How do I tell Nova about me and my family?

Goal

Enter the people in your household and their calendars so Nova knows who is meant.

Before you start

• For calendars, access to Calendar. See Which macOS permissions does Nova need?
• For Life notes and Monthly question, the Expert view. The switch is in How do I switch between Simple and Expert?

Steps

1. Settings, Profile & family, the People tab. The card is Household. The tab is there in Simple and in Expert.
2. Add person adds a new row. Enter the Name and pick the Relationship. For a relationship outside the list, pick Other, and the field Relationship (free) appears, for example for a brother or a mother. You can add yourself as well.
3. Under Calendar, press Load calendar list, then tick the calendars that belong to this person. When you ask about a person by name, Nova reads exactly those calendars.
4. Remove takes a person out again. Rows without a name are dropped on save.
5. The Life notes tab, Expert only: Nova keeps lasting family facts in the file Familie.md. Choose folder… sets the folder. Without a folder of its own, Nova uses the Markdown folder. Same as Markdown folder resets it.
6. When you tell Nova something lasting, such as an allergy, it quietly writes it to Familie.md. One-off events belong in the calendar, not in the notes.
7. The Monthly question tab, Expert only: Monthly family question asks once a month “How is the family? What’s new?”. Pick the Weekday and Time next to it. The default is Sunday, 11:00. Test family question shows the question right away.

Example

“What’s in Lena’s calendar today?” — “Remember: Lena can’t eat nuts.”

Common problems

• Nova writes life notes without a confirmation card. You see what is in there in Familie.md in the chosen folder and change it there.
• If the notes folder is missing, Nova holds the draft and says once that the folder is missing. It goes into the file only once a folder is set.
• The monthly question only comes when at least one person or life notes are entered, and at most once a month.
• Without a ticked calendar, Nova knows the person but reads no calendar for them. For short names without a person, see How do I give a calendar a short name?
• Your name for how Nova addresses you goes under Appearance, the Avatar tab, card Look, field Your name (for prompts). Your home address is in How do I add my home to Nova?