====== Features ======

**Zim** ...
* is desktop application, not a webpage
* has the look of an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliner|extrinsic outliner]] or note-taking application
* has the feel and philosophy of a [[http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ElementsOfWikiEssence|wiki]]
* has simple //WYSIWYG// editing capabilities


==== Content is saved "transparently" ====
All pages you create in **zim** are saved as plain text files with wiki formatting. This means that you can access your content with any other editor or file manager without being dependent on **zim**. You can even have your pages in a revision control system like CVS or use a Makefile to compile your notes into a webpage.

Any images you add are just image files which are linked from the text files. This means that **zim** can employ specialized programs to manipulate images. When you have an image in a page the context menu of the image will offer to open it with whatever image manipulation programs you have installed. After editing you can just reload the page to see the result in **zim**.

==== The editor tries to get out of your way ====

//The best wiki is a wiki that does not interfere between you and the content//

The editor tries not to bother you with tasks that distract from the content. This means for example that files are saved automatically but also that files and directories are created and removed on the fly as you add or remove content in the wiki pages.

Related features include:
* You can use [[zim:usage:syntax|wiki syntax]] to type formatting
* The state of the application is persistent. Close **zim** and start it again, you can work on where you left off.
* The wiki can navigated completely using [[zim:usage:keybindings|keybindings]].

==== The editor allows you to organize your notes ====
The ability to hyperlink pages is a powerful way of organizing content. This goes further than hyperlinks in ordinary web pages. One example of this is that **zim** keeps track of all links and for each page shows which pages link to it, this makes links bi-directional. You can also link webpages or external files, **zim** will open these with the appropriate applications.

Since **zim** has the GUI layout resembling a note-taking application you can organize your pages hierarchically, thus pages can be grouped by topic. But because you also have wiki-style back-tracking of links you can also have a category system on top of that where a page can link to multiple categories.

==== Extras ====
A few other things I would like to mention:

* There is a TrayIcon [[zim:usage:plugins|plugin]]
* There is a [[zim:usage:plugins|plugin]] to enable spell checking using gtkspell
* You can [[zim:usage:exporting|export]] your notes to Html if you want to publish them
