Using the app

Documents

In Vinc, documents come first. The document home, the first screen, lists every document with the most recently changed on top, and a document you pick opens in the same place to read and edit. This page walks through that list, the document screen, and the reader the graph opens documents in.

The document home

Press Home at the top left, or press Graph again while in the graph, to come here.

  1. Title and count How many documents the list holds now. Filtering by topic or title brings it down too.
  2. New document Opens an empty document in the same place. Covered on Putting knowledge in.
  3. Import files Opens the Import tab in Settings > Data.
  4. Topic chips Press one to narrow the list to that topic. The number is how many documents it holds.
  5. Filter by title Keeps only the documents whose title contains what you type.
  6. Sort Pick Recently updated, Name or By topic.
  7. Document row The dot's colour stands for the topic, and the topic and the day it last changed sit on the right. Press it to open the document.

The list shows forty at a time and ends with Show N more when there are more. The sort you pick is kept for next time. Filters last only until you close the app and are not put in the address, because the address worth sharing is the address of one document.

Narrowing by topic

Press a topic chip and the list narrows to that topic, while the row above the chips shows where you are, as in All topics › vinc › design. Press a level in that row to go back to it; the chips show the topics right below where you are. A level with only one subtopic is skipped, and the chips show the level under it.

The sidebar does the same. Press the filter button at the end of a topic row to narrow the list to that topic, and hold ⌘/Ctrl to add more topics. With several topics picked, the chips give way to Filtered to N topics and Clear filter. Agent in the top row narrows the list to the topics where Agent roles live.

A document with no topic shows No topic yet, and sorting By topic puts those last.

Reading and editing in place

Pick a document and it opens where the list was. The text is on the left, and the column on the right holds the document's details and buttons. Below is the example document Design tokens, from file to screen.

  1. All documents Back to the list. Press a topic level beside it to open the list narrowed to that topic.
  2. Title Edit it in place.
  3. When When the thing it covers happened, written as YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD. The graph uses it when you change the time basis.
  4. Save state It saves as you write and says Saved. Ctrl/Cmd + S saves straight away.
  5. Text Markdown shows as it reads, and only the line with the cursor shows its marks. Type / on an empty line for the block menu.
  6. Document details The topic, the day it changed, and the concept that stands for this document in the graph. With no such concept it says Not in the graph yet.
  7. Show in graph Opens the graph focused on that concept, with this document in the wide panel.
  8. Copy text Copies the whole document.
  9. Delete Deletes the document and its text after asking you to confirm. It cannot be undone.

Type [[ and a few letters in the text and a list of nodes with that name appears. Pick one and the node's title goes in; if none fits, Create concept makes it on the spot. A link written as [[document id]] points at a document, and pressing it opens that document in the same place.

Folded front matter

When a document starts with YAML between two --- lines, the editor folds it into one line, Front matter, followed by its key: value pairs joined with middle dots. Press the line to unfold it and edit the YAML in place; press it again to fold it. Front matter is a value the document carries, not part of its writing, so it is set apart from the text.

  1. Front matter The folded YAML. Press the line to unfold it and edit it; press again to fold it.
  2. Values Each key: value from the YAML, joined with middle dots. A long line is cut to fit.

Reading a document in the graph

On the graph side, documents open in the reader inside a panel. That is where the document list in a node detail, a search result, a document row in the sidebar and Show in graph on the document home all lead. The reader opens in reading mode, so selecting or copying while you read does not change the text.

  1. Back Goes back to what the panel showed before the reader.
  2. Expand Widens the panel so you can focus on the text.
  3. Copy text Copies the whole document.
  4. Edit Switches to editing. Reading or Editing shows beside it.
  5. Ask an assistant Copies a prompt for asking an AI about this document. Covered on Using AI.
  6. Concepts in this document The nodes this document mentions. Press one to move to that node.
  7. Contents The document's headings. Open it and press one to jump to that section.

Opening a document from a node

Near the bottom of a node detail, Appears in these documents lists the documents that cover the node. On the node card, the number of documents shows beside Details and source.

  1. Appears in these documents The documents that mention this node.
  2. Document Press it and the document opens in the reader, with the node underlined wherever it appears.

Concepts underlined

Open a document from a node and every place the node is mentioned is underlined. Below, the document was opened for Design token from the sidebar, so it is in the wide panel.

  1. Underline Where this node is mentioned in the document.
  2. Concept chips Press another concept to move to that node.

The original is kept

A document keeps its original text and is split into chunks for search. When Vinc cannot confirm that the chunks put back together match the original exactly, it marks the text Reconstructed (not verified).