Get started with Aside — Setup and features
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Welcome to Aside

Start with one thought.

Begin the free trial or activate your copy, learn the three moves that matter, then see how a thought travels through Aside.

Your first five minutes

Make it feel like home.

Start with one thought. The defaults take care of everything else.

  1. 01

    Choose how you start

    Choose Start writing for the complete 14-day trial, or Enter license key… if you already bought Aside.

  2. 02

    Open Aside from anywhere

    Press ⌥Space over any app. Press it again, or Esc, when the thought is captured.

    Configure this shortcut in Settings
  3. 03

    Start fresh without filing

    Press ⌘N for a blank page. The previous page stays safe and close by.

    Change this shortcut in Settings

Follow a thought through Aside

Capture it. Shape it. Move on.

Aside stays with the thought from the moment it arrives to the Markdown file that keeps it safe.

01 · Capture

Catch the thought without changing context.

Open the panel over any app, or clean and append copied text without leaving what you’re doing.

02 · Shape

Write Markdown that stays readable.

Headings, tasks, links, and fenced code are styled live. Code blocks understand indentation, pairs, and line breaks.

03 · Keep momentum

Let the editor keep up with you.

Lists continue, delimiters close themselves, and formatting catches up without interrupting the thought.

04 · Move on

Start fresh without deciding where to file.

Press ⌘N. The current page is kept and a blank one opens.

05 · Return

Bring a recent page back.

Cycle through the pages still in your quick list and continue where you stopped.

Previous / next⌃Tab

06 · Clear the space

Archive a finished page, or let Aside do it later.

Move a page out of the quick list immediately, or choose when inactive pages should move aside automatically.

07 · Keep the result

Every thought is already a Markdown file.

Each page gets a stable creation-time filename. Choose any folder to bridge Aside with iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Git, or an Obsidian vault.

Once it feels familiar

Make the space respond like your Mac.

Discover shortcuts in context, then tune only the parts you want to change.

Learn as you go

Hold Command to see what is available.

Pause on Command and Aside reveals the actions you can use right now, including new page, archive, find, and settings.

Appearance

Use System, Light, or Dark.

Choose the appearance that fits your workspace in Settings.

Panel size

Resize the panel with shortcuts.

Resize the panel with your keyboard to make room, or resize it freeform with the mouse.

Text size

Adjust text size with shortcuts.

Decrease, increase, or reset text size with your keyboard.

Everything included

Simple at first.Capable when you need it.

Capture

  • Custom global show/hide shortcut
  • Clean and append clipboard text
  • Launch automatically at login

Write

  • Live Markdown formatting
  • Markdown-aware fenced code editing
  • Syntax-highlighted code blocks
  • Automatic list and task continuation
  • Auto-closing quotes, brackets, and braces
  • Tabs, 2-space, or 4-space code indentation
  • Adjustable text and panel sizes
  • System, light, and dark appearance

Stay clear

  • Start fresh with ⌘N
  • Cycle between current pages
  • Archive the current page with ⇧⌘A
  • Archive after a day, week, month, or never
  • Hold Command to reveal available actions

Keep control

  • One Markdown file per page
  • Stable creation-time filenames
  • Choose any folder on your Mac
  • Works with iCloud, Dropbox, Git, and Obsidian
  • Reveal the current page or library in Finder
  • Read external file edits on next launch

That’s all you need

Open Aside and catch the next thought.

The rest reveals itself as you need it.