Changelog

Owl 1.8.0

2026/03/04

New:

• Markdown shortcuts: format text as you type using Markdown-style shortcuts. For example, type '-' or '*' at the start of a line to create a list, '#' for headings, '**text**' for bold, and more. A complete list of shortcuts and customization options can be found in the new Text Shortcuts tab in app settings.
• Code blocks and inline code formatting options: add code to your notes with a monospaced font and background. Set these formats using the toolbar button, context menu, menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, or Markdown shortcuts.
• Dividers: visually separate sections of a note with dividers. Insert them with the menu bar or context menu action, keyboard shortcut (⌥⌘S), or Markdown shortcut (type '---' at the start of a line).
• Paste and Match Style: this new option in the Edit menu (⇧⌥⌘V) pastes copied text without formatting, matching the style at the insertion point.

Improvements:

• Settings window is now organized into tabs: General and Text Shortcuts.
• Consolidated formatting options inside a 'Format' submenu within the editor context menu.

Owl 1.7.4

2026/02/09

Bug fixes:

• Fixed text copied from Owl not pasting correctly into some apps.

Owl 1.7.3

2026/02/04

Improvements:

• Italic and strikethrough formatting is now maintained when changing text style to heading.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed navigation buttons overlapping with the nav bar title on macOS 15.

Owl 1.7.2

2026/01/14

Improvements:

• Note list changes are now properly animated.

Owl 1.7.1

2025/12/17

New:

• Swipe left or right in the notes list to quickly pin or delete a note.

Improvements:

• Various small UI refinements throughout the app.

Owl 1.7.0

2025/11/26

New:

• Pin notes to the top of a folder with the new pin action in the context menu and menu bar. Pinned notes remain at the top regardless of the sort order.
• Set custom note sorting for individual folders from the notes list header, context menu, or menu bar. Each folder can have its own sort order independent of the global default.
• Choose whether to include subfolder notes for individual folders from the context menu or menu bar. Each folder can override the global default setting.
• Configure default folder settings in the app settings: set the default note sorting and whether to include subfolder notes for folders that don't have custom values.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed note list separator alignment when folder names are shown.

Owl 1.6.1

2025/11/05

Improvements:

• Cloud sync behavior is greatly improved when syncing note content changes, reducing unexpected content merges.

Bug fixes:

• Text editor changes are now properly saved even when a note is moved immediately after editing.

Owl 1.6

2025/10/23

New:

• Navigate back and forward with new toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts: ⌃⌘◁ (back) and ⌃⌘▷ (forward).
• Navigate with keyboard shortcuts to All Notes (⌘1) and Trash (⌘9).
• Note editor scroll position is now restored when reopening a previous note.
• Open a folder with the new context menu by right-clicking the folder name in the toolbar.
• Search for an exact phrase by using double quotes in the search box.

Improvements:

• “Move to” context menu action now shows folders in a hierarchy, with subfolders as submenus.
• Set custom folder icon directly from the folder creation view by clicking on the icon.
• Updated icons for context menu actions on macOS 26.
• New notes are not synced to the cloud until renamed or some content is added, to avoid unnecessary networking traffic.

Owl 1.5

2025/10/10

New:

• iCloud Sync keeps your library synced across devices. This is an opt-in feature currently in beta.
• Deleted notes are moved to a new Trash folder, where they can be recovered from.

Improvements:

• After a new note is created, another new note may be created even if the current one is empty, as long as the title has been edited (even if not committed yet).

Bug fixes:

• Text link editor is no longer presented unfocused in some cases.

Owl 1.4.5

2025/09/16

Improvements:

• Enabled new Liquid Glass UI on macOS 26 (Tahoe).

Owl 1.4.4

2025/09/09

Improvements:

• Improved compatibility with macOS 26 (Tahoe).
• Introduced new keyboard shortcuts for switching focus between the notes list and the note editor:
  • Press return to start editing a note selected in the list.
  • Press ⌘ + return to return focus to the list.

Owl 1.4.3

2025/03/26

Improvements:

• Refined copy-paste behavior of indented list items.
• Notes list updates note date texts automatically as needed when the day changes.
• Images at the beginning of a note no longer have a selection ring drawn before the note editor is focused.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed folder picker layout for libraries with folders that have very long names.
• Search results now update ordering as needed when notes within them are edited.
• Editing a link twice no longer pre-fills the link editor with the original URL.
• Adding a link excludes leading and trailing whitespace.

Owl 1.4.2

2025/01/16

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue with note auto-saving, where changes wouldn’t get persisted when editing a note after closing and reopening the app window until the note selection was changed, on some OS versions.

Owl 1.4.1

2024/12/26

New:

• A note’s containing folder is always displayed when listing notes from multiple folders. The menu bar option to show or hide the containing folder has been removed.
• Added a ‘Library’ action to the Dock context menu.

Improvements:

• Note editor search starts with the current global search text if none other is available from previous searches.
• Reduced the intensity of the focus ring for selected images in light mode.
• Cutting a whole checklist item now removes the checklist marker from that line.
• Fixed controls alignment in the New Folder dialog when folders in the Library have long names.
• Adjusted dialog buttons to be wider and have consistent width.
• Changing text format to list now maintains the current indentation level.

Bug fixes:

• Link panel no longer reappears at a later point after being dismissed on some OS versions.
• Selected image focus ring is no longer clipped for images at the top of the note.
• Pasting text works properly now when copying from PDFs with a certain formatting.
• 'Show In Finder' context menu option no longer hidden when an image is selected.
• ‘Library’ menu bar action now works reliably.
• Fixed minor Markdown parsing issues.

Owl 1.4

2024/11/27

New:

• Search results are highlighted in the notes list and in the note editor.
• Note editor uses incremental search.
• Search in all notes matches words independently rather than exact phrases.
• Search in the selected note with ⌘F.
• Search in all notes with ⇧⌘F.
• Menu bar Find actions allow to start a note search (⌘F), jump to the next (⌘G) and previous result (⇧⌘G).
• Added option in Settings to use a light background in the note editor even when on dark mode.

Improvements:

• Loading indicator is displayed for long search operations.
• Note editor search bar is displayed at the top of the editor.
• Note renames, moves, and deletions, are reflected in the search results.
• Previous note selection is restored when exiting a search, unless selection changed by the user during search.
• Search results are now sorted by modification date.
• Note editor scrolls to make search result matches visible.

Bug fixes:

• Selection is updated when going from no search results to some search results.
• Hitting spacebar when an image is selected opens QuickLook.
• Undo pasting text on the last line no longer results in a wrong text style applied in some cases.
• Disabled AI writing tools until we add proper support.

Owl 1.3

2024/10/25

Improvements:

• Checklists: use the new toolbar button, context menu, menu bar, or the keyboard shortcut (⇧⌘L) to create a checklist, then check off items as you complete them.

Bug fixes:

• Pasting text copied from another app properly formats the last list line if not ended in a line break.

Owl 1.2

2024/10/11

Improvements:

• Added Link toolbar button.
• Added Emoji toolbar button.
• Added support for standard spell-checking and text substitution options.
• Added tooltips for all buttons.
• Added Contact Support option to the Help menu.
• Limit sidebar and notes list column width so toolbar buttons can't be hidden.
• Copy-pasting refinements related to empty list items and trailing line breaks.

Bug fixes:

• Unsaved note changes are persisted when terminating the app.
• Renaming or moving an ancestor of the default folder does not reset the default folder.
• Default folder and folder collapsed states are maintained when moving/renaming ancestor folders.
• Default folder and folder collapsed states are maintained when undoing/redoing changes to ancestor folders.
• Special markdown characters are properly escaped when followed by a line break.
• Splitting of pasted text into title and content for empty notes properly handles leading line breaks.
• Containing folder names displayed in note list rows are limited to one line.
• Fix scrolling issue on long notes when performing multiple consecutive scroll gestures.

Owl 1.1.1

2024/09/26

Fixed bugs introduced with the new macOS 15 Sequoia:

• Fixed folder renaming where text field wouldn't become editable.
• Fixed changing of note and folder selection with one click even if the corresponding list is unfocused.
• Fixed visual glitch where scrollbar would become partially covered by the note title after doing a text search within the editor.
• Fixed list selection bug where trying to select a note would randomly not work and immediately reset selection to the previous note.
• Fixed File menu not visible in the menu bar.
• Fixed visual glitch where note toolbar buttons would oddly animate and fade out when changing notes.
• Fixed "Hide Sidebar" toolbar button getting collapsed when the sidebar width is too small.

Known issues:

• Changes to a folder list of notes (e.g. creating a new note, deleting it, etc.) are no longer animated, due to what seems to be a bug in macOS 15.0 affecting SwiftUl Lists.

Owl 1.1

2024/09/12

Improvements:

• Added image support.
• Reduced prominence of note count badges in sidebar.
• Minor improvements and bug fixes.

Owl 1.0

2024/06/21

First release.