Writing in the editor

The editor is built so you never wait for it. Type as fast as you like and every letter lands. Structure comes from one key: slash.

Slash for structure

Press / at the start of a line or after a space and a small palette appears. A slash inside a word, as in and/or, is left alone. Keep typing to filter it, then press Return. /text turns any block back into a paragraph, and a one-shot form works too: /task Call the vet makes a to-do that already says Call the vet. The words already on the line stay, the slash query disappears, and the line becomes what you chose.

The palette reads initials too: h2, td, nl, bl all land where you expect. The names you already know from other apps work as well: ul, ol, hr, bq, sep.

Prefer a menu? On iPhone, the keyboard bar starts with three controls, + for the block palette, the browse button for Insert and format with a search field, and Aa for actions on the current block, including Turn into, followed by bold, italic, strike, highlight, link, and list buttons, with undo, redo, and dismiss pinned at the end. On Mac, ⌃⌥I opens the same browser beside the note when there is room, or as a popover when there is not, and hovering a command shows a small preview of what it produces.

Inline formatting

Type the marks and they style when you close them: **bold**, _italic_, ` code , ~~strike~~. Or select words and use the formatting bar. On Mac the bar floats above the selection with Bold, Italic, Highlight, Code, Add link, and Turn into, and the shortcuts print on hover: ⌘ B, ⌘ I, ⇧ ⌘ H, ⇧ ⌘ E`.

One undo removes the phrase you just typed and puts you back where you were. The Mac editor keeps a hundred undoable steps.

Turn a line into a task

A checkbox you write in a note, with words after it, is a real task. Type /todo or /task, write the task, and the line becomes a to-do. The task itself is created when the note next saves, which happens on its own within moments, and it appears in Tasks. Check it in either place and it completes in both. On Mac a linked to-do wears a faint mint tint once it has landed; hover it for a preview and Open task for the full inspector.

Older notes with unlinked checkboxes stay as written until you edit the line or promote it: Make a task in the line's block menu on iPhone, or Make task beside the line's text in the note's header menu on Mac.

Tables

Insert a table with /table. On Mac, hover it for three compact menus, Insert, Format, and More, which add rows and columns, set a header row or column, align cells, sort by a column, and pin the header while you scroll. Drag a column edge to resize it, drag the last column's edge to resize the whole table, and drag a row's lower edge to give it room. On iPhone, a toolbar above the keyboard adds and removes rows and columns and toggles Header row and Header column, and a long press on a cell offers move, align, column width, and delete. Tab and Shift Tab move between cells; Return stays in the cell, and ⌘↩ adds a row on Mac.

Images

Add an image with /image or from the keyboard bar. It uploads before it is placed, joins the note even if you kept typing meanwhile, and a pending image offers Try again or Cancel if the upload fails. On Mac, choose S, M, or L to fit the image in the column and add alt text to describe it.

Toggles

A toggle folds its nested writing away. Tap the triangle on iPhone or click it on Mac. Closed toggles keep their contents in the note; they are just tidier to scan.

Find in note

Search inside a long note, walk the matches, and replace one or all. One undo brings the replacements back.

If a shared edit cannot be applied

Notes autosave, and two devices can write the same note at once. Kept replays your later edit on top of the newer version so both survive. Once in a great while a paragraph you were rewriting was deleted elsewhere while you typed, and there is nowhere for your words to land. Kept keeps a notice on the note and offers Keep a copy: your latest words, including what had not saved yet, become a private note in Notes, and the shared note reloads. Nothing is thrown away.

Next: The daily note.