make them, but Notes keeps them only when you choose Save changes. Until then the dialog says Unsaved changes, and Cancel puts your saved settings back.

These settings belong to your account, not to a board. They apply on every board you open, personal or project, and in the sketch editor, and they don't change what anyone else sees. The exception is This board on the Canvas tab, which saves straight away and changes the open board for everyone. The Account tab has no Save button: each action there happens as soon as you choose it.

In a live session, the dialog has Done instead of Save changes, and nothing you change there is saved.

The General tab in Settings starts with two counts for the open board, its Nodes and its Connections. Your editing and interface options follow.

• Double-click to insert: double-click an empty part of the board to add a note there. Off by default.
• Snap to grid: nodes line up with the board's grid while you drag them. Off by default. The grid's spacing is Grid size on the Canvas tab.
• Default drag tool: what dragging across an empty part of the board does. Select (the default) draws a box that selects nodes, and Hand moves the board. On a touch screen or in a narrow window, dragging always moves the board.
• Box selection: Touch (the default) selects every node the box touches, and Inside selects only the nodes fully inside it.
• Scroll wheel: Pan (the default) moves the board when you scroll, and Zoom zooms it.
• Show clock: shows the current time in the top bar. On by default.
• Clock animation: a shimmer on that clock. On by default, and available only while Show clock is on.

To put every option on the General, Canvas and Defaults tabs back to how Notes starts, open Settings → General, choose Reset under Restore defaults, then choose Save changes. Until you save, Cancel undoes the reset.

The reset includes your toolbar, which goes back to its starting set of tools. It doesn't change any board's own background, pattern or theme. To clear those for the open board, use Reset board on the Canvas tab.

To change the background of the open board, open Settings → Canvas and use This board. Each change applies straight away and is saved with the board, so everyone who opens it sees it, and there's nothing to save. Only people who can edit the board can change it; anyone else sees "Only editors can change this board's look." If a change can't be saved, Notes says Couldn't save the board background.

Background is what sits behind your nodes:

• None (the default): the board and its pattern only.
• Color: pick a swatch or enter a color of your own.
• Gradient: Dusk, Ocean, Meadow, Peach, Graphite, Paper, Sunset, Mint or Mesh. Custom takes your own From and To colors, a Linear or Radial shape and, for a linear gradient, an Angle.
• Image: one of six photos, an image you upload (up to 12 MB) or an image URL you paste. Notes shrinks an uploaded image to at most 2,560 pixels on its longest side. Fit is Cover, Contain or Tile, and Move with the board makes the image pan and zoom with your nodes.
• Video: a video you upload (up to 25 MB), a YouTube link, or an .mp4 or .webm URL. It plays muted on a loop, pauses while its tab is in the background, and stays still when your device asks for reduced motion.
• Live: an animated backdrop, Aurora, Drift or Grain.

Images and videos also have Blur, from 0 to 20 px, and Dim for readability, up to 85%, to keep nodes easy to read on top of them.

This board appears only on a board. The sketch editor and live sessions don't have it.

Pattern, under This board on the Settings → Canvas tab, is the grid drawn over the board's background. Like the background, it saves straight away for everyone. Default (where boards start) follows each person's own Default pattern from All boards, while Dots, Lines, Cross and None set one pattern for everyone.

While the board shows a pattern, you can also set its Colour, its Opacity from 10% to 100%, its Dot size, Line width or Cross size from 1 to 8, and its Spacing from 8 to 96 px. Until you set a spacing, it follows each person's Grid size, and Use grid size goes back to that. Major grid line draws a heavier line every 4, 5, 8 or 10 cells, or none with Off.

Canvas theme forces the board light or dark whatever theme the app uses. App (the default) follows the app, and Light and Dark fix it for everyone.

To clear the board's background, pattern and theme in one go, choose Reset board beside This board. It happens straight away, without asking.

All boards, on the Settings → Canvas tab, sets how every board looks and moves for you. Like the other tabs, it's kept when you choose Save changes, and it changes only your own view.

• Default pattern: Dots (the default), Lines, Cross or None, used by boards whose own pattern is Default.
• Grid size: S (the default), M or L, which are 15, 30 and 45 px. It sets the spacing of the pattern and of Snap to grid.
• Show minimap: a small map of the whole board in a corner, which you can drag and zoom. Off by default.
• Minimap position: bottom right (the default), top right or top left.
• Max zoom: how far you can zoom in, 2× (the default), 4× or 8×.
• Fit to content on open: when a board opens, show every node instead of restoring the last view. Off by default.

To set how new connections look, open Settings → Defaults and expand Connections. A preview at the top shows the result as you go. The style applies to connections you draw after you save. Existing connections keep their style, and you change one of them in its Edge Settings panel, as Boards describes.

• Color: the line's color.
• Thickness: Thin, Medium (the default) or Thick.
• Path: Curve (the default), Straight, Step, Rounded or Bezier.
• Line style: Solid (the default), Dashed, Dotted or Long.
• End arrow and Start arrow: None, Arrow, Open, Circle, Diamond or Bar. New connections start with an Arrow at the end and None at the start.
• Animation: motion along the line. None (the default), dash for a flowing dash, or dot for a travelling dot.
• Hand-drawn: sketchy strokes that match your drawings. Off by default.

Node style, under Settings → Defaults, sets how every node looks on your screen, including the nodes already on a board. It's your own choice: everyone else sees nodes in the style they picked. Each tile shows a preview.

• Classic (the default): flat square cards
• Soft: rounded, bordered, light shadow
• Outline: hollow wireframe boxes
• Sketch: hand-drawn edges and lettering
• Sticky: paper sticky notes
• Brutalist: heavy borders, hard shadow
• Elevated: borderless floating cards
• Glass: frosted, translucent panels
• Bubble: extra-round, friendly cards
• Accent: thin border, bold left stripe
• Neon: glowing cyan outlines
• Blueprint: dashed lines on drafting blue
• Terminal: green monospace on black

To choose which tools your toolbar shows, open Settings → Defaults, expand Toolbar, choose a tool to show or hide it, then choose Save changes. The count at the top says how many of the 31 tools are visible, and Show all turns every one of them on.

A tool you hide isn't gone. It moves to More tools, the ⋯ button in the toolbar, where you can still drag it onto a board. Your toolbar starts with 16 tools, and these start under More tools: Embed, Media, Code, Timer, Poll, Progress, Chart, Person, Palette, Mind map, Mermaid diagram, Formula, AI assistant, Mirror and Huddle.

Your toolbar choice is part of your settings, so it follows you to every board and changes only your own toolbar.

The Account tab, in Settings, shows your name, your email address and the date you joined, after Member since. Each action here happens as soon as you choose it.

• To change your name, hover over it and choose the pencil (Edit name). Type up to 60 characters, then press Enter or choose the check mark. Esc cancels.
• Password: Reset emails you a link to set a new password.
• Support: Contact starts an email to Geiger support, for questions about billing or your plan.
• Sign out signs you out and takes you to the Notes home page.