The Orbital manual

Your Tana, as one fast outline

Orbital puts your tasks, meetings, notes and people in one outline that you drive from the keyboard. Everything it can do is one ⌘K away, and this manual shows all of it.

How to read this manual

Clips loop

Moving pictures play while they are on screen and start over when you come back. Click one to pause it.

⌘K works here too

Press ⌘K or / to search every chapter and heading, as the palette does in the app.

Turn the page

⌘[ and ⌘] go to the previous and next chapter, the keys that walk your history in Orbital.

The window at a glance

This is the Work View, where a first launch opens: the Timeline of your day on the left and My Tasks on the right. Hover a number to see what it is.

The Orbital window with the Timeline and My Tasks side by side 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  1. Tabs and panes Every pane holds pages as tabs. Split, float and rearrange them freely. Windows
  2. The window's switches The house opens the Work View, the eye shows sensitive items, then ⌘K and Help. First steps
  3. Today's Tasks What you pinned to today, ready to tick off. Timeline
  4. Free time and meetings How long until your next meeting, and who is in each one. Meetings
  5. What happened Changes to what you watch and new tasks in your Inbox, newest first. Timeline
  6. My Tasks A saved search of your open tasks, one of the views you can make yourself. Views
  7. Create new A task, a note, a chat or a search. Drop an image on it to turn it into a task. First steps

Three ideas that explain the rest

⌘K runs everything

Every feature starts as a row in the palette. Type a few letters of what you want and press ↩. The rows follow the caret, so they are about the node you are on.

Every line is a node

A task, a meeting, a note and each line inside them are all nodes in one outline. Click a bullet to zoom into it, and ⌘[ takes you back out.

Tana decides

Orbital reads and writes your Tana live. What you change shows in Tana at once, and what others change arrives here as it happens. Nothing is kept anywhere else.

Chapters

The basics

1

First steps

Sign in, the window, the Help tour.

 2

⌘K, the command palette

Run anything, record your own keys, search Tana.

 3

Writing in the outline

Rows, keys, marks, links, images, tables, drag and drop.

 4

Finding your way

Zoom, back and forward, Home.

Your work

5

Timeline, notifications & proposals

Your day at a glance, what changed, what waits for you.

 6

Tasks

States, owners, bells and Quick Add.

 7

Views & saved searches

Inbox, Library, Types, filters, groups and your own searches.

 8

Pins & dates

Put a node on a day, a meeting or the sidebar.

 9

Meetings

Write-ups, attendees, time and place, calls.

Structure and AI

10

Types & fields

Give nodes a type, an icon, a colour and fields.

 11

AI & agents

Discuss, classify, translate, read images, hand work to Codex.

 12

Chats

Conversations with Tana's AI and your team.

Your workspace

13

Windows, panes & the Graph

Panes, tabs, windows, links, and who else is here.

 14

Sharing & privacy

Who sees what, moving, deleting and hiding.

 15

Settings & housekeeping

Theme, text size, export, updates.

 16

On your iPhone

The Timeline, Quick Add, widgets and Siri on your phone.

 17

Keyboard reference

Every key on one page.