GleaBetaUser Guide
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Glea User Guide

Welcome to Glea

Glea is a web browser for the Mac with a journal built in. You browse as you would in any browser, and keep what you find (a paragraph, an image, a whole page) in today’s journal or a note, as Markdown files on your disk.

Glea’s journal, with today’s entry on top.

The web, and your notes

A Glea window has two sides, and one button in the top right corner switches between them (or press ⌘D):

  • The web: tabs, pages, everything a browser does. Pages render as they do in Chrome.
  • Your notes: the Journal, with a page for every day, and All Notes. In this mode the tabs step aside for these two.

The omnibox (⌘K) reaches both: type to search the web, your notes, your open tabs and your history from one field.

Your first ten minutes

  1. Install Glea. Download it, open the disk image and drag Glea to Applications. Glea needs macOS 12 or later on a Mac with Apple silicon.
  2. Open a page. Press ⌘T, type an address or a search, and press Return.
  3. Collect something. Hold ⌥ Option: the page dims and a spotlight lands on the block under the pointer. Click, then choose Today. That’s point and shoot.
  4. See where it went. Press ⌘D. Your capture is in today’s journal, as a quote with a link back to its page.
  5. Start a note. In the journal, type [[ and a name, like [[Reading list]]. Click the link: Glea creates the note and opens it. See Notes and links.
Tip

Everything you write is a plain Markdown file in ~/Documents/Glea. You can open it in any editor, sync it however you like, and use the same folder in Obsidian. See Your files.

In this guide

JournalA page for every day, and a summary of the last one. Notes and linksCreate notes, link them, and find what links back. Writing in MarkdownThe live editor: formatting, lists, tables, math and code. Images and embedsPictures, video, sound, PDFs, web embeds and embedded notes. Point and shootHold Option, click anything on a page, and keep it. Glea ClipperCollect from Safari, Chrome, Firefox and other browsers. The omniboxOne field for the web, your notes, tabs and history. Tabs and windowsVertical tabs, pinned tabs, tab groups, windows and session restore. Web browsingSettings, your default browser, incognito, extensions, downloads and DevTools. Your filesWhere notes live, syncing, exporting and Obsidian. Keyboard shortcutsEvery shortcut in one place. Updates and helpUpdates, known limitations, and how to get help.

About the beta

Glea is free while it’s in beta. New versions come often and install themselves (see Updates). Some things don’t work yet, such as DRM video on streaming sites; they’re listed under Known limitations.