Notes open beside each other
On a screen at least 1,024 pixels wide, following a link from one note to another doesn’t replace the page. The linked note opens as a new pane to the right, and the note you came from stays where it was.
Keep following links and the panes stack up. Older ones slide under newer ones and leave a narrow spine with their title, so you can always see the trail you took. Click a spine to bring that note back. The idea comes from Andy Matuschak’s working notes, which popularized stacked panes for reading linked notes.
Why read this way
Reading linked notes one page at a time forces a choice: follow the link and lose your place, or stay and lose the thread. Panes remove that choice. You can look at what a link points to and come straight back, which is how you’d read a stack of index cards on a desk.
This only works because each note is small. A pane is the width of one comfortable column, the same width as a single note on its own page. See a note is a unit of thought.
The stack lives in the address
The address bar keeps the whole stack, so you can copy it and send someone the exact trail you followed. The browser’s Back button closes the last pane you opened. Every note still has its own address too, so a link from outside always lands on a single note.
On a phone or a narrow window, links behave normally and open one note at a time.