Maki guide

Everything Maki does, and the quickest way to do it. On a Mac, read Ctrl as ⌘.

Getting started

1. Download Maki and install it. The first time, Windows or macOS may warn you because Maki isn't code-signed yet; the download page shows how to open it anyway.
2. A short tour opens. Pick your language, theme and accent colour. You can skip it; nothing in it is required.
3. On the home screen, press New board. Start blank, or pick Moodboard, Project or Weekly for a ready layout with frames and notes.

Your boards live in Documents/Maki on your own disk. There is no account and nothing is uploaded.

Collect

• Drag in images, PDFs and folders from Explorer or Finder. Several at once land in a tidy grid.
• Paste with Ctrl V: screenshots, copied images, links and text all work. Links become cards with a preview.
• Folders stay live. Drop a project folder and Maki shows its contents on the board; new files appear as you save them.
• Notebooks hold boards, and boards can hold boards. Drag to reorder on the home screen.

Arrange

• Hold Space and drag to move around (or drag with the middle button). The mouse wheel zooms; on a trackpad, pinch.
• Shift 1 fits everything on screen. M shows the mini map. F11 or . is focus mode, which hides every control.
• Double-click empty space to write. N makes a sticky note; press Tab on a note to grow a mind map from it.
• Frames (F) group a character, a shot or a page; everything inside moves with the frame. Arrows (A) stay attached when you move things.
• Tables (G), a brush (B) and an eraser (E) are on the toolbar too. Group with Ctrl G, lock with Ctrl L.

Find

• Ctrl F searches the open board; press Tab to search every notebook. Enter flies to the next match.
• Maki reads file names, notes, tables, tags and the words inside your images, offline, even text set sideways.
• Search by colour ("red", "dark blue") or in plain words: "last week's pdfs", "images from yesterday".
• Type # on a selection to tag it; tags are searchable.
• Ctrl K opens the command palette: every action in the app, by name.

Browser extension

Save to Maki sends images, links and whole pages from Chrome, Edge or Firefox to your board. The Maki app has to be installed; if it's closed, saves wait in the browser and land when it opens.

Install

1. Add Save to Maki from the Chrome Web Store. It works in Edge and other Chromium browsers too.
2. Click the Maki icon in the toolbar and paste the pairing key from the same Settings page. You only do this once.

Use it

• Pinterest: hover a pin and click Save to Maki for the largest version of the image. On a board page, Import board to Maki brings up to 1,000 pins in as a board of their own.
• Anywhere: right-click an image, link or page, or press Alt Shift S. Add a note and tags if you like.
• Articles: save a page as a board, with headings and text on the left and each section's images beside them.

Bubble and Inbox

The small round bubble sits at the edge of your screen. Drop a file or an image on it from any app and it goes to your Inbox; a red badge shows how many are waiting. Sort them onto boards later with Move to board. Click the bubble to open or hide Maki, or use the global shortcut, Ctrl Shift Space by default (change it in Settings). The bubble hides itself while a game or video is full screen.

Reference mode

Ctrl Shift R keeps the board above every other window with a see-through background, so your references float over Photoshop, Krita, Blender or whatever you draw in. Press Alt Shift R to let clicks pass through to the app underneath, and again to take them back.

Working with images

• Crop right on the board; the original file stays untouched.
• Palette pulls the main colours out of an image as swatches you can copy.
• Find similar (right-click an image) shows images that look like it, across all your notebooks.
• Quick look: select an image and tap Space to see it full size.
• Maki warns you when you add an image you already have.

Backups and export

• Every change saves as you go. Maki also keeps a daily backup, seven days deep.
• Deleted boards and items wait in the Trash for 30 days.
• Export a board as PNG, frames as PDF, or the whole board as a .pano file to move it to another computer. Open the command palette (Ctrl K) and type export.

Maki shows a small tip the first time something would help, for example when a board gets crowded. Turn tips off in Settings, or see them all under What Maki can do.

Shortcuts

Licence

• Maki is free for 30 days with every feature. After that, buy it once for $19 and paste the key in Settings → System → Licence.
• One licence covers two computers, Windows or Mac. To move it, choose Remove from this computer on the old one first.
• If the trial ends before you buy, your boards stay on your disk and open again the moment you enter a key.

Help

Something not working, or a feature you miss? Use the feedback page or write to info@makiboard.com. See also privacy and terms and refunds.