User Manual - Whisp

Navigation

Two-finger swipe left or right on your touchpad to smoothly transition between notes.
Alternatively, click on the edges of the window or use the scroll wheel to navigate.

Swipe Left or Ctrl + [ Go to previous note

Swipe Right or Ctrl + ] Go to next note

Creating Notes

Swiping past the latest (right-most) note will automatically spawn a fresh, blank note.
You can also explicitly create a new note at any time using a keyboard shortcut.

Ctrl + N Create new note

Deleting Notes

Deleting a note removes it from the main view and moves it to a hidden .trash directory.
If you accidentally delete a note, you can instantly undo it.

Ctrl + Delete Delete current note

Ctrl + Shift + T Undo last deletion

Search

Instantly search through all your notes. Clicking a search result immediately jumps you to that note.

Ctrl + F Open global search

Markdown Formatting

Whisp supports standard Markdown for fast formatting, but powers it up with smart keyboard toggles.
Highlight text and press a shortcut to wrap it. Press it again to unwrap it.

Ctrl + B Toggle **bold**

Ctrl + I Toggle *italic*

Ctrl + U Toggle _underline_

WYSIWYG Mode

Tired of looking at Markdown syntax? Toggle the live formatting view (the eye icon).
All markdown symbols dynamically disappear when your cursor leaves the line, leaving behind beautiful rich text.

Ctrl + E Toggle WYSIWYG Mode

Slate Mode

Turn Whisp into the ultimate distraction-free writing environment.
Slate mode hides the navigation bar, carousel borders, and controls to give you an ultra-minimalist plain-text canvas.

Alt + S Toggle Slate Mode

Smart Lists

Type list or list: Custom Title at the top of your note to activate List Mode.
Pressing Enter will automatically spawn a new ☐ checkbox on the next line.
Smart Overwrite: Type # on an empty checkbox to instantly turn it into a heading.
Comments: Type // at the start of a list item to visually fade it out as a comment.

Tab Indent list item

Shift + Tab Outdent list item

Checkboxes

Whisp uses native unicode checkboxes (☐ and ☑) to keep your lists minimal and portable.
Use the shortcut anywhere on a line to instantly insert or toggle a checkbox.

Ctrl + S Insert / Toggle checkbox

Smart Paste (OCR)

Paste any image or screenshot directly into the editor using Ctrl + V to automatically extract its text.
Whisp runs local, offline OCR in the background and inserts the recognized text at your cursor while preserving original line indentation and code structure.

Ctrl + V Paste image from clipboard

Smart Paste (URL)

Dropping massive tracking URLs ruins the visual flow of a note.
Use the Smart Paste shortcut when pasting a long URL. Whisp will analyze it locally, generate a clean, short visual label, and format it securely in Markdown.
Turn on WYSIWYG Mode and the ugly Markdown syntax dynamically vanishes, leaving only the tiny link!
100% offline and privacy-respecting. No external APIs used.

Ctrl + Shift + L Smart URL Paste

Plain Text Paste

Pasting text from the web often brings along unwanted markdown syntax.
Use Plain Paste to aggressively strip all markdown symbols (headers, bold, italics, links, lists) before dropping the raw text into your note.

Ctrl + Shift + V Plain text paste

Date & Time Expansions

Whisp includes a smart text expansion engine. Type a command starting with a colon (::) and hit Enter or Space to instantly expand it.

::today insert

Inserts the current date

Also available as: ::date

::tomorrow insert

Inserts tomorrow's date

Example: ::tomorrow

::yesterday insert

Inserts yesterday's date

Example: ::yesterday

::today(n) insert

Inserts a date with a specific offset in days

Example: ::today(5) inserts the date 5 days from now

::now insert

Inserts the current local time

Also available as: ::time

Random & Fun Generators

Need a quick random string, a password, or a fun classic kaomoji? Use the built-in offline generator functions.

::roll(20) insert

Rolls a die with the specified number of sides

Also available as: ::roll(d20)

::roll(4d6) insert

Rolls multiple dice and automatically inserts their sum

Example: ::roll(4d6) rolls four 6-sided dice

::random(str, n) insert

Generates a random alphabetical string of length n

Example: ::random(str, 20)

::random(int, n) insert

Generates an n-digit random number

Example: ::random(int, 10)

::random(alnum, n) insert

Generates a secure n-character alphanumeric string

Example: ::random(alnum, 16)

::password insert

Generates a secure 16-character password with special characters

Example: ::password

::uuid insert

Generates a standard developer UUID string

Example: ::uuid

::random_quote insert

Insert a random inspirational quote about programming and design

Example: ::random_quote

::random_wiki openURL

Open a random Wikipedia page instantly in your web browser

Example: ::random_wiki

::magic8ball insert

Ask Whisp a question and get a random classic Magic 8-Ball response

Example: ::magic8ball

::lorem insert

Insert a standard Lorem Ipsum placeholder paragraph

Example: ::lorem

Tip: You don't need to memorize these! A smart autocomplete dropdown appears when you type ::.

List & Data Commands

Instantly format and organize lists and data without touching the mouse.

::sort_lines_alpha replaceAll

Sorts all lines alphabetically

::sort_lines_number replaceAll

Sorts all lines numerically based on leading numbers

::remove_lines_empty replaceAll

Removes all empty lines from the document

::dedupe_lines replaceAll

Removes duplicate lines while preserving order

::checked_to_bottom replaceAll

Moves all completed [x] tasks to the bottom of the document

::remove_checked replaceAll

Deletes all completed [x] tasks from the document

::lines_to_commas replaceAll

Converts a vertical list into a single comma-separated line

::commas_to_list replaceAll

Splits a comma-separated line into a vertical list

::keep_lines_with(text) replaceAll

Deletes all lines that do not contain the specified text

Example: ::keep_lines_with([ERROR])

::remove_lines_with(text) replaceAll

Deletes all lines that contain the specified text

Example: ::remove_lines_with(TODO)

Text Commands

Transform the entire document's text with various formatting options.

::replace replaceAll

Find and replace text throughout the document

Example: ::replace(old, new)

::append replaceAll

Add text to the end of every line in the document

Example: ::append(;) adds semicolon to each line

::prepend replaceAll

Add text to the beginning of every line in the document

Example: ::prepend(- ) adds dash bullet to each line

::uppercase replaceAll

Convert entire document to UPPERCASE

Example: ::uppercase

::lowercase replaceAll

Convert entire document to lowercase

Example: ::lowercase

::sentence_case replaceAll

Convert document to Sentence case

Example: ::sentence_case

::title_case replaceAll

Convert Document To Title Case

Example: ::title_case

::capitalize_first replaceAll

Capitalize the first letter of the document

Example: ::capitalize_first

::remove_quotes replaceAll

Strip surrounding quotes from the entire document

Example: ::remove_quotes

Paper Themes

Customize the aesthetic of your notes by opening Preferences.
Whisp supports three minimalist native backgrounds: Blank, Dotted, and Grid.

Dark Mode

Whisp is built natively for GNOME and will automatically adapt its UI, editor, and paper themes to match your system's global Dark Mode setting.
The dotted and grid backgrounds dynamically invert to maintain high contrast and readability.

Typography

You have complete control over the editor font through the Preferences menu.
Adjust the Line Spacing (1.0 to 2.0) to give your text more breathing room.

Ctrl + , Open Preferences