# Get help

> Somewhere to ask a person, and to read what other people already asked — in public, on the project's own [Discussions](https://github.com/ryanallen/leaftext/discussions/categories/get-help).

Leaftext is one app made by one person, and there is no support desk behind it. What there is instead is a public page where questions are asked and answered where everybody can read them, so the answer you get is the answer the next person finds.

## Where to ask

**[Get help](https://github.com/ryanallen/leaftext/discussions/categories/get-help)**, the questions category on the project's Discussions, is the place. It is readable and searchable without an account, and you only need a free GitHub account to post.

From inside the app, press **Get help** on the version line at the foot of the start screen — the screen with no document open, one press on the leaf at the left of the bar. It opens that page in your own browser. Nothing is sent from the app when you press it; it opens a page, and what you write there is yours to write.

## What to say

An answer usually needs three things, and a question with all three is often answered the first time:

| Say | Where to find it |
| --- | --- |
| The version you are running | The start screen's last line, beside **Get help**. It is selectable, so you can copy it |
| Your platform | macOS or Windows, and which version of it if you know |
| What kind of file | Markdown, [XML](01-features/01-rendering.md#xml), [JSON or YAML](01-features/01-rendering.md#data-files-json-and-yaml), [email](01-features/01-rendering.md#email-eml), [Word or Excel](01-features/01-rendering.md#office-and-opendocument-files), a [source file](01-features/01-rendering.md#source-files) — and, if you can, the smallest file that still shows the problem |

Then say what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead. A screenshot helps more than a description of a screenshot.

## What the app already answers

Some questions have a page, and reading it is faster than waiting:

| If you are stuck on | Read |
| --- | --- |
| macOS refusing the first launch | [Installation → Mac blocks the first launch](02-installation.md#mac-blocks-the-first-launch) |
| Opening files by double-clicking them | [Installation → File associations](02-installation.md#file-associations) |
| Whether a version is current, and how a new one arrives | [Settings → Updates](01-features/05-settings.md#updates) |
| Where your settings and recents are kept | [Settings → Paths](01-features/05-settings.md#paths) |
| A file that renders wrong, or a syntax you expected | [Rendering](01-features/01-rendering.md#summary) |
| A block you cannot click into | [Editing → Formats](01-features/07-editing.md#formats) |
| Search, filters, or a folder that will not become a vault | [Library](01-features/03-library.md#vaults) |
| A word the docs use and you do not | [Glossary](GLOSSARY.md) |

## What is not answered there

**Nothing about your documents.** Leaftext never sends a file anywhere, and neither should you: paste the few lines that show the problem, not the note they came from. Nobody answering needs your vault.

**No private channel.** There is no support email address, and the project is not on X or Discord. Everything is asked and answered on the one public page, which is the point: a private answer helps one person once.

**Not a promise.** It is one person reading, and some questions will go unanswered. A clear question with a version and a small file is the one most likely to get a reply.

## Next

- [Installation](02-installation.md) for both platforms and their first-launch warnings
- [Quickstart](03-quickstart.md) for the shortest path through the app
- [Glossary](GLOSSARY.md) for every word Leaftext uses for a part of itself