Everything you can toggle, tweak, and control in Patter — and why you might want to.
Groups
Groups lets you organise routines into folders. Weekdays, workout types, cooking — whatever makes sense to you. There's no wrong way to do it.
Toggle it on and you get two default folders: All Routines, where you move things between groups, and Ungrouped, for the ones that don't belong anywhere yet.
If you've only got a few routines, leave it off. You won't miss it.
One thing worth knowing: toggling Groups off deletes your folders permanently. The routines stay, but they'll be back in a single list. Save a backup first if you think you might want them back.
Tips
Tips shows short hints throughout the app — things like how to reorder groups or move routines between folders. Most of it you'll figure out on your own, but they're there if you want them.
Once you've got the hang of things, toggle it off. They won't be offended.
Templates
Templates are the routines behind Patter's use cases — billing a client project, running a weekly financial review, learning an instrument, and more. Real routines, built out properly, ready to add with a tap.
Use one as-is, or pull it apart and make it yours. Either way, it's faster than starting from scratch.
Keep Screen On
Keep Screen On does what it says. Toggle it on and your screen stays awake during a run session — useful when your hands are covered in flour and you're three steps into a recipe.
It only applies while you're in a session. Leave it and your regular screen timeout kicks back in.
Language
Patter follows your phone's language by default. We currently support English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese. If your phone runs in something else, you'll get English.
You can also override it here — handy if your phone is in one language but you'd rather use Patter in another.
Edit
Edit modes control how much of the editing interface you see. There are three.
Build Mode turns everything on — all the tools for creating and organising routines, habits, and groups. This is where you set things up.
Run Mode turns everything off. No buttons, no distractions. Just your routines, ready to run. This is where you'll spend most of your time once things are in place.
Custom Mode lets you pick. Maybe you want Duplicate available but not Delete. Maybe you like having Rename around but don't need Multi-Select. Toggle each tool individually: Copy & Paste, Duplicate, Multi-Select, Rename, and Delete.
The idea is simple. You build a routine once, then you stop building and start doing. The editing tools are there when you need them and gone when you don't.
Watch
Watch Ticker scrolls the current habit name across your Apple Watch display. Useful when habit names are longer than a small screen can show at once — which, if you're being descriptive, they will be.
Watch Dark Mode switches the Watch app to a dark background. The default is light, but if you're running a routine at five in the morning, you'll probably want this on.
Data
Save Backup saves everything — groups, routines, habits — exactly as they are right now. You can save as many as you like, and they're all stored in Backups.
Backups lists your saved snapshots. The top one, Current Data, is always your live data. Tap any backup to export it as .txt, .md, or .patter. The first two are plain text without groups — good for sharing or editing outside the app. The .patter format is the full picture, groups and all, and can be imported straight back in.
Older backups can also be restored, which overwrites everything with that version. Worth a moment's thought before tapping.
Import brings in a .txt, .md, or .patter file. You can add the imported routines alongside what you've already got, or replace everything entirely.
Reset All Data wipes the lot. You know what it does. Save a backup first.
