LOT 003
COLD OPEN
Manual · Version 1.1
ODDLOTS01/17
COLD OPENWhat it is
Your head is full of ideas. Leave them here, and get to your day.
Every entry is a Markdown file, saved in a folder you choose. Each one is named for the date, and you can open it in any text editor for as long as text editors exist.
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COLD OPENContents

Contents

  1. 02What it is
  2. 04Before you start
  3. 05The window
  4. 06A day
  5. 07The file
  6. 08Counting
  7. 09The clock
  8. 10Settings
  9. 13History
  10. 14Keyboard
  11. 15Limits
  12. 16Housekeeping
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COLD OPENBefore you start

What it needs

Your key
In your download email. Asked for once, at first launch, and checked on your Mac. Keep it: a new Mac asks again. Lost keys: software@filmflamingo.com.
Requires
macOS 12 Monterey or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.
Needs from you
One folder, chosen once. Everything is kept there.
Gives back
A Markdown file per day, plus a history and a streak.
Never does
Contact a server. There is no network code in the app at all.
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COLD OPENThe window

Where things are

12345
1
The date, the count, and how far there is to go.
2
Streak, days written, and days past 750.
3
The page. Everything else can be turned off.
4
The goal bar.
5
History. ⌘L from anywhere.
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COLD OPENA day
The main job

A day's writing

  1. Choose your folderThe first thing it asks for. It is proved writable before it is trusted.
  2. WriteThe window is the page. The counter and clock sit out of the way, and both can be turned off.
  3. Reach 750A bell sounds if you have left it on, and the file is written that moment.
  4. Come back tomorrowThe app rolls the day over and offers you the new one.
Saving

It saves as you write, and again when you switch days, leave the app, quit, or reach 750. ⌘S writes it now and tells you it did.

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COLD OPENThe file

The file on disk

THE DATEWORDS AND TIMEYOUR WRITINGOne file per day,named for the date.
Plain Markdown
No database and no package. Readable in any editor.
The same format 1.0 wrote
Files you already have open unchanged.
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COLD OPENCounting

What counts as a word

Anything separated by a space that contains at least one letter or number.

A hyphenated compound counts once. A contraction counts once. A lone dash or bullet counts as nothing.

It is the same answer you would get counting by hand.

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COLD OPENThe clock

The clock counts writing

Not wall clock. Active writing.

A timer that kept running while you made coffee would put a number on the page that its own label says is something else.

The clock is optional. Turn it off in Settings and nothing about the writing changes.

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COLD OPENSettings

The page

Appearance
Match System, Light or Dark. This one sets the window.
Paper
The page under the words, chosen separately from light and dark. All three have a light version and a dark one.
White
The page your Mac already uses. Leave it alone and nothing about the app changes.
Cream
A warmer page, and a brown-black ink.
Slate
A cool grey page, and a blue-black ink.
You choose by looking

A sample of your own writing sits above the controls and changes as you touch them, so a paper is picked by seeing it.

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COLD OPENSettings

The type

Hand
New York, Iowan Old Style, Charter, Seravek or American Typewriter. Every name is set in its own face. All five come with macOS, so nothing is downloaded.
Size
Seven steps. A step is the same size in every hand, so changing the face does not resize the page underneath you.
Lines
Tight, Normal or Airy. The spacing is a proportion of the size, which means it grows when the type does.
None of it reaches your files

The Markdown in your folder is the same whichever paper, hand or size you chose.

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COLD OPENSettings

The desk

The bell
Plays at 750 words, with its own volume. Off is a switch.
Hear it
Plays the bell at the level you have set, so you can find one you like without writing 750 words to test it.
Word count
Shown while writing, or not.
Time spent
Shown while writing, or not.
Focus mode
Hides everything but the words. ⌃⌘F from anywhere.
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COLD OPENHistory

History and streaks

The list
Every entry in your folder, newest first, with its word count and the time it took.
The calendar
A month at a time. The days you wrote are marked, and the days past 750 are marked differently.
Streaks and totals
Counted from the files rather than from a hidden database, so an entry you wrote in another editor counts and a streak you did not keep stops showing as though you had.
Reading back
Past entries are read only inside Cold Open. If you want to change one, open its file in a text editor; the banner at the top of the day will show it to you in the Finder.
The same folder on another Mac

Shows the same history, because there is nothing to carry across but the files.

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COLD OPENKeyboard
Reference

Menus and keys

  • ⇧⌘TToday
  • ⌘SSave
  • ⌘LHistory
  • ⌃⌘FFocus Mode
  • ⇧⌘ESave a Copy
  • ⇧⌘OChoose Folder
  • ⇧⌘RShow Folder in Finder
  • ⌘,Settings
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COLD OPENLimits
Stated plainly

What it does not do

  • No analytics, telemetry or crash reporting. No accounts, no licence server.
  • No cloud sync. You pick a folder, and if that folder happens to sync, that is your choice and not a feature of this app.
  • No auto-updater. Check for Updates opens a page in your browser, so the app never discloses your version or that you exist.
  • No Oddlots branding inside the app. The tool looks like the platform it runs on, not like the store.
  • It is a journal rather than a drafting app. There is no outline and no notion of a project, and the only export is Save a Copy, which writes every entry into one Markdown file.
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COLD OPENHousekeeping

Where things live

Your writing
In the folder you chose, and nowhere else. The app keeps no second copy.
Changing the folder
Settings › Folder. Where the new folder is empty, Cold Open offers to bring your journal across, and nothing is overwritten or deleted whichever way you answer.
Settings
UserDefaults, versioned and leniently decoded, so a missing key never resets the rest.
A file it cannot read
Is reported as an error, never shown as a blank page. Version 1.0 lost work that way and this one does not.
Writes are atomic

Nothing overwrites your writing as a side effect of anything else.

LOT 00316/17
Cold Open

Lot 003 of the Oddlots catalogue. Made by Flamingo Films, LLC.

Pay once. No subscription, no account, no licence server, and no upgrade fee later.

Version 1.1 is a ground-up rewrite of a 1.0 built in Electron. The old bundle is kept for provenance; your files from it open unchanged.

ODDLOTS17/17