Quick Start Guide

CintaNotes is a simple application for taking quick notes, which makes it easy to collect, find and store information. In this quick start guide you are going to learn the basics of working with this program.

Collecting notes

CintaNotes is a perfect tool for those who collect numerous pieces of information on a daily basis. With the help of this program you can be sure to keep track of any important data that you find both on- and offline.

Clipping text

CintaNotes allows you to save quotes from any application, that works with the system clipboard. For example, to save a quote from an e-book, simply highlight the text you need and press Ctrl+F12. CintaNotes will automatically create a new note with this text.

Using CintaNotes as a web-clipper

Taking notes manually

Sometimes you need to write down your own thoughts and ideas, for example, create a shopping list. For this, simply hit the Insert button in the main CintaNotes window. The program will display the editor, which is where you can enter the note’s title and text.

Taking notes manually

 

Pasting notes from the clipboard

You can also create notes by pasting text from the clipboard right into the main CintaNotes window (Ctrl+V). In this case CintaNotes automatically determines the source program of the note and uses its name as the note’s title.

Pasting notes from the clipboard

However, clipping notes is preferable, because this way CintaNotes also captures the link to the note’s source. For example, if you clip a note from a web page, the link field will receive the URL of this page.

Capturing the link, when using CintaNotes as a web-clipper

The note’s link can also lead to a file on your computer. You can reopen the note’s source by activating this link.

Capturing links to local files when using CintaNotes as a text-clipper

Editing and formatting notes

You can edit your notes at any time. Simply double-click on any note to enter new data in the displayed window. Here you can also format your text with the basic formatting tools. For this you need to right click on any selected text and choose a formatting command from the “Format” context menu.

Editing and formating notes

 

Attaching files to notes

In CintaNotes you can attach office documents, e-books, audios, videos and other files to your notes. Just open any note, click on the paperclip button at the top right corner of the editor, and select the files you need.Adding file attachments to notes in CintaNotes

Now click Open, and your files will appear in the attachments panel.

Opening file attachments in CintaNotes

You can access them at any time by opening the note and double-clicking on any file.

Opening file attachments from the attachments panel

Taking notes on mobile devices

To clip notes on your mobile devices, you need to sync them with Simplenote. Simplenote is a free cloud service for sharing and synchronizing notes. First, go to simplenote.com to create your Simplenote account.

Signing up for a Simplenote account for notes syncing in CintaNotes

Then open the Synchronization window and log into your Simplenote account.

Syncing notes with Simplenote

 

After this, your notes will be synced.

Simplenote synchronization options in CintaNotes

Now run the Simplenote app on your mobile device. Each time you create a note with Simplenote on your mobile device, it will automatically be synchronized with the notes on your computer. This way, the notes you take on your phone or tablet PC will never be lost.

Taking notes on mobile devices with CintaNotes

Using Simplenote, you can access your notes from the web and on platforms other than Windows, such as Mac, iOS, Android and Kindle. However, Simplenote doesn’t support file attachments. That’s why we offer you 100 Mbs on our own server to sync your files. They’ll be encrypted with your Simplenote password, and no one will be able to access them without this password.

Organizing notes

One advantage of CintaNotes is that it organizes your notes into a crystal clear hierarchy. This allows you to always keep your important data a mere mouse click away.

Notebooks

CintaNotes stores your notes in notebook files. Having multiple notebooks can help you classify your notes by topics.

Organizing your thoughts and ideas with notebooks in CintaNotes

 

To create a new notebook, go to the File menu and select the New command.

Creating new notebooks in CintaNotes

 

This is also where you can open existing notebooks with the Open command.

Opening the already existing notebooks in CintaNotes

 

Sections

You can further improve organization of your notes by using sections. Sections are small tabs in the upper part of the main window, which help you keep notes on different topics apart from each other within one notebook.

Organizing your thoughts and ideas with sections in CintaNotes
To add a new section, simply click on the plus icon on the right.

Creating a new section in CintaNotes

 

After this you can rename your section by right-clicking on it, going to the properties window and specifying a new name.

Editing sections in CintaNotes

Tags

If you want to add even more levels to the classification of your notes, you can use tags. Tags are keywords used to describe and group your notes. They help you quickly find any piece of information you save, even in a long list.

Organizing your thoughts and ideas with tags in CintaNotes
For example, to add a to-do item to your notes list, you need to simply create a new note and type “to-do” into the Tag field.

Adding a new tag in CintaNotes

 

This tag immediately appears in the Tag Sidebar. Clicking on it will display the notes with this tag only.

Finding nots with tags in CintaNotes
Adding several tags to one note is also supported: if you separate tags with spaces, CintaNotes will recognize them as different tags.

Adding several tags to one note in CintaNotes
If you’re not satisfied with the name of a tag, you can rename it at any time by choosing the Rename command from the context menu.

Renaming tags in CintaNotes

Hierarchical tags

One advantage of CintaNotes is that it can organize tags into a tree-like structure. In this structure, tags are bounded by parent/child relationships, where child tags are at the bottom of the hierarchy. Using hierarchical tags, you can add even more levels to your classification.

Organizing your thoughts and ideas in CintaNotes hierarchically
Here is an example of using hierarchical tags for creating a database with software developer vacancies.

Software development vacancies database in CintaNotes

Now with just one click I can view all Liverpool vacancies.

Viewing your notes with tags
You can also display all vacancies from only London and Liverpool. For this. simply select London and then click on Liverpool while holding Shift. This will create a tag union to display any one of the selected tags.

Viewing notes with tags intersection in CintaNotes

Ctrl+Click, on the other hand, creates tag intersection with all of the selected tags. This may come in handy, for example, if you need to see all C++ vacancies in London.

Viewing notes with tags union in CintaNotes

Using Alt+Click you can exclude vacancies from view.

Crossing out unnecessary tags with CintaNotes

Finding notes

CintaNotes makes it really easy to find your notes. Just switch to the program’s main window and start typing anything related to your note. CintaNotes updates the notes list as you type.

Search-as-you-type feature in CintaNotes
Sometimes you want CintaNotes to focus on specific fields of your notes when you search. Click on the magnifying glass icon to choose from a list of available fields.

Searching notes by fields in CintaNotes

Securing notes

Privacy and security are what makes CintaNotes special compared to many other similar solutions. CintaNotes allows you to always stay in control of who can access  your notes.

No forcing into the cloud

CintaNotes values your privacy. That’s why it doesn’t require that you use any cloud drives to store notes. Instead, they reside only on your device. This means you can work away, regardless of your Internet connection.
It’s not even necessary to install CintaNotes! Simply download the portable version, and you’re ready to run it directly from your flash drive. This allows you to always control who can access your notes.

Protecting notebooks with passwords

To keep your notes private, protect your notebooks with passwords. Tick the box right next to this option in the Password Protection menu, and enter your password. From now on, each time you try to access your notes, CintaNotes will ask you to enter your password first.

Securing notes with the password protection feature in CintaNotes
In this menu you can set CintaNotes to either forget, or remember your password. Forgetting passwords is safer, because your password will be stored only in RAM. However, this means that all background processes – such as cloud syncing – will stop when your notebook is locked. Remembering your password will allow background processes to run, but will store the encrypted password on your computer. Here you can also change or remove your password.

Notebooks backup

CintaNotes is a stable application, that minimizes the risk of data loss. However, bugs can happen. But don’t worry – you can always restore backed-up versions of your notes (as long as you don’t suffer a hard-drive crash).

Securing your notes with the CintaNotes backup options
By default, CintaNotes creates a daily and weekly backup copy of your notebook. Normally, this is enough for working safely, however, you can set CintaNotes to create a backup copy every hour.
In case of emergency, you can also back up immediately with the Back up now command.

Learn more about how to work with CintaNotes