To create a new note, simply run "note". You can enter the note (the length is by default limited to 4096 bytes, which you can change from your config file if you are using the binary backend, therwise there is no limitation). End by typing a . on a line itself. note will tell you the number of the note.

If you want to view the note, type "note 1", if the notenumber was 1.

If you want to get an overview of all notes, type "note -l". You will get a list of all notes, containing the number, the first line and the creation date. If topic-support is turned on (which is by default), then all subtopics under the current topic will be displayed first.
If you want to get a listing of all If you want to see the timestamps, use "-L" instead of "-l". Read more about topics below in the section "Topics". You can also specify the topic which notes you want to see: "-l mytopic" does the trick.
Additional, you might want to get an overview of your topic- strcture. You can use the command "-t" in this case, which will display a tree-view of your tpic-structure. You can use the command "-T" if you want to see the notes under each topic too. "-T" will also show the number of each note.

To edit a certain note, type "note -e 1". It will invoke your editor (vi or pico). You can edit it, after saving, note will store the changed note to the database.

Of course you can drop a certain note: "note -d 1" deletes note number 1. If a note in the middle or the beginning of the database will be deleted, note will recount the other existent notes. For example there are 3 notes, number 1, 2 and 3. If you delete number 2, then number 3 will become number 2.
You can also make use of the extended delete-syntax: To delete note 1 and 2, use "-d 1,2" To delete note 1,2 and 3, use "-d 1-3".

If you cannot remember, which note you are looking for, you can use the search capability of note: "note -s ". note will search the whole note database case insensitive for an occurence of this string and tell you the number and first- line it have.

Instead of using note from the commandline you can use the interactive mode. Run note with "note -i". If you need assistance type "?" or "h" at the ">" prompt. The interactive mode provides you the most functions of note.

You can also dump the contents of your note-database into a ASCII-textfile(-D). You can use this file later to import it into your note-database(-I). This is usefull, if you want quickly trans- fer your notes from one host to another (i.e. you could mail your note-dump form your office to home and import it there for further use).
The dumps from the two versions of note are in the same format. Using dumps it is also possible to reinitialize your database. You can use the "-o" switch whcih causes note to overwrite your existing database. This is very handy if you changed heavily your config. And it is required, if you changed: encryption, db-driver, (binary-format) and the password. You can use the following command for reinitializing:
$ note -D - | note -o -I -
What the hell, does it?! Step by step:

• "note -D -" creates a note-database dump and prints it out to stantdard output.
• "|" this is the shell's pipe command. It takes the output of the left program and gives it to the right program as standard input.
• "note -o -I -" imports a note-database dump from standard input and overwrites an existing database.

If you are in interactive mode, you can "cd" to a different note simply by typing it's name at the command-prompt, or you can use the well-known syntax "cd topic".
The list-command will only show you notes under this topic. If you create a new note, it will automagically inserted under the current topic (note will prepend the string "/topicname/" to the text of your note).

You can create at any time from any point a new topic. Just create a new note and type the name of the new topic bordered by slashes (or TopicSeparator) at the first line of this note. After saving, there will be available a new topic with one note in it.

You can create as many subtopics as you like, the format is similar to a filesystem-path. An example, say, you want to create such a structure:

        
        (root - top level)
        |
        |----test
        |      |----subtopic
        |      |       |--note 1
        |      |       |--note 2
        |      |
        |      |--note 4  
        |
        |--note 3

Then you may create those 4 new notes:

        --- snip ---
        /test/subtopic/
        note 1
        --- snip ---
        /test/subtopic/
        note 2
        --- snip ---
        note 3
        --- snip ---
        /test/
        note 4
        --- snip ---             

If a note does not contain the "magic" /topic/ construction on the first line, it will be listed under the "root" of note, that is the point you are at the startup of note.

You can subsequently move a note without a topic to a certain topic. Simply edit it and insert at the first line the above mentioned construction.

Note: Please don't forget the prepending and appending a slash of a topic. You will get strange results without it!

The following colors are available: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.

Beside colorizing text, you can also create bold or underlined text! If you decide to use this (additional) feature, you need to set the Config-Option "FormatNotes" to 1 which turns it on.
Usage is very straightforward, if a word (a word is defined as some text with at least one space surrounded) is between a magic mark-character. Here are the available things, you can do:

                bold:           **word**
                underlined:     __word__
                inverse:        {{word}}

Here are the possibilies you have:

You can add a new note through a pipe, another commands output becomes note's input:
$ cat /var/spool/news/daily | note -
This command adds the content of a file "daily" as a new note. Note the dash. it stands for "Standard Input". Note will be completely silent and it will not ask for something.

Suppose you are using encryption. You might wonder, how note will get your passphrase? The solution: You need to set up an environment variable which contains the password:
$ export NOTE_PASSWD=secret
If the variable is present, note will not ask you for a passphrase!

Another thingy you might find useful is the -r (--raw) command-line flag. This turns note into raw mode , which means it will only print the data without any formatting. Raw mode is available for list and display, since it makes no sense, interactive mode doe not support raw mode.

• Number: Integer (1 byte)
• Note: String (default 1024 bytes)
• Time: String (default 64 bytes)

        +--------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
        | Field  | Type    | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
        +--------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
        | number | int(10) |      | PRI | 0       | auto_increment |
        | note   | text    | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
        | date   | text    | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
        +--------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

        
        --- snip ---
        Number: 1
        Timestamp: 14.01.2000 00:25:01
        This is a sample text
        in a sample note.

        Number: 2
        Timestamp: 14.01.2000 02:37:40
        And this is another sample
        of a note.
        --- snip ---

You can reimport a dump into your note-database with "note -I " Existing notes will not overwritten, note will append the imported data to your note-database.

If you are using notes proprietary binary driver, then the permission 0600 of the file "~/.notedb" is strongly required!

Additional, you can turn on encryption from the config file. Simply set UseEncryption to 1. Please note, that you need to decide, if you want to use encryption before the first use of note! If have already a note database and want to "migrate" to encryption, I suggest you to follow the directions in the file UPGRADE!

You can choose from different encryption algorythms. The default is IDEA, but DES or BLOWFISH is also possible. You need to have installed the following additional perl-modules on your system:

• MD5
• Crypt::IDEA
• Crypt::DES
• Crypt::CBC

Once note have encrypted some data using this passphrase, you cannot simply switch to another passphrase, because all data within the database needs to be encrypted using the same passphrase! If you want to change the passphrase for any reason, please read the file UPGRADE and follow it's directions!
Someday I will add a "change passwd" function, which will do all these things for you. Someday, I said... For now you can use the "re-initialze database" functionality, mentioned earlier in the "Usage" section (at the end of the section).

Note: To make sure, the encrypted data can be stored properly, it will be uuencoded after encryption.

Note: *If* you forgot your passphrase and *if* you don't have a backup of your database without encryption, PLEASE don't bother me with "helpme" emails! If you don't know the phrase, then the data can't be decrypted. Even if it is possible - I am not responsible for that!

Note: How does note know, if the passphrase was incorrect? It uses the specified phrase and encodes at least one note (the first one) and checks if the decrypted timestamp field matches the following expression: "^\d+\.\d+". Translated from perl to human: the timestamp must begin with minimum one digit (possibly more), followed by one dot, followed by minimum one digit (possibly more). Chances are bad, that a wrong passphrase will cause a timestamp matching the rule above. If you have other experiences, please drop me a mail!