Interface Overview

Application Menu

The Application Menu is the single menu for the whole app — there is no traditional menu bar. It groups the same File, Edit, View, and Help commands a menu bar would, behind one icon.

To open the Application Menu:

Click the menu icon at the top of the icon rail (the leftmost, vertical strip of icons on the far left of the window).
Click a group name — File, Plugins (only shown when plugins add global menu items), Edit, View, or Help — to open its items in a flyout beside it. Hovering a group name for a moment opens it automatically, the same way a native menu bar works.

Most items also have a keyboard shortcut, shown beside the item's label. The tables below give the Windows/Linux form; on macOS, Ctrl is shown and pressed as ⌘ instead (the platform's own convention — Project Notes doesn't need a separate macOS shortcut for these, and the on-screen key always matches whatever your OS actually expects).

File

Item	What it does	Shortcut
New Record	Creates a new record in whatever section is currently active — a project, contact, or company. Same action as the + New button on those pages.	Ctrl+N
Search…	Switches to the Search Page.	Ctrl+K
Export XML…	Exports the record currently open (a project, note, item, contact, or company) to a Project Notes XML file. Only enabled when a record is open — same action as the Export button in the top bar.	Ctrl+Shift+E
Import XML…	Imports records from a Project Notes XML file — see Getting Started.	Ctrl+Shift+I
Export Settings…	Saves your application settings and every plugin's settings in one JSON file. Passwords and the sync encryption phrase are left out. See Backing Up Settings.	—
Import Settings…	Restores settings from a file saved with Export Settings…, on this computer or another one. Restart Project Notes afterward.	—
Preferences	Opens the Settings page.	Ctrl+,
Sync Now	Runs an immediate incremental sync cycle — see Cloud Sync.	—
Sync All	Runs a full re-push and re-pull of the whole database — see Cloud Sync.	—
Exit	Closes Project Notes.	Ctrl+Q

Plugins

When one or more installed plugins add global menu items (ones not tied to a specific record's table), they appear grouped under a Plugins entry, positioned right after File. Plugins that share a submenu name are nested under that name inside Plugins; plugins with no submenu appear as plain rows. If no plugin adds a global menu item, this group is hidden. See JavaScript Plugins for how plugins register menu entries.

When a record with its own plugin menus is open (for example a project with an Export or Templates submenu), those table-scoped submenus appear as additional groups at the end of the menu, alongside File/Plugins/Edit/View/Help — see Plugin Settings.

Edit

Item	What it does	Shortcut
Find	Switches to the Search Page. Same destination as File > Search…, so it shares its shortcut.	Ctrl+K
Filter Data…	Opens the Filter Tool for whatever list is currently active.	Ctrl+Shift+F

View

Item	What it does	Shortcut
Dark Mode	Toggles between light and dark theme. Shows a check mark when dark mode is on. The same three-way choice (System, Light, Dark) is also available from Settings > Preferences > Appearance — see Preferences.	—
Show Internal / Budget Items	Shows or hides notes and tracker items marked Internal, and the earned value/budget figures on the Project List Page and Project Page. See Presenting to Companies for a typical use of this toggle.	—
Show Closed Projects	Shows or hides projects whose Project Status is Closed on the Project List Page.	—
Show Resolved Items	Shows or hides tracker items whose Status is Resolved on the Item Tracker Page.	—
Show Project Folders	Shows or hides the project sidebar beside the icon rail — see Project Folders. The panel button near the bottom of the icon rail does the same thing.	—
Zoom controls	A single row with −, the current zoom percentage, and + to step UI Zoom in and out, plus a fullscreen toggle.	See UI Zoom
Log Viewer	Opens the Log Viewer window — see Error Log.	—

Each toggle in this group shows a live check mark reflecting its current state, and takes effect immediately — there is no separate Apply or OK step.

Help

Item	What it does	Shortcut
User Guide	Opens this User Guide to the topic for whatever section you're currently viewing.	F1
Check for Updates…	Checks GitLab for a newer release and always reports the result, even when you're already up to date.	—
Send Logs to Support…	Packages your log files and opens an email addressed to support — see Error Log.	—
About	Opens the About section of Settings, with the current version and links to documentation, release notes, and source code.	—

Preferences — the Settings page opened from File > Preferences
Filter Tool — the filter editor opened from Edit > Filter Data…
Cloud Sync — details on Sync Now and Sync All
UI Zoom — the zoom controls in the View group