How to use LowKey

1. Choose Join the beta and get in line with your name and email. You see your place in line.
2. Every few days the next group is let in. You're told at that email when your place is ready, and it's held for you.
3. Go back to the sign-up page, choose Create your account and use the same email (or Continue with Google with that address), with a password of at least 8 characters.
4. Tick the three boxes: you are 18 or older, you have read the Privacy Notice, and you accept the Terms. They start unticked on purpose. Read them; they are short.
5. You land on your dashboard with a personal folder ready to use.

Folders in the sidebar

The sidebar lists your pinned folders first, then the folders you opened most recently. Hover a folder and click the pin to keep it at the top (on a phone the pin is always visible). Pins follow your account to every device. All folders at the bottom shows the rest.

Search

Press / anywhere on the dashboard to jump to the search box. It searches document titles and the text inside them, and only shows documents you are allowed to open.

• Formatting: headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, quotes, links and text alignment from the toolbar.
• Fonts and sizes: select a word, a sentence or a whole section and pick a font or size from the toolbar.
• Colour and highlight: select text and choose a text colour or a highlighter colour.
• Images: insert a picture from your device, paste it or drop it in. Drag its corner to resize it.
• Sketch pad: draw a quick diagram or signature with your mouse, finger or pen. It is saved inside the document.
• Dividers: type --- on an empty line to draw a horizontal line.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.

LowKey saves as you type. There is no Save button.

Share a document

Use Share in the document's header and add people by email. Pick a role for each person:

Edit at the same time

Everyone with the document open sees each other's changes as they type, with a coloured cursor and name for each person. If your connection drops, keep writing: your changes sync when you are back online.

Comments

Select some text and add a comment. Type @ and a name to mention someone; they get a notification. Reply in the thread, and resolve it when it is done.

Every document starts with one version called main. A branch is a copy you can change freely without touching main. Use one to try a rewrite, draft a section for review, or let a colleague suggest a bigger change.

1. Open the branch menu in the document header and choose New branch. Give it a name, like "shorter intro".
2. Write on the branch. Main keeps going on its own, and other people can keep editing it.
3. When you are happy, choose Merge. LowKey shows a review of what will change on main before anything happens.
4. If the same passage was changed on both sides, you decide for each one: keep main's version, take the branch's, edit it by hand, or Combine both. Combining lets you pick paragraphs from either side (pictures and dividers included), put them in any order and add your own text.
5. Confirm. Your branch's changes are now in main.

You can also merge main into your branch to bring it up to date, and branch from a branch.

Save your own snapshot

A snapshot is a named copy of the document at this moment that you save yourself, for example "Before the rewrite" or "Sent to client".

1. Open the History tab on the right of the editor.
2. Click save version… and give it a name.
3. Click save. It appears under Snapshots in the editor's left sidebar, so you can open it again with one click.

Anyone who can edit the document can save a snapshot. Each one belongs to the branch you were on when you saved it.

Automatic history

• Automatic versions: LowKey also saves versions on its own as you work, so you can go back even if you forgot to save a snapshot. Each one shows who made the changes and when.
• Safety copies: before every merge and every restore, LowKey keeps a copy of how things were, marked in the history list.
• Look back: click any version or snapshot to read the document as it was then. Nothing changes until you act.
• Restore: choose restore this version to bring it back. This adds a new change on top, so the later history is kept.
• Branch from a version: start a new branch from any older version to pick up an idea you dropped.
• Branch tree: see all branches and merges of a document as a map.

Page setup

Switch on page view to see your document as printed pages. In Page setup you can choose:

• Paper size and margins, including a Minimal option for one-page resumes.
• Line spacing: compact, normal or relaxed.
• The document's font (Lora, Carlito, Tinos, Arimo) and size in points. The default is 11.5 pt.
• Page numbers.

Import

Import a Word file (.docx), Markdown, HTML or plain text. LowKey keeps headings, lists, fonts, sizes, images and spacing as close to the original as it can. A one-page Word resume should come in as one page.

Export

Download any branch as PDF, Word, Markdown, HTML or plain text. During the beta, export important work regularly.

• Tap the menu button at the top left to open the sidebar with your folders.
• The toolbar scrolls sideways; swipe it to find more tools.
• Page view shrinks the page to fit your screen.
• The sketch pad works with your finger.

Open Account from your name at the bottom of the sidebar. From there you can:

• Change your display name.
• See what you agreed to and when.
• Download your data: your profile, documents and comments in one file.
• Delete your account: this removes your account and your documents. The text of comments you left on other people's documents is erased too. If you are the only owner of an organisation, hand it over or delete it first.

LowKey follows India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the IT Rules 2021. Read the Privacy Notice, Terms and how to raise a grievance.

• Things may break. If something looks wrong, refresh the page; your work is saved.
• Do not upload illegal, harmful or someone else's private content. It will be removed.
• Found a bug or have an idea? Use Report a bug at the bottom of the sidebar or in the editor's header, or the report page. It can attach the page you were on and any recent errors, which makes fixing much faster.