App modes that show only the tools you need

Barside holds a lot in one app: notes, Reading, tasks, a calendar, meetings, recordings, clips, drawings, Spaces and AI. You rarely need all of it at once. Barside's app modes show only the tools you need for the work in front of you. Pick Writer, Reader, Team or Creator Mode from the switcher at the top of the sidebar, or build a Custom Mode from the tools you choose. Nothing is deleted or turned off: hidden tools wait on the More tab, and the search bar still finds every one of them.

This guide covers the six modes, exactly which tools each one keeps, how to switch, and how to build your own.

Why use app modes that show only the tools you need

Barside's sidebar can list 15 tools. That is useful when you want everything in reach, and a lot to scan when you only came to write, read or run a meeting. A mode trims the sidebar to one kind of work, trims the Create menu to match, and opens on the page that work starts from.

A mode is a view, not a switch that turns features off. Reminders still ring, hotkeys still work in every app, and the search bar still opens any tool or runs any command. When you need something the mode hides, it is one click away on the More tab.

The six modes at a glance

Which tools each mode keeps

Here is every sidebar tool and the focused modes that keep it. Default Mode keeps all of them, and Custom Mode keeps the ones you tick.

How to switch modes

1. Click the mode button at the top of Barside's sidebar. It shows the mode you are in, such as Default Mode. In a narrow or docked window, the same button sits beside the page picker.
2. Choose a mode. Each one in the menu has a one-line description.
3. Barside opens the mode's first page: Reading for Reader Mode, Meetings for Team Mode, Recordings for Creator Mode, and All notes for Default and Writer Mode. Custom Mode opens on the first of its tools that has a page of its own. Spaces, Library & briefing and the assistant open as panels, so a Custom Mode with only those opens on the More tab.

Two faster ways work from any app:

• The desktop bar. Its mode button shows the current mode's name, like Writer, and opens the same menu. See how to dock the desktop bar to a screen edge.
• The search bar. Press Alt+Shift+Space (or Ctrl+K inside Barside), type writer, reader, team, creator, custom or default, and press Enter. These run the commands Switch to Writer Mode, Switch to Reader Mode and so on.

Barside remembers your choice and opens in the mode you chose last.

Build your own Custom Mode

1. Open the mode menu and choose Choose Custom Mode tools… at the bottom. The More tab has a Custom Mode button that opens the same list, and the search bar has Choose Custom Mode tools.
2. Tick the tools you want in your sidebar. Each one has a short description.
3. Click Use Custom Mode. Barside switches to it and says "Custom Mode is on."

You need at least one tool, so the button waits until you tick one. Before you pick anything, Custom Mode shows every tool, so the sidebar is never empty. Barside keeps your picks: switch to another mode and back, and Custom Mode returns with the same tools.

A few Custom Modes to try:

• Study: Notes, Reading, Tasks, Calendar, and Library & briefing for a daily briefing of what is due.
• Research: Notes, Bookmarks, Reading, Note map, Library & briefing, and Agents & approvals for the research agent.
• Client work: Notes, Bookmarks, Tasks, Calendar, Meetings and Assistant.
• Community owner: Spaces, Meetings, Clips, and Agents & approvals, where the Space helper's drafts wait when it asks you first.

The Custom Mode guide has more examples, and what changes when it is on.

Nothing is gone: the More tab and the Create menu

When a mode hides tools, the sidebar gets a More item with the number of hidden tools. It opens More tools, a page that lists each hidden tool with its description. Click one to open it. The page has two buttons: Show everything switches back to Default Mode, and Custom Mode opens the picker.

If a mode hides Notes, as a Custom Mode can, the More tools page also lists your workspaces, so every note stays one click away.

The Create menu follows your mode too. It offers New note, New task, New drawing, New recording and New meeting, but only the ones your mode uses:

• Default Mode and Team Mode offer all five.
• Writer Mode offers everything but New meeting.
• Reader Mode offers New note, New drawing and New recording.
• Creator Mode offers New note, New drawing and New recording.

Ctrl+N still makes a note at once, whatever the menu shows. Drawings and recordings are saved inside notes, which is why a mode with Notes can still offer them.

Which mode fits your work

• Writers and bloggers: Writer Mode keeps your notes, Reading for sources, Tasks for deadlines, Recordings for voice notes, the note map for structure, and the assistant for a second opinion.
• Researchers and lifelong learners: Reader Mode opens on Reading, where you save articles and newsletters with highlights. Link what you learn into your notes, see those links on the note map, and ask Library questions that draw on your notes and your reading together.
• Team leads and managers: Team Mode opens on Meetings. Video meetings for small groups, the Recordings tab for the calls you record, Spaces for chat, and Library & briefing for meeting follow-up and action items sit side by side.
• Video creators: Creator Mode opens on Recordings, where every screen recording waits and Record starts a new one. Clips, where you turn long videos into short clips, is next to it, with Excalidraw drawings for diagrams, and Spaces for your community.
• Everyone else: Default Mode shows every tool, and it is where Barside starts.

Details that matter

• What a mode changes: the sidebar, the Create menu and the page Barside opens on. It never deletes notes, changes your AI connections or stops a feature from working.
• Remembered: Barside opens in the mode you chose last, and it goes to that mode's first page when you switch.
• Per computer: the mode is a setting of each computer. Cloud sync, part of Barside Plus, keeps settings separate on each one, so a laptop can stay in Writer Mode while a desktop uses Team Mode.
• In your backups: the mode travels in a ZIP backup with your other preferences.
• On every system: modes work the same on Windows and Linux, and in Barside for Mac.

Privacy

A mode is a local setting. Barside's usage counts name the mode in use, unless you turn them off, and nothing else about it is sent. Hidden tools keep their data exactly where it was: your notes and Reading on your computer, and the Spaces you joined on Barside's server. Read where Barside keeps your data.

How it compares

All-in-one apps tend to grow a long sidebar, and people often move to them to replace several tools at once. If that is you, read the Notion alternative guide, or compare the best second brain apps. Barside's answer to the long sidebar is simple: keep every tool, and show only the ones your work needs today.

Works well with