Decks

What decks are

A deck is a named collection of ordered cards. Think of it as a separate stack of cue cards for a specific context. A sales engineer might have separate decks for different product demos, competitive comparisons, and discovery calls. A presenter might keep one deck per talk or one deck per client.

You can have as many decks as you need. Each deck maintains its own card order and remembers which card you were viewing when you last switched away.

Creating a deck

Press ⌘⇧N to create a new deck. You'll be prompted to name it — pick something descriptive like "Enterprise Demo" or "Q4 Pricing Review." The new deck starts with one blank card, ready for editing.

Switching decks

There are three ways to switch between decks:

1. Keyboard shortcuts. Press ⌘1 through ⌘9 to switch to decks 1–9 by position. These shortcuts only work outside of edit mode, so you won't accidentally switch decks while typing.
2. Card footer. Click the deck name displayed in the card footer to open a dropdown list of all your decks. Select the one you want.
3. Menu bar icon. Click the ShowNotes icon in the menu bar and select a deck from the list. This works even when the main window is hidden.

ShowNotes remembers which card you were viewing in each deck. When you switch back, you pick up exactly where you left off.

Renaming and deleting

To rename a deck, go to File → Rename Deck. A prompt appears with the current name — edit it and confirm.

To delete a deck, go to File → Delete Deck. You'll be asked to confirm before the deck and all its cards are removed.

Exporting

Press ⌘⇧E to export the current deck as a Markdown file. Each card becomes a section in the file, separated by --- horizontal rule dividers. The exported file defaults to the deck name (e.g., "Enterprise Demo.md").

This is useful for sharing your notes with a colleague, archiving a deck after a meeting, or converting your cue cards into a document you can paste elsewhere.

Status bar

ShowNotes adds a small icon to the macOS menu bar. The menu bar icon gives you quick access to:

• Show/hide the window — toggle the notes window without opening the full app
• Switch decks — jump to any deck from the dropdown
• Quit — close ShowNotes entirely

The menu bar icon is always available, even when another app is in the foreground. Combined with the global hotkey (⌘⇧S), you can control ShowNotes without ever leaving your presentation.