In this guide you will find everything you need to make the most out of Sparkle. An abridged and interactive version of this guide is directly accessible in the “Sparkle Text” application. If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to leave us a message.
New concepts
Sparkling mode
Slide show of random paragraphs from your current file or your entire project. Use left and right arrow keys to load the next random paragraph, up and down arrow keys for the adjacent ones.
Quick Note
Just jot it down, without worrying about where to save yet. If you plan to reinstall or delete Sparkle, make sure to check Quick Note first, as it’s part of the app data.
Instant editor
Click on Sparkle icon from the Dock to bring it up:
- It hovers over other windows to facilitate your note taking from any applications. You can drag its border to resize and move it.
- By default it’s connected to Quick Note. You can reconnect it to any file in your project folder.
- The existing content of the connected file is always hidden from the editor, so that you can focus on the current writing. When saved, it will be appended to the connected file.
- Auto pasting — only available here — is by default activated. The texts that you copied from other apps will be automatically pasted into the hovering editor.
Sketch
Work on any standard “.txt” file as if it consist of two parts: a main text, and a sketch. Both will be saved into the same “.txt” file (or “*.sparkle” with images), separated by a special mark.
Call out the sketch panel anytime by swiping to left with two fingers (or select in right click menu).
Project
It is recommended to set your project folder, so that you can quickly access and switch among all the files in the project panel — chapters of a novel, notes and materials for the current research…
When project panel is opened (by swiping to right with two fingers), searching will be carried out in both the current file and the entire project.
You can define a new project folder anytime.
Title / Keyword view
They are particularly useful when working with long texts. (Command+t, Command+k, or select in right-click menu.)
.txt vs .sparkle
Pure or formatted texts will always be saved as .txt files, for maximum compatibility. When images are inserted, .sparkle file format will instead be used, which is by nature a portable package of separate text and images. You can easily find the original file of any image inserted by right-click on it and select “Show in Finder”.
Others: small but powerful
Annotations: some texts have to be small to not to draw too much attention, while remaining quietly informative.
Timestamp: this will be especially useful when making journals of work and study.
Clear empty paragraphs: sometimes, copy from various sources leaves many unwanted empty paragraphs, and to delete them, we know, could be painful. Not anymore.
Find in project: when the project panel is expanded, searching in the current file will also search in the entire project.
Best practices
Set Sparkle as default editor for all text files: right click on a .txt file -> Get Info -> Select “Sparkle.app” from “Open With” -> click on “Change All”.
Put your project folder in a cloud drive: Sparkle itself doesn’t synchronise your files across multiple devices, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from the seamless experience. Simply create a folder in a cloud drive, and select it from Sparkle as your project folder.
Use keyboard shortcuts: Sparkle shortcuts are either universal (Copy, Save, Find…) or intuitive (D for Dictionary, H for Highlight, L for link…). Most of the shortcuts are indicated in the right-click menu.
Side by side: drag the fullscreen editors from their left or right border to resize them horizontally, so that you can work on two files (or more on a larger screen) side by side.
Perfect, or playful: experiment with your favourite typeface, font size, and theme colours in “Personalise”.
Other operations/shortcuts
- Left click on Sparkle icon in Dock: open Instant editor.
- Shift + left click on Sparkle icon in Dock: create new file
- Function + left click on Sparkle icon in Dock: reopen last opened file
- Left click on Sparkle icon in status bar: open Quick Note
- Shift + left click on Sparkle icon in status bar: enter sparkling mode
- Shift + tab: cycling among opened windows
- Control + down arrow: show all Sparkle windows
- ESC / Command + w: Save file and close current window
- Command + up arrow/down arrow: go to the beginning or the end of the file.