The Lume guide.

01Getting started

Install Lume from the Microsoft Store. It runs from the tray: the QuickNote bar and the scratchpad are always a keystroke away, and the full window opens when a note grows.

Two keys are worth learning first:

• Ctrl Shift Space — show the QuickNote bar.
• Ctrl Alt N — open the scratchpad.

Both can be changed, or removed, in Settings. You can also open the scratchpad with a mouse button (middle, back or forward), or by shaking the cursor — the shake and its sensitivity are in Settings too.

02QuickNote

QuickNote is the shelf that rises from the edge of your screen: your notes as cards, with tabs for Notes, Pinned, Drawings and Scratchpad, and a folder filter beside them.

• Click a card to open the note in place. Ctrl N starts a new one, Ctrl Shift D a new drawing.
• Ctrl F jumps to search; typing filters the whole shelf as you go.
• Ctrl V on the shelf makes a note out of whatever is on the clipboard.
• Folders can nest inside folders. Deleting a folder keeps its notes and lifts its children up one level.
• Drag a card off the shelf to float that note in its own window; Ctrl W puts it away.

03Scratchpad

A page for thinking out loud. Start a line with a word that says what the page is, and Lume does the rest — or write nothing special and it stays a plain page.

math: Weekend trip
fuel: 180
hotel: 420 * 2        = 840
fuel + hotel          = 1,020

• Name a number with name: value and use that name on any later line. Change the number and everything that depends on it follows.
• math works out each line as you type; a bare = at the end of a line asks for the answer.
• sum (or total) and avg add up or average the numbers on the lines below; count counts them.
• list turns the page into checkboxes — [ ] open, [x] done.

Pages keep separate thoughts apart: Alt ← and Alt → step through them, Ctrl L lists them all.

04Code & timers

Open a page with code: and a language, and the output settles under the line you wrote.

code: js
const nums = [4, 8, 15]
nums.reduce((a, b) => a + b)   → 27

JavaScript (js, node), Python (py) and PowerShell (ps, pwsh) all work, using what is installed on your PC.

A page that starts with timer, pomodoro or stopwatch counts beside your notes: timer 25m Focus runs for twenty-five minutes. Ctrl R restarts it.

05Draw

Ink, shapes and arrows live inside the note next to the text, with their own undo. For a free-form board, choose New Draw — or Ctrl Shift D from the shelf.

The board uses one-key tools, the way a drawing app should:

• V select · H hand · R rectangle · D diamond · O ellipse
• A arrow · L line · P pen · T text · E eraser · I image
• Q keeps the current tool after each stroke, instead of falling back to select.
• Ctrl + wheel zooms, Space + drag pans, Shift 1 fits the whole board, Ctrl 0 returns to 100%.
• Ctrl D duplicates the selection; Alt + drag leaves a copy behind.

06Formats

When a note grows, open it in the full Lume window. Each format carries its own type scale, so headings and body always sit in proportion.

• Box and Sticky set a passage apart.
• Break adds a quiet section mark.
• Book lays a note out in columns, with figures and a raised opening capital.

07Shortcuts

The defaults. The two global keys can be changed in Settings.

08Your notes & sync

Notes are saved on your PC as you type, with automatic backups. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.

To use them on another PC, keep Lume’s data in your own OneDrive folder — Lume merges changes made on each device, so a note edited in two places keeps both edits.

09Free and Pro

Lume is free to keep up to 20 notes. Writing, lists and search stay free, always — and every note you have made stays yours to read, search, edit and export, whatever your plan.

Lume Pro lifts the limit and adds: the full scratchpad (answers, timers, code), Draw boards, the premium formats, OneDrive sync and the other themes.

Monthly and yearly start with 7 days free, and Lifetime is a single payment. Everything is billed through your Microsoft account, where you can also cancel.

See Lume in the Microsoft Store →