Features and shortcuts

Default global shortcuts

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Show / hide	Ctrl+Shift+H	The boss key; press it again to restore the window
Previous / next page	Ctrl+Alt+← / Ctrl+Alt+→	Works while another window is focused
Click-through mode	Ctrl+Shift+M	Use the same shortcut to exit
Toggle always on top	Ctrl+Shift+T	Controls whether the reader stays in front
Single-line mode	Ctrl+Shift+L	Restores the previous window size when disabled

While the reader is focused, use ←/→, Page Up/Page Down, or Space to turn pages; ↑/↓ to scroll; Esc to hide; and Ctrl+F to search.

Every global shortcut can be recorded again in Settings. Select a field and press the new combination, press Backspace to disable it, then select Apply shortcuts.

Reading modes

• Single-line: Shrinks the window to one line. Move by line with arrow keys, the mouse wheel, or clicks.
• Click-through: Hides the interface and leaves only text while clicks pass to the window underneath.
• Disguise: Renders the book as source-code comments with line numbers.
• Auto-hide: Hides after an idle period and waits for the boss key.

Chapters and search

FreeFish recognizes common Chinese chapter headings and falls back to length-based splitting. If detection is wrong, change the chapter-title regular expression in Settings and select Reparse current book.

The table of contents filters by chapter name. Full-text search opens the matching passage and highlights it.

Troubleshooting

The text is garbled

Convert uncommon encodings to UTF-8 with Notepad or VS Code.

A global shortcut does not work

Another application may already use it. Settings identifies failed registrations so you can choose another combination. Security software may also need to allow global shortcuts.

The reader does not float above a game

Normal windows cannot overlay exclusive fullscreen applications. Switch the game to borderless-windowed mode.

The window cannot be clicked

Click-through mode is active. Press Ctrl+Shift+M by default to leave it.