Odinote User Guide

Everything you need to master the infinite nested canvas. Last updated: July 2026.

Odinote is a free, open-source visual workspace where your ideas live on an infinite canvas instead of a linear document. This guide walks you through every feature of the app, from your first note to syncing whole projects with Google Drive. It applies to both the Windows desktop app and the web version.

1. First steps: projects and the canvas

When you open Odinote you land on the Home screen, which lists your projects as cards. Click New project, give it a name, pick an icon and a cover color, and you are dropped into an empty canvas.

Pan the canvas by holding Alt and dragging, using the mouse wheel, or dragging with the middle button.
Zoom with Ctrl + mouse wheel, or the zoom controls in the bottom-right corner (20% – 250%).
Create nodes by dragging any tool from the top toolbar onto the canvas, clicking a tool and then drawing the size you want, or right-clicking empty canvas for the quick-create menu.
Change the canvas background with the texture button next to the zoom controls — six tints are available and each page remembers its own.

2. Every node type explained

Nodes are the building blocks of a canvas. Odinote ships with more than fifteen:

Node	What it does
Note	Rich text with per-selection formatting (bold, colors, sizes). Grows as you type.
To-do list	Checklists with per-item state; great for task tracking inside a project.
Document	A long-form text editor that opens in a focused modal — for scripts, chapters or design docs.
Big title	Huge headline text for labeling regions of the canvas.
Image	Drop, paste or pick an image. Supports cropping, captions and aspect-ratio aware resizing.
Audio	Attach audio files with an inline player.
Link	Paste a URL and get a preview card with favicon and metadata.
Color palette	Store color swatches with hex codes — ideal for art direction.
Board	A whole canvas inside a node. Double-click to enter it. Boards nest infinitely.
Column	A vertical list that physically holds other nodes — drag cards in and out.
Table	Spreadsheet-style grid with Excel-like keyboard navigation.
Calendar	Month grid with event cards, useful for planning sprints or content schedules.
Frame	A labeled region that visually groups whatever you place inside it.
Comment	Sticky-style annotations for feedback rounds.
File	Attach PDFs, spreadsheets or documents with inline previews.
Arrow / Line	Connect any two nodes. Curved (Milanote-style) or right-angle (Miro-style) routing.

Tip: the toolbar shows the most-used tools; the More button holds the rest (Calendar, Comment, File, Map). Everything can also be created from the right-click menu.

3. Nested boards: the core idea

What makes Odinote different from linear note apps is recursion. A Board node contains a full canvas, and that canvas can contain more boards. A game project might look like: root canvas → "Art" board → "Characters" board → mood boards per character. Breadcrumbs at the top always show where you are, and clicking any level jumps back. You never lose context and you never run out of space.

4. Connectors that behave like Milanote and Miro

Hover any node and drag the connect handle (the small ring on its right edge) onto another node to draw an arrow.
Curved connectors attach to the nearest point of the target's border, so several arrows from a column's cards arrive at distinct heights — just like Milanote.
Right-angle connectors route orthogonally with rounded corners like Miro. Drag any segment to reroute it; drag a segment pinned to a node to insert a new bend.
Connectors support labels, dashed/dotted styles, custom colors and bidirectional arrowheads.
Cards inside a column can be connected individually — hover the exact card and use its own handle.

5. Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl`+`Z` / `Ctrl`+`Y`	Undo / Redo
`Ctrl`+`C` / `Ctrl`+`X` / `Ctrl`+`V`	Copy / Cut / Paste nodes (works across pages, and pastes external images too)
`Ctrl`+`D`	Duplicate the selected node
`Ctrl`+`A`	Select every node on the page
`/`	Focus the canvas search box
`Delete` / `Backspace`	Delete selection
`Esc`	Deselect / close menus / exit the active tool
`Alt` + drag	Pan the canvas
`Ctrl` + wheel	Zoom at the cursor

Shortcuts can be rebound from Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts.

6. Saving, backups and the local vault

Odinote saves automatically as you work. By default everything lives in your browser/app storage, and you have two more options:

Local vault: the desktop app can bind a project to a folder on your disk. Media is written as real files (a media/ folder), so your data is portable and yours forever.
JSON backup: export your entire workspace as a single JSON file from the Home screen and import it on any other machine — desktop or web.

7. Google Drive sync and collaboration

Odinote deliberately avoids running its own cloud. If you want your workspaces on more than one device, they sync through your own Google Drive:

Sign in with Google (the person icon in the toolbar), open a project and set it to Online. The project is uploaded to a Odinote/<project name> folder in your Drive — canvas data as canvas_state.json, media in a media/ subfolder.
Open Odinote anywhere else with the same Google account and the project appears automatically. The sync button (↻) forces a full push/pull at any moment.
Sync is timestamp-aware: the newest version wins and local edits are never overwritten by an older cloud copy.
Invitations are Google-native: invite a collaborator by their Google email — Odinote shares the project's Drive folder with them and Google sends the invitation email. Removing a collaborator revokes their Drive access too.

Privacy note: your data goes only to your Drive. The project has no server that stores your canvases.

8. Personalization

Dark and light themes, with per-canvas background tints.
Eleven interface languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese.
UI sounds with a volume slider (or mute).
Project icons from Microsoft's Fluent Emoji set, plus custom covers.