Tabs, panes and workspaces
Keep many things open: tabs in up to four panes, and whole layouts of them in workspaces to switch between.
Tabs
Each pane has a row of tabs along its top. A tab can hold a note, a task list, or one of Brink’s other kinds of tabs: Recently Deleted, the New Tab page, and with Brink Pro, folder, calendar, reminders, terminal, shelf, clipboard, tail and plugin tabs.
- New note: ⌘T or ⌘N. New task list: ⇧⌘T.
- Close: ⌘W, the tab’s × button, or a middle-click. Closing a note saves it; it’s still there in Open Note… (⌘O). Closing the only tab left leaves an empty new note.
- Switch: click a tab, or press ⌘1 to ⌘8 for a tab by its place in the focused pane, and ⌘9 for its last tab. ⌃Tab and ⌃⇧Tab (or ⇧⌘] and ⇧⌘[) go through every tab of every pane in turn.
- Reorder: drag a tab along its row. A line shows where it will go.
The “+” menu
The “+” button at the right end of each tab row opens a menu of everything a tab can be. What you choose opens in that pane.
| Item | Opens |
|---|---|
| New Note ⌘T | A new note |
| New Task List ⇧⌘T | A new task list |
| Open Note… ⌘O | A note you pick by name |
| Open Task List… ⇧⌘O | A task list you pick by name |
| Open Folder…Pro | A folder tab |
| New ShelfPro | A shelf tab |
| ClipboardPro | A clipboard tab |
| CalendarPro | A calendar tab |
| RemindersPro | A reminders tab |
| New TerminalPro | A terminal tab |
| Tail File…Pro | A tail tab |
| Your pluginsPro, then Find Plugins… | A plugin’s tab; Find Plugins… opens Settings › Plugins |
| Recently Deleted | Deleted notes and task lists (more) |
| New Pane ⌘D | A new pane, beside this one (below) |
| New Workspace ⌃⌘N | A new workspace (below) |
Without Brink Pro, the Pro items are marked Pro and open a locked tab (see Brink Pro).
The New Tab page
A new pane starts with a New Tab page: a button for each kind of tab, with a letter on it. Click one, press its letter, or move with the arrow keys and press Return. The page turns into that kind of tab, in place.
| Key | Choice | Key | Choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| N | Note | C | CalendarPro |
| L | Task List | R | RemindersPro |
| O | Open Note… | T | TerminalPro |
| P | Open Task List… | A | Tail File…Pro |
| F | Folder…Pro | D | Recently Deleted |
| S | ShelfPro | ||
| V | ClipboardPro |
Each plugin you’ve installed gets a letter too, shown on its button. Without Brink Pro, Pro choices show a lock. If you open a note some other way while the page is showing (⌘O, say), it takes the page’s place. A New Tab page you leave untouched isn’t kept after Brink quits.
A tab’s menu
Right-click (or Control-click) a tab for its menu. What’s in it depends on the kind of tab; every tab’s menu ends with Move to Workspace ›, Close Tab and Close Other Tabs.
| Tab | Its own items |
|---|---|
| Note | Rename…, Duplicate, Show Editor / Show Both / Show Rendered, Move to Trash |
| Task list | Rename…, Duplicate, Copy as Markdown, Move to Trash |
| Folder | Reveal in Finder, Copy Path |
| Shelf | Clear Shelf |
| Clipboard | Clear… |
| Tail | Reveal in Finder, Choose Another File… |
| Plugin | Report Plugin… |
| Calendar, reminders, terminal, Recently Deleted | None |
Close Other Tabs closes every other tab in the workspace, in every pane, asking first if a terminal is running something.
Panes
The panel can show up to four panes: one, two side by side or one above the other, three, or a grid of four. Each pane has its own tabs.
Split by dragging a tab
Drag a tab onto a pane, toward the side where you want the new pane, and drop it anywhere but the pane’s middle. A highlight shows where it will land; the pane splits and the tab moves into the new half. Dropped in the middle of a pane, or on its row of tabs, the tab just moves to that pane.
Splits stay within a 2 × 2 grid (a half can be split the other way, but there’s no third column or row), and each new pane needs room. Where the nearest side can’t split, the nearest one that can does.
New Pane
⌘D, or New Pane in the “+” menu, splits the focused pane to the right (or below, if it’s already beside another) and shows a New Tab page in the new pane. With four panes, or no room for another, Brink beeps.
Move around
- Click a pane, or press ⌥⌘← ⌥⌘→ ⌥⌘↑ ⌥⌘↓ to move to the pane in that direction.
- Move a tab to another pane by dragging it onto that pane’s tab row (where you drop it) or its middle (at the end).
- Drag the divider between panes to resize them. Each divider moves on its own.
Close a pane
While the panel is split, each pane’s tab row has a button to close the pane, or press ⇧⌘W. Its tabs move to the pane beside it; nothing is closed. A pane also goes away when its last tab closes or moves out.
Panes, their tabs and the dividers’ positions all come back after a relaunch.
Workspaces
A workspace is a whole layout of panes and tabs of its own, to switch between: one for a project, one for the day’s notes. Workspaces are free. Settings, the panel’s edge and size, and the text size are shared by all of them.
- New: ⌃⌘N, New Workspace in the “+” menu, or a tab’s menu › Move to Workspace › New Workspace. A new workspace starts with one new note, after the others. You can have up to 9.
- Switch: with more than one workspace, a row of dots shows at the bottom of the panel, the current one filled. Click a dot, press ⌃⌘1 to ⌃⌘9, or ⌃⌘← and ⌃⌘→ for the previous and next. The panel always opens on the workspace you used last.
- Move a tab: its menu › Move to Workspace › lists the other workspaces (Workspace 2 and so on) and New Workspace. Moving a workspace’s last tab away leaves a new note behind.
- Reorder: drag a dot along the row.
- Delete: right-click a dot and choose Delete Workspace 2… (or whichever number it is). Brink asks first, and says if something is running there. Its tabs close, but no notes or files are deleted. It can’t be undone, and the last workspace can’t be deleted.
Workspaces have no names; they go by their place in the row. A note can be open in two workspaces at once: it’s the same note, so an edit in one shows in the other. Opening a note always opens it in the workspace you’re in. Moving a note to the Trash closes it everywhere.
Workspaces you aren’t looking at keep running: a terminal’s command, a tail tab or a plugin’s timer carries on. When you quit, Brink asks about anything busy in any workspace.