Keep research notes
Capture excerpts, connect ideas and decide who can read each note.
Notes live beside papers in the Library. They are not a separate mode. Select Add note in a folder, use File → New note…, or start a linked note from a paper’s Notes tab.
Capture without losing the source
In the PDF reader, select text and choose Add to note. Distari appends the quote with its page number and a structured citation to your most recently edited note for that paper. If you have none, it creates a private reader note. Quick capture can make a note from elsewhere in a project.
Write in a rich editor or raw Markdown. Notes autosave, support tables and task lists, and can include inline or block maths. The built-in literature review, methodology critique and reading-note templates give you a starting structure; you can save personal templates too.
Link ideas
Type [[ to find another readable note or a paper. Links keep a stable destination even if its title changes. A paper’s Notes tab shows notes that link to it, and a note shows readable backlinks. You can also add a paper link by hand. A new note saved with Save as note from a web Threads answer links every cited paper still available in the project, so it appears in each paper’s Notes tab. It starts private, and editing its text keeps those paper links. See Ask with sources.
Notes start private to their author. An author with sharing permission can make a note readable to the project. Other members can read that shared note but only its author can edit it. There is no character-by-character co-editing for notes.
In File, find the Export notes section and choose Notes as Markdown (.md), Notes as Word document (.docx) or Notes as Obsidian vault (.zip). Obsidian sync is a separate, incremental connection.
Add inline images
In the web editor, choose Insert image, paste an image from the clipboard, or drop one into the note body. PNG, JPEG and GIF files can be up to 10 MiB and 40 million pixels, with a total of 50 MiB per note. Images follow the note’s private/shared visibility. Other members can view a shared image, but only the author can edit the note.
Open Images beneath the tags to describe an image with alternative text, replace it, or remove it. Upload progress stays visible until the image is durable. A failed or cancelled upload keeps your text and offers Retry upload; reconnect first if offline. Leaving the editor releases the selected file, so choose it again after reopening. Removed and abandoned images are cleaned up after seven days; deleting a note hides its images immediately.
Rich and Markdown views preserve image references. If Rich cannot preserve some Markdown, the editor keeps source editing and Preview available with a notice. Desktop and mobile previews show images while connected; desktop image notes use Markdown source for safe editing. Native image upload and offline image caching are not available yet.
Markdown exports with images are ZIP files containing notes.md and an assets folder. Extract the whole ZIP together. Word embeds the images, and the Obsidian vault ZIP bundles them beside its Markdown files. Text-only Markdown still downloads as .md.
To delete a note you own, right-click its Library row and choose Delete note, then confirm the named note. Cancel leaves it intact. Shared notes by another author do not offer deletion.