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WebF1 Pad

by WebF1
How To

Getting started with WebF1 Pad

Create your first note, open files, use tabs and make yourself at home.

WebF1 Pad opens with a welcome screen the first time. After that, it brings back the notes, chats, mode, live preview and window position you were using when you closed it. This guide walks you through the first ten minutes.

Create and rename a note

  1. Click the + button in the tab strip (or press Ctrl+N) to create a new note.
  2. Save it with Ctrl+S (or File → Save As) to pick a name and location. The tab title follows the file name.
  3. From then on, every keystroke is saved automatically - there is nothing else to press.

Format without learning Markdown first

The toolbar has familiar buttons for bold and italic text, headings, bullet and numbered lists, checklists, tables, links and images. Use those controls as you would in another writing app. The note is stored as Markdown underneath, but learning the syntax is optional.

Open files

  • Use File → Open (Ctrl+O) or drag files from your file manager onto the pad.
  • WebF1 Pad opens .md, .markdown and .txt files, plus popular code files (.rs, .py, .ts, .go, .json, .yaml, .xml, …) as syntax-highlighted tabs.
  • The Open Recent menu remembers what you worked on and cleans up entries whose files have disappeared.
  • File → Delete from Disk… permanently removes the note’s file, after a confirmation.

Use the live preview

  1. View → Preview: Side-by-side shows the finished note next to the editor.
  2. Preview: Off hides it; Preview: Separate Window pops it out on desktop - drag it to a second monitor and it stays in sync.
  3. View → Synchronize Scrolling keeps the editor and preview lined up as you type.
  4. Checkboxes in a rendered task list toggle the underlying markdown, so your todo lists round-trip.

Run any command

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or click the command button in the title bar) to open the Command Palette. Type to filter every action the app can perform - save to cloud, export a PDF, toggle the preview, jump to a settings tab, run a saved prompt - and press Enter. It is the fastest way to reach a feature whose menu you cannot remember.

When a file changes outside the app

If a note you have open is changed somewhere else - another program writing the file, or another device through cloud backup - WebF1 Pad notices within a couple of seconds:

  • A note with no unsaved changes is refreshed in place, and a short message points the change out.
  • A note with unsaved edits is left untouched and offers Reload, so you decide when to take the other version.
  • A tab whose file disappeared is flagged as deleted.

Protect your work

  • Autosave is on by default: saved notes write back silently, while unsaved notes are kept in the restored app session and in crash-recovery copies.
  • After an interruption, reopening WebF1 Pad can offer the latest recovery copy of an unsaved note.

Where your data lives

Unsaved notes, chats, crash-recovery copies and the Open Recent list live in the app’s data directory. Settings → Storage shows the current location, and its Browse… button moves everything to a folder of your choosing; the move is atomic from the app’s point of view, so open tabs and chats stay intact. The small settings.json pointer always stays in the OS config directory so the app can find that folder on the next launch.

Make it yours

Settings (gear icon, or View → Settings) cover themes and accent colors, spell check, autosave, font zoom, storage location, encryption, cloud backup, AI connections and advanced agent connections.

Where to go next