External files and perspectives

Cross-Vault Wikilinks

To link to a file in a different vault, use the vault alias prefix:

[[alias::filename]]

• alias is the vault’s short name as configured in Settings > Vault > Alias
• filename is the target file name (without .md)

Example: [[work::meeting-notes]] links to meeting-notes.md in the vault with alias work.

Cross-vault links appear with a distinct style and open the target in its own vault context. If the target vault is not currently open, Baram prompts you to open it.

Opening External Files

You can open any .md file from outside your current vault using File > Open File (Cmd+O / Ctrl+O). The file opens as a File context tab with a 📎 icon and no sidebar — just the editor. This is useful for quick edits to files outside your workspace.

Viewing Other File Types

Baram is a markdown editor, but it opens several other file types in place rather than handing them to another application. Click one in the file tree, or use File > Open File.

Type	Extensions	What you get
PDF	.pdf	A reader with page navigation, find, zoom, a page/highlight side panel, and text & area highlighting you can reference from your notes. The PDF file itself is never modified. See PDF Reading & Highlights.
HTML	.html, .htm	A rendered live preview by default, with a Preview / Source toggle in the corner. Switch to Source to edit the markup with syntax highlighting; saving works as it does for any file. The preview is sandboxed, so scripts in the file cannot reach your vault or the app.
Images	.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .ico, .webp, .avif	A viewer that fits the image to the window without upscaling small ones.
SVG	.svg	The same viewer, rendered as vector — it stays sharp at any zoom. Scripts inside an SVG do not execute.

Images and SVG are handled by Media Viewer, a plugin that ships with Baram. It is built on the same public viewer extension point third-party plugins use, so a plugin can add a viewer for a file type Baram does not handle itself — see the Plugin Development Guide.

Tab Tear-Off (Separate Window)

Drag any editor tab outside the tab bar to detach it into a separate window. The window operates independently with its own editor state. Drag the tab back into the tab bar to re-dock it.

Perspectives

A perspective is a saved layout — sidebar panel, right panel, and theme — that you can restore in one keystroke. Baram ships five and you can add your own.

Built-in Perspectives

Perspective	Shortcut (macOS)	Shortcut (Win/Linux)	Layout
Writing	Cmd+Alt+1	Ctrl+Alt+1	Editor focus — right panel closed
Zettel	Cmd+Alt+2	Ctrl+Alt+2	Zettel hub (actions + inbox + MOCs + recent) — atomic Zettelkasten notes
Journal	Cmd+Alt+3	Ctrl+Alt+3	Calendar sidebar + today’s journal + Memories view
Skills	Cmd+Alt+4	Ctrl+Alt+4	File tree + Properties panel — LLM Skills editing
Focus	Cmd+Alt+5	Ctrl+Alt+5	Sidebar, right panel, activity bar, status bar, and file tab bar all hidden — editor alone

All five are customizable in Settings > Keybindings (category Perspective) and available from the Perspective menu. Choosing a perspective applies its saved layout exactly — Writing and Focus, for example, do close the sidebar. Baram itself never force-closes an open folder tree: the one automatic fallback (returning to Writing when the Journal or Zettel context tab closes) only reopens the sidebar if it was already open, and expanded folders stay expanded either way.

Hiding Interface Chrome

Independently of perspectives, the Activity Bar, Status Bar, and file Tab Bar can each be hidden on their own. Hiding a bar only changes whether it’s drawn — the feature underneath keeps working (hiding the Tab Bar does not close your tabs; hiding the Activity Bar does not turn any feature off).

Action	Shortcut (macOS)	Shortcut (Win/Linux)
Toggle Activity Bar	Cmd+Alt+A	Ctrl+Alt+A
Toggle Status Bar	Cmd+Alt+S	Ctrl+Alt+S
Toggle Tab Bar	Cmd+Alt+B	Ctrl+Alt+B

The same three toggles are also in Settings > Layout, under Show or Hide.

The Focus perspective above applies all three of these at once, together with closing the sidebar and right panel. The Context Tab Bar (your open vaults/folders, spanning the very top of the window) is a separate surface and stays visible.

If you hide all three bars and want them back: use the shortcuts again, switch to any other perspective, or hover the very top edge of the window (or Tab to it with the keyboard) to reveal a thin Reveal hidden bars button.

Custom Perspectives

Create your own in Settings > Layout:

1. Arrange the layout you want (sidebar panel, right panel, theme)
2. Go to Settings > Layout and click Save Current Layout
3. Give it a name

Custom perspectives can be renamed, deleted, and applied from the same Settings tab.

Applying a Perspective

• Keyboard shortcuts — Cmd+Alt+1 (Writing), Cmd+Alt+2 (Zettel), Cmd+Alt+3 (Journal), Cmd+Alt+4 (Skills), Cmd+Alt+5 (Focus)
• Perspective menu — in the menu bar
• Settings > Layout — for custom perspectives

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