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LifeEcho // Documentation

Tips, tricks, and operational guidance for the full LifeEcho workflow.

LifeEcho is a local-first reflective display tool for short-form echoes, reminders, prompts, and visual thinking. Use this guide to understand entry syntax, settings, recording, data workflows, and the small power-user features that make the app feel fast.

Core Flow

  • Add entries from the display screen or Manage Entries.
  • The display rotates through the filtered echo stream using your current order, animation, and background settings.
  • Manage Entries is for local editable echoes only. External data echoes can appear in display and search, but remain read-only.
  • Use tags to shape thematic streams such as work, today, idea, or completed.

Entry Syntax

  • Plain URLs in entry text are rendered as a display button labeled CLICK HERE when the echo is shown.
  • [[ text ]] renders that text bold on the display while staying editable in raw form.
  • {{ text }} creates delayed emphasis text with a larger animated pop-in treatment.
  • You can keep an echo text field blank if you want an image-only or effects-only entry.

Advanced Entry Options

Each echo can optionally override the main display settings. Advanced overrides are off by default and only apply when enabled for that entry.

  • Font size, opacity, vertical offset, duration override, glow, drop shadow, and emphasis delay can all be controlled per echo.
  • A background image URL can turn a single echo into a scene-based card. The image covers the background while preserving aspect ratio.
  • Overlay Particles determines whether particles remain active over a background image.
  • Display Text can be turned off for image-driven or ambient entries while keeping the text searchable in the app.
  • Pinned Entry keeps one chosen echo visible at the top of the display as the immediate next priority.

Tags And Filtering

  • Tags are lowercase internally, but shown in uppercase chips.
  • The display filter supports base filters plus include/exclude tag combinations.
  • Completed entries can be hidden in Manage Entries by default and revealed with Show Completed.
  • If external data includes tags, those tags are also filterable in the display system.

Search

  • Open Search from the burger menu or with Option+S on macOS and Alt+S on Windows.
  • Search results are truncated for readability, but use the full stored text for matching.
  • Local echoes open in Edit mode from search.
  • External echoes show a professional read-only notice because they come from an external source.

Data, Themes, And External Sources

  • Export Data, Import Data, and Append Data work with echo-entry data only.
  • Theme files contain settings only and do not include your entries.
  • The External Data URL field appends a remote JSON data source visually without importing it into your editable local dataset.
  • External echoes do not appear in Manage Entries and are not editable in LifeEcho.
  • Dropbox links may need a raw or direct-download-compatible form to load successfully in the browser.
Tip: the external data URL saves automatically when you press Enter or leave the field.

Recording The Echo Stream

Record Echo Stream captures a browser-rendered mirror of the current display into a WebM video. It is designed to preserve the visible pacing and theme behavior as closely as possible from inside the browser.

  • Choose aspect ratio, frame rate, and either full-stream mode or a duration cap.
  • Phase 1 exports WebM only.
  • During recording, some overlays and interactions are blocked to keep the capture stable.
  • If recording cannot prepare properly, LifeEcho will show an error rather than silently hanging.

Chrome Display Tuning

If you want the most stable visual presentation for gradients, backgrounds, and motion, you can tune Chrome itself. These steps are optional, but they can help LifeEcho look more consistent on some displays.

  • Open chrome://flags in Chrome.
  • Search for Force color profile.
  • Set it to a profile that fits your display environment. sRGB is usually the safest baseline if colors appear oversaturated or inconsistent.
  • Open Chrome Settings and go to System.
  • Turn on Use graphics acceleration when available if you want hardware acceleration enabled.
  • Restart Chrome after making these changes.
Note: Chrome flags can change over time, so labels or available options may vary slightly between Chrome versions.

Useful Shortcuts

  • Enter: add a new entry from the display.
  • Shift + Enter: open the currently displayed echo in Edit mode.
  • /: open or close Settings.
  • M: open or close Manage Entries.
  • Space: pause or resume rotation.
  • ← →: move through echoes manually.
  • Shift + ←/→: adjust display font size.
  • Ctrl/Cmd + S: save current data with timestamped filename.

Practical Tips

  • Use short echoes for the strongest cinematic display effect.
  • Use tags consistently so filters stay useful over time.
  • Reserve pinned entries for the single most immediate task or intention.
  • Use blank-text entries with backgrounds or motion settings for ambient pacing between content-heavy echoes.
  • Duplicate entries when iterating on a thought rather than overwriting a version you may want later.