First Steps¶
Once you have installed Zettlr and started the app, it will provide you with a quick setup guide. This setup guide allows you to quickly adjust the most important settings very quickly with a few clicks. We highly recommend you carefully move through this dialog to ensure that when you are done, Zettlr looks and feels as you wish. In addition, this setup guide will highlight a few central features the app offers you.
You can also choose to skip this setup wizard and change any setting later after the fact.
Note
You can't make any mistake here. This setup guide simply changes preference settings that you can change later on in the preferences dialog yourself, if you are dissatisfied with some of your choices in the setup guide.
A First Glance at Zettlr¶
Once you have completed the setup wizard, Zettlr’s main window will show. The interface is divided into three major sections.
- Front and center is the editor area where you can read and edit your files. As you can see, Zettlr supports split-view. To demonstrate this feature, the app has opened a small tutorial document to the left, and two documents with some helpful information to the right.
- To the left, you can see Zettlr’s file manager. The file manager is where you can view, search, and manage all your documents, workspaces, and any additional files inside of them. Notably, the file manager is only a view over the files already on your computer. All your data stays in human-readable files on your device, and there is no vendor-lock-in.
- Atop of these two sections you can find the toolbar, a quick-access way to many of the primary functions of the app. Most of this functionality can also be triggered via keyboard shortcuts, if you prefer.
Note
There is also a fourth section, a sidebar, to the right. It is not shown by default. You can click the sidebar icon to the right of the toolbar to make it appear. This sidebar includes sections for a table of contents, references, related files, and assets related to whichever file you currently view.
The Importance of Workspaces¶
As a new user, it is important to understand that Zettlr is built around the notion of workspaces. Workspaces are simply folders somewhere on your computer that contain all your Markdown documents. Zettlr’s idea is that you create one or more folders on your computer, and place your Markdown documents that you create in Zettlr within these folders. Then, simply load these folders into Zettlr as workspaces.
Zettlr allows you to open arbitrary files, too, because sometimes you receive a file from a colleague, place it in your Downloads folder, provide feedback on it, send the file back, and then deleting it again. These files will show up under a dedicated “Files” section in the file manager, not as a workspace. These “standalone” or “root” files, as we call them, have fewer features available than workspaces.
Thus, to make the most of Zettlr, we strongly recommend that you designate one or more folders somewhere on your computer as workspaces where you primarily work in. For some inspiration as to what folders you may want to create, the next section explains workspaces in depth.
Warning
We strongly recommend that you regularly back up your workspaces. The simplest method is to use a cloud storage provider (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud), and create the workspaces in there. This way, all your files will be automatically backed up. In addition, you should also back up the files onto an external storage device.
Working Through the Tutorial¶
Before you dive deeper, we recommend you work through the tutorial. First, read the file titled “Welcome to Zettlr,” and follow the instructions therein. At the bottom, you will see a link to a second tutorial document. In total, there are three such documents, and by working through them, you can get some hands on experience with the app.
After you’re done working through the tutorial, come back here, and continue reading the documentation. Click “Next” to move to the workspaces introduction.