Writing in the editor

On iPhone Duo, choosing a note on the open landscape spread shows it immediately beside the list, including when partly folded. On the closed cover and upright, the row opens into the final reading page; its title and text stay in place when the move finishes. Folding during that move settles the note into its new page. The title and text stay clear of the dock and status column.

Opening a note from Quick Find on iPhone Duo keeps the place you searched from. Close or Delete note returns there; Undo restores a deleted note without reopening it. Upright, the note uses its own Close button with no second Done row. A result that has not loaded or could not be opened keeps a working Done button. If an open note disappears from the library, its page shows that it could not be opened and keeps its exit available.

On Mac, newly written checkbox lines keep their place in Tasks even if note saving begins before task linking is ready. Once linking is ready, finished lines become tasks without an iPhone edit; the line you are still writing waits until you leave it. A linked line has a quiet mint fill and outline in light and dark appearance, so you can distinguish it from a checkbox that has not become a task.

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.

On iPhone the slash menu stays open as you type a command, including /table. Press Return to insert the selected command.

On iPhone the keyboard's grey inline prediction is only a suggestion, and it is saved only when you accept it. Press space or Return, tap it, or type the rest of the word, and the whole word lands once. Delete drops the suggestion along with the one letter it deletes. A tap elsewhere, closing a task, or putting the keyboard away while it shows drops the suggestion and keeps the letters you typed. Leaving a note can go either way: sometimes the keyboard accepts its own suggestion as you go, and then the whole word is saved. Words you compose with a Japanese keyboard are kept the moment you choose them, never with the letters you typed to spell them, even when you type over selected words. All of this works the same in notes, the daily note, and a task's description.

On iPhone, tap in the empty space after a line's last word, or in the page margin to its right, and the caret goes to the end of that line, never in front of its last word, so the next Return or letter lands after everything you wrote. A tap in the margin to the left of a line puts the caret at the start of its words. On Mac, a click after a line's last word, or in the page margin to the right of the note column, puts the caret at its end, and a click in the margin to the left of a line puts it at the start of its words.

The line you are writing stays in view. On iPhone it stays above the keyboard bar, clear of where the page fades into it, while you type, after Return, and after Undo, even at the end of a long note, at the largest text sizes, and when the keyboard grows taller; after Undo the caret lands once and stays put. On Mac, Return at the end of a long note keeps the new line in the window.

On Mac, the open note's title stays on one complete line in the Notes header. A long title shortens at the end instead of wrapping into the page or losing the tops or bottoms of its letters.

Tags stay beside the open note's identity on Mac. The tags a note already has stay visible. The add-tag chip appears when you point at the tags row or focus it, or you can add a tag from the note's actions; its plus stays separate from the typing caret and it shows the quieter prompt Add tag until you type.

Type a complete pipe row such as | Name | Status | and press Return to make a table with Name and Status as its two headers. The opening | stays as text while you type. Undo restores the original line.

Promoting a checkbox keeps unrelated unsynced task edits intact, including the latest title after restarting. If the device cannot safely save a promoted checkbox, Kept keeps it available to retry.

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, and so is a second slash typed straight after the first: // stays in your line as two slashes and the palette closes, so typing a web address such as https:// works as you expect. 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.

When the palette is taller than the room it has, it scrolls, and it always stops on a whole row, so no command is ever shown cut in half at its edge, nor a section name like LISTS. When your typing leaves only a row or two, the palette shrinks to those rows. On iPhone it opens under the line you are typing whenever there is room there for four rows, sitting right under that line when nothing is below it (no words, and no picture, table, or card), and opens above only when there is not, always clear of your line. The note saving in the background never closes an open palette or takes away the slash you typed.

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.

Choose /template and pick a template to add its headings and writing spaces to the note already open. Kept places it after the line your caret is in, or replaces the single empty line in a blank note, then moves the caret to the first space ready for writing. The headings stay in the note as ordinary writing, and the first words you type into a writing space stay in search, share, and export. The whole template is one Undo step. This works in ordinary notes and daily notes on iPhone and Mac. If the template library cannot load, choose Try again.

The template search shows Return and Escape key guidance on Mac. iPhone leaves those desktop key instructions out.

Prefer a menu? On iPhone, the keyboard bar starts with two doors. + opens Insert, everything that adds something to the note, and Aa opens Style, everything that changes the line you are on and the words you selected. Each opens straight to its own list with a search field at the top, and a selector inside the sheet swaps between the two without closing it. Style shows what each choice looks like beside its name, so Heading 1 is visibly larger than Heading 2 before you pick it. Each row also carries the shorthand you can type instead, in the muted monospace beside its name: ## for Heading 2, [] for a to-do, ~~ for strikethrough. Rows sit two or three across only where a tile is wide enough for a whole name and its shorthand; on a narrower phone they stack one across rather than cut a name short. Whatever you type to search stays with the list you typed it in. After the two doors comes Page, drawn as a page with a plus: it makes a new page inside the note, puts a link to it on your line (or right under it), and opens the page on its title so you can name it. Then comes the block actions button, drawn as a paragraph mark (¶) so it is never mistaken for the note's own ⋯ menu, then bold, italic, strike, highlight, link, and list buttons, with undo, redo, and dismiss pinned at the end. At accessibility text sizes the bar keeps its size, and touching and holding any of its buttons shows it enlarged with its name. The bar has a ground of its own, so no words from the page show through it or in the gap above it, in light, in dark, and with Increase Contrast, where its top edge draws stronger. Find in note's bar and a selected picture's verbs sit in the same place above the keyboard and have the same ground. A task's page scrolled to its end with the keyboard up rests its last line above the bar. The block actions button opens Turn into, Move up, Move down, and more in a small bar right against the line you are on, never over it and never over the note's title: above the line, or below it when there is no room above (the first lines of a note), or when below hides fewer of your other lines. Its words stay on one line; at accessibility text sizes its buttons show icons, and VoiceOver and the large content viewer still name each one. The command group slides sideways only when it is too wide for your screen, and the edge that is hiding something fades so you can see there is more that way. That edge cuts the next button through its middle, so a button you can see whole is never under the fade, and the sliding group stops short of Undo. When every command already fits, the bar sits still. A successful choice closes the sheet and puts you back on the line. On Mac, ⌃⌥I shows or hides Insert and Style at the trailing edge of the Notes column, beside the note: nothing floats over the page. Hovering a command shows a small preview of what it produces. See Notes on Mac.

On an open iPhone Duo, Insert and Style replace the list page while the note keeps its full writing width. In an upright partial fold, tools use the lower page. Folding to one page continues the same tool session in a sheet; unfolding returns it to the context page, keeping the destination and search. A note opened elsewhere keeps its own tool layout. Folding or unfolding keeps the same editor and Undo history.

A choice your line cannot take stays in the list, dimmed, with a short reason rather than doing nothing. In a task's description, where a note's full range is not available, the choices that description cannot hold read that way instead of quietly disappearing. So does a style your line already has. Closing the sheet puts the keyboard and your place in the line back exactly where they were. That holds when the choice redraws the line: Style > To-do, a bullet, or a number each draw a marker in front of your words, and your caret stays in the same place in the line, so a to-do chosen with the caret at the end of the line leaves it at the end, and the next letter you type lands there. A selection keeps covering the same words. Undo puts the caret back where it was before the choice, and Turn into from the block actions button or the wide-screen dock does the same.

Turn several lines into

Select more than one line and Turn into converts every touched block at once, as one undo step, on both platforms. On iPhone, reach it from the selection menu that appears over your highlighted words; Aa stays a one-line control, even when several lines are selected. A selection that starts or ends partway through a line takes the whole line with it; nothing splits mid-line. Converting to Quote, Callout, or Code gives each line its own quote, callout, or code block, never one shared block. A target the selection cannot use stays in the list, grayed out with a short reason instead of doing nothing: Divider always reads this way for more than one line, since a rule holds no words, and a heading level every selected line already has reads this way too. A rule caught in the middle of the selection is left exactly as it is while the lines around it convert. When you paste Markdown, the same rules apply to what lands: headings, lists, and rules arrive as real blocks, and plain pasted text keeps its line breaks inside one paragraph.

Choosing a target does not yet preview which words are about to change; only your own selection highlight shows that, so a selection that starts or ends partway through a line does not visibly warn you that the rest of that line is coming along.

Outline and word count

Open a note and choose Outline. On iPhone it is in the note's ⋯ menu. The sheet is titled Outline and shows the word count, such as 12 words, then the headings in the order you wrote them. A heading inside a folded section stays out of the list. Choose a heading and the note scrolls to it. On Mac, choose a heading in Outline and word count from the note’s ⋯ menu. A note with no headings says No headings. Words inside a table, and words inside a folded section, still count.

Keep writing after a block

A new page card leaves the caret on the line after it, so the next card follows the first. Tap or click the blank paper below the last block to keep writing. If the note ends in ordinary writing, including a heading, to-do, or list, that tap puts the caret at the end of its words without adding an empty line. A final card, picture, table, code block, quote, or callout gets a new paragraph after it. This also works in a daily note on Mac.

On iPhone, body paragraphs, quote text, and checklist words share a text edge, with markers in the gutter. This edge follows text-size changes while the note stays open. On Mac, quote text uses the checklist text inset. Daily notes on both platforms use the daily checklist’s own text column.

The iPhone formatting bar reserves space above the home indicator when the keyboard is down. Its commands keep their order as you move between block types; unavailable commands stay visible and dimmed. Scroll for more commands, with a fade at either edge hiding more tools. Undo, Redo, and Dismiss stay pinned. Table-cell tools use the same safe-area spacing and edge fades.

In code, a callout, or a quote, Return adds a line inside the frame. Return on an empty last line starts a paragraph outside it. In a quote or callout that line may hold spaces; in code it must be truly empty, because indentation belongs to the snippet. An empty quote or callout turns back into ordinary text when you press Return in it. In a code block, Command-Return also leaves the frame, and Down Arrow at the end of a code block that ends the note does the same; with writing below it, Down Arrow moves into that writing. A toggle has a chevron beside its title; its nested lines sit one step to the right. The chevron keeps its own proportions and is centered beside the text.

The editor moves only as far as needed to show the writing line. On Mac it keeps the space reserved by the toolbar when bringing the first line into view. Closing the slash menu removes its extra scroll space, and a short note stays below its title.

Return from the title and reopen

Press Return in the title to start writing on an empty line before the body. An existing heading and its words stay intact. If that line is already empty, Kept reuses it. Reopening a note restores your last body caret on that device, without adding an empty block above the first heading. On iPhone the line returns into view while the keyboard stays closed until you choose to write. Positions stay separate for each account and note. Deleting the note or signing out clears its saved position on that device.

Inline formatting

Type the marks and they style when you close them. The words after the closing marker return to the style you were using before the pair: **bold**, _italic_, ` code , ~~strike~~. Or select words and use the formatting bar. On iPhone and Mac the bar holds Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, Highlight, Code, Add link, and Turn into; on Mac it floats above the selection and the shortcuts print on hover: ⌘ B, ⌘ I, ⇧ ⌘ X, ⇧ ⌘ H, ⇧ ⌘ E. Choose **Add link**, type or paste the address, and press Return: the selected words stay as they were and become an ordinary underlined link. Escape closes the field and changes nothing. You can also copy an address and paste it onto selected words: the words stay and become a link to it at once, and one Undo makes them plain again. Pasting anything else, or an address with nothing selected, pastes as before. On Mac, ⌘ K` and Edit → Add Link… open the same field, and right-clicking linked words offers Open Link, Copy Link, Edit Link…, and Remove Link (see Notes on Mac). On iPhone, Bold, Italic, and Underline in the system Format menu write the same marks as the formatting bar.

Select across a divider and the mark lands on the words on both sides. The rule itself is skipped. One undo takes the mark off both sides together. If some of the selected words already carry the mark and some do not, the mark is added to every selected word; a second press takes it off all of them.

Heading 2 already uses the heavier display face, and a linked to-do already sits on its mint chip. Bold still lands as a mark and lights the control, so a second press can take it off. The letters do not get a heavier face on top of that. On Mac, Bold and Italic in the Font menu, and their Unbold and Unitalic forms, write and clear the same marks, including on a Heading 2. With no words selected, Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, Highlight, and Code apply to what you type next; choose the style again to turn it off. On Mac, Command-B and Command-I work this way too. A Font panel change Kept has no mark for, such as a different family or a size step, is refused the same way instead of doing nothing.

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

Delete and cut words

Deleting a selected whole word on iPhone can take one adjoining space with it so the remaining words keep one space between them. Cut and Delete use this same rule. Other selections remove only what you selected. Whether you delete once or hold the delete key down to take whole words, the words on the page match what Kept saves, and the next letter lands where you put it. This applies in notes, the daily note, and a task's description.

Paste

Kept uses its own fonts and colors for pasted writing on iPhone and Mac. HTML copied from a web page keeps headings, bold, italic, links, and nested lists, whether the clipboard holds a fragment or a complete page, including when it also holds a plain-text copy. A few words copied from a page land inside the line you are writing, with their bold, italic, and links. A copy from Google Docs keeps its headings and lists and only the words that were bold. Nested lists copied from TextEdit, Notes, or Pages keep every item under its parent. A range copied from Google Sheets, Excel, or Numbers pastes as its tab-separated text, so Kept still offers to make it a table. Inside a code block, a paste is always the plain text, with its indentation exactly as copied. Markdown arrives as real headings, lists, and rules; plain text keeps its line breaks inside one paragraph; inside a code block the text lands exactly as copied; and a web address on its own line becomes a link card, while one pasted over selected words or inside a sentence becomes a link (see Links).

Select across several lines and paste, and what you paste replaces exactly what you selected, as one undo step. One Undo brings back the lines you replaced and puts your selection back. This works on iPhone and Mac alike, including Select All over a list. Paste and Match Style lands the same way as Paste, and a word you are still composing stays, with the paste landing after it. HTML and other formatted text are read in the background first; if you keep typing or move your cursor before it is ready, Kept leaves it on the clipboard to paste again where you want it.

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. On iPhone it does not wait for that: the moment you move off the line, with Return, a tap on another line, or by putting the keyboard away, the note saves and the line becomes a task as you reach the next one. A save while you are still writing the line keeps your words but waits for you to finish it, so each to-do becomes exactly one task, named with its whole words and linked back to this note. Check it in either place and it completes in both. In a note you share with people, checkboxes stay a shared checklist instead and never become tasks (Writing together).

Ticking a box leaves your caret where it was, so the next word or the next Return lands where you meant it. Press Return at the very start of a to-do and an empty to-do opens above it: the to-do you were on keeps its tick and its task, and your caret stays at the start of its words. Both work the same way on iPhone and Mac.

On iPhone, while a checkbox with words is waiting to become a task, its words sit inside a faint dashed outline in the shape of the task chip. The outline is not a task yet: there is nothing to open, and tapping the words just puts your caret there. When the line lands, the outline fills in as the chip.

On iPhone, the moment a line becomes a task a quiet line appears under it: Added to Tasks · Open · Undo. It belongs to that line and no other, so two checkboxes kept by the same save each get their own, and each promotion gets exactly one, however many times the note saves after it; VoiceOver hears it once. It never sits on the line you are writing. When you press Return after a to-do, the new line is right under it, so the receipt sits at the end of the to-do's own words instead, if they leave room on that row. If they fill the row, no receipt appears for that line: the chip still shows it is a task, and tapping its words opens it. The same happens if you move your caret into a line a receipt is covering. Taps on Open and Undo always go to the receipt, even where it is drawn over another task's words. Open shows you the task you just made: the keyboard goes away, the task's page opens over your note, and closing it brings you back to the line. Undo takes back that one promotion and leaves the other alone: the words you wrote stay exactly as you wrote them, the line goes back to plain ink, and the next save will not make the task again. The receipt is muted type on the page rather than a banner over it, and it leaves after a few seconds, the same window every Undo in Kept gives you, longer with VoiceOver on. At large text sizes the words, Open, and Undo stack so none of them is squeezed off.

If a finished Mac line is waiting for its task to save, Kept keeps that obligation through a restart and retries it with the same task identity. A temporary local save failure cannot mark the task as safely kept.

A linked to-do is a task item once it has landed, on iPhone and on Mac: its words sit on a faint rounded mint chip, a shade heavier and darker than the prose around them. That chip, not the receipt, is what says the line is a task from then on. On Mac you hover it for a preview and Open task for the full inspector, or Command-click its words.

On iPhone, tap a task item's words and the task's page opens over your note, with its details, steps, and Done; close it and you are back on the line. Tap the box to complete the task, the same completion you would get in Tasks. The line your caret is in stays ordinary text, so you can keep writing or fixing a to-do without opening it; to change the words of a task item somewhere else in the note, press and hold on them and the caret lands where you pressed, or tap just after the words. While that line owns the caret or a selection, Preview task appears in the keyboard bar: tap it to open the same task page at its first stop, then close it and you are back on the same words with the keyboard up. If you delete the task from that page, the words stay in the note, the link clears, and Preview task goes away. Open task is also in the line's block menu, which you reach by pressing and holding the box. On iPhone the box itself is drawn in full ink while the line is open and turns mint once you keep it, so you can see the state of a to-do before you read it.

Older notes with unlinked checkboxes stay as written until you change that note or promote a line. Opening a note, reading it, or moving your caret through it never turns them into tasks. On iPhone, the next save that follows an edit anywhere in the note makes each written checkbox in it a task. On Mac, an older unchanged checkbox stays ink until you edit that line or choose Make a task; newly written lines do not need another edit. If task creation is waiting for readiness on Mac, Kept remembers each new line through a restart. Finished lines become tasks when readiness returns, even after you close a shared note. A line you are still writing waits until you leave it. To promote one line on its own, use Make a task in the line's block menu on iPhone, or Make a task in the note's More menu on Mac, which lists the note's checkbox lines.

Delete the task and the checkbox stays in your note, now deliberately unlinked. It will not become a task again on its own, not on the next save and not when you rewrite its words, and that holds even when the note is open on the same iPhone or Mac and you are still writing in it as the deletion goes through, whether the line became a task on its own or through Make a task. Make a task links it again whenever you want it back.

Keep a note as a list

A shopping list or a packing list is a list, not a dozen tasks. Open the note's ⋯ menu on iPhone, or its More menu on Mac, and choose Keep as a list. Every checkbox in the note becomes a plain list line, unlinked the same way as deleting its task: ticking it ticks the line and nothing else, and no save turns it into a task again, even when you rewrite its words. Tasks those lines made that you have not touched leave Tasks. A task you worked on stays in Tasks, unlinked from its line: one you finished, gave a date, a reminder, a high or critical priority, a description or a goal, ticked a step on, or commented on. The note's words and ticks never change.

A receipt names what happened, for example Kept as a list · removed 6 tasks · 1 task stays in Tasks, with Undo. Undo puts every line back as it was and brings the same tasks back, linked to the same lines. The menu offers Keep as a list only while a checkbox in the note is a task or would become one, and never in a note you share with people, where checkboxes are never tasks. A checkbox you write in the note afterwards becomes a task as usual; choose Keep as a list again to keep it a list line too, or Make a task to promote one line.

Even without it, an undated checkbox from a note is never picked for your Top 3 or Quick wins on its own (Today).

Nest a list

A list item or to-do can sit one level under the item above it. On iPhone the keyboard bar shows labeled Indent and Outdent controls while you are on a list item. Press Tab, or choose Indent in the line's block menu. Shift-Tab or Outdent lifts it back. Return on an empty nested item lifts it, and Backspace at the start of a nested item does the same. Numbered lists start at 1 again under each parent. The first item in a list cannot indent, and a nested item cannot indent further.

The editor draws one level of nesting. Paste an outline that goes deeper, from another app or from Markdown, and every level below the first is drawn at that one nest: your words and their order are kept exactly as you pasted them, and the numbers you see count straight down the indent you can see. Lift or nest any line afterwards with Tab and Shift-Tab.

Columns

On Mac, drag a block's handle to the left or right of another block. A vertical guide previews the exact row and side where it will land, then the two blocks sit side by side. Repeat at either outside edge to make a third or fourth column. A row can hold up to four columns.

An empty Mac lane has no label or invitation while the note is at rest. Type or drop here appears only while you drag a block over that lane, then leaves with the drop target. When a columns row contains only Today panes, an empty lane keeps its saved proportion without drawing a divider into empty space.

Drag the full-height divider in the gap between two columns to change how much room each one has. The proportions stay with the note, so they look the same when you open it again. Double-click a divider to make its two columns equal. With keyboard focus on the divider, Left Arrow and Right Arrow adjust it in five percent steps; hold Shift for ten percent steps. VoiceOver Increase and Decrease use the same adjustment.

When a note window becomes too narrow for readable lanes, its columns stack from left to right without changing their stored widths. Widening the same window restores the side-by-side layout. Notes can place ordinary writing, tasks, images, tables, and Today panes in a lane. Each block's plus and grabber stay immediately beside that block, including in later lanes, and never cover its words.

Drag the last block out of a column to remove that lane. When only one occupied lane remains, Kept unwraps the layout into ordinary blocks. An empty lane remains a drop target and its menu offers Delete empty column, Distribute evenly, and Remove column layout. Each create, move, resize, delete, distribute, and unwrap action is one Undo step and can be redone.

Return at the end of a block continues in the same lane. Backspace and Forward Delete stop at a lane boundary instead of joining words from different columns. Command Down Arrow and Command Up Arrow move between text segments in column reading order. Tab keeps its usual Notes meaning: it nests a list item or to-do, moves through a table, and does not silently move a paragraph between columns. Native text selection stays within one lane; block and whole-document operations follow left-to-right column order.

On iPhone, two columns sit side by side in portrait with a quiet rule between them. Each lane stays independently editable, and widths authored on Mac keep the same proportions. Three or four columns, unusually narrow widths, and columns at larger accessibility text sizes keep a readable minimum width and scroll horizontally as one row. This preserves the note's column structure without squeezing or relabeling its writing. VoiceOver announces each lane's position, while the page itself shows only the words. An empty lane says Type here only while the note is being edited. The block menu offers Move to Previous Column, Move to Next Column, Move Out of Columns, and Remove Column Layout. iPhone does not create or resize columns by dragging sideways.

Older apps that do not draw columns still keep every child and every width. They show the writing in that same left-to-right, top-to-bottom order.

Tables

Insert a table with /table or Insert → Table. With Tables on for your account it starts with a Name and a Status property and a List or Table view, and it is covered in Tables: eight property types, Table, List, and Board views, filters, sorts, grouping, and rows that open as pages. Insert table and Add properties and views need a connection. When Kept cannot reach your notes, Insert table adds a simple table and says Added a simple table. Add properties and views from its menu later. Add properties and views leaves the table as it is and says Add properties and views needs a connection. Your table is unchanged. Until Tables is on, you get the plain grid described here, and a grid you already have stays a plain grid until you choose Add properties and views from its menu.

Turn into table. Paste rows copied from a spreadsheet and Turn into table appears beside the paste. It goes away when you keep typing, move to another note, or scroll away from the paste, and the same conversion stays in the paste menu.

The plain grid. On iPhone, dark table headers use a solid lifted fill above the writing page. 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. On iPhone a column is widened to fit its longest word at your text size when the table opens, when you add or remove a row or column, and when your text size changes, so an amount like $18,400 stays whole; at larger text sizes the table grows wider and scrolls sideways, and the edge hiding more columns or more controls fades. On Mac a column is at least as wide as its longest word, so a word stays on one line and a phrase wraps between words. When that makes the table wider than the note, the table scrolls sideways. The widths you set are kept exactly: nothing Kept widens so a word stays whole is saved into the note. While you type in a cell, the bar above the keyboard holds Previous, Next, Undo, Redo, Bold, Italic, and + Row, sliding sideways when they do not fit, with Dismiss the keyboard pinned at its end. Tab and Shift Tab move between cells; Return stays in the cell, and ⌘↩ adds a row on Mac. On Mac a click in a cell types there at once, the arrow keys leave the table at its edges instead of stopping, Escape selects the whole table, and right-click offers Delete table; see Notes on Mac.

The Header row and Header column switches show whether they are on, and VoiceOver reads that state. A button that cannot do anything, such as removing the only row or the only column, is unavailable instead of silent. Adding or removing a column keeps every other column's width.

New table headers are named for their positions. The first text you type into an untouched default replaces Column 1 or its matching position name; after that, ordinary typing edits the name you wrote. Delete a column and untouched defaults renumber from Column 1, while a heading you wrote keeps its name.

When properties and views are enabled, table paste and Undo save as a complete group; if any change conflicts, Review changes keeps the whole draft even after you reopen Kept. Resolve each item with Use this device against the current saved values or Use saved value to keep the discarded draft in your account’s recovery history; Copy value keeps input for a removed row, property or view without restoring it, and a newer table format asks you to update Kept.

Images

Add an image with /image or from the keyboard bar. It uploads and is checked for display 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 or display check fails. A failed paste leaves your note unchanged. On Mac, rest the pointer on the picture or select it to show S, M, L, Alt, and Delete at its top-right. Click the picture to select it; double-click it, or press Space, to open it in Quick Look. Delete removes a selected picture in one step, and Undo brings it back with its size and alt text. A picture that lands at the end of the note leaves a typing line under it, so the next word has somewhere to go.

You can paste a picture too. Copy a screenshot or an image, paste it, and it lands under the line you are on through the same upload, with the same Try again and Cancel. Words you had selected stay where they are. When the clipboard holds words as well as a picture, Kept pastes the words, and a web address copied with a picture pastes as the address. On the Mac Today page, and in today's note before it has started, Kept tells you where a picture can go instead of pasting it. A task description on the Mac takes a pasted picture the same way. On iPhone a task description takes no pictures, and on both a table cell holds words only, so there Paste is not offered for a picture on its own.

Dividers

A divider arrives with a fresh line already under it, ready to type, and one undo takes back the rule and that line together.

Press Return on a divider and a new line opens under it, so a divider at the end of a note is never a dead end. A divider nested inside a collapsible stays inside it.

On Mac, a note that already ends on a picture, table, link card, embed, or divider keeps a typing line under it. Click that line, press Return or Down Arrow on a selected picture, or press Down Arrow in a table's last row to keep writing. That click or key adds the line to the note as one step, so Undo takes it back. Opening the note does not add a blank paragraph by itself.

Links

Paste a web address on its own line and it becomes a link card the moment it lands, with nothing to confirm. The card always shows where it goes: the site's name on top and the address under it. One Undo turns the card back into the address as plain text; a second Undo takes back the paste itself. An address pasted inside a sentence lands as its own words and becomes an ordinary link. Pasted over words you selected, it links those words instead of replacing them, and they keep any bold or italic they wore. In a code block an address stays plain text. Kept links web pages and email addresses only, so an address it would never open is not offered as a link.

Tap or click a card to open it in your browser. On iPhone, press and hold a card for Open Link, Copy Link, Show as Link, and Delete; on Mac, right-click it for the same four. Show as Link turns the card back into ordinary linked text and leaves your cursor at the end of it.

To remove a card from the keyboard, put the cursor at the start of the line under it and press Delete: the first press selects the card, the second removes it, and Undo brings it back. With a card selected, Return or Space opens it.

A card always shows the address you pasted, even while a title is still coming in. If you already gave the card a name, or an imported note already carried one, that name stays. When a public page title is available, the card adds it above the address and may show the site's icon; if that lookup is off, fails, or never ran, the card stays the destination you pasted. Internal Kept note links are never looked up. The lookup never waits on your typing.

A card opens the address exactly as you pasted it, and Copy Link hands over exactly that. Some addresses carry characters that don't show up on screen and would send you somewhere other than the site they appear to name; when Kept can't open an address as written, the card reads Link unavailable and offers only Show as Link and Delete, so you can read the address as text and decide for yourself.

Your day inside the daily note

Today's Top 3, Quick wins and Habits live on Today and are never written into the note on their own: typing into today's note, pressing Undo, or opening it from Notes adds nothing, on iPhone and on Mac. When you want your Top 3 beside your words, place it yourself with /three, and it sits in the writing as its own block that you write around exactly as you write around a table or a picture.

A block you place, or one an earlier version of Kept saved into a note, is never removed or moved for you. In today's note it draws the live day. Top 3 uses the same priority cards as Today, and Quick wins and Habits use the same to-do rows. Checking a box makes the same task or habit change as Today. A refresh changes the day without replacing the text view or taking the keyboard. Open an earlier daily note and its panes are read-only: Top 3 comes from that day's stored plan, Quick wins from tasks kept that day, and Habits from that day's kept marks. A pane with no dated record takes no space and says nothing. The same record-or-nothing rule applies on iPhone and Mac.

Type /three on a line in today's note to put the Top 3 block there yourself. If the note already has it, /three takes you to it rather than adding a second one. On a line of its own, /three takes that line the way /divider does, and leaves you a fresh line underneath. The row is offered in daily notes only, because only a day has a Top 3.

A block is a window onto that day, not a copy of it. Keep a priority in Today and the note shows it kept, with no saving and nothing to sync, and the day can refresh while you are writing beside it without taking the keyboard or moving the caret. A day you have not planned yet says Not picked yet.

Because a block points at the day rather than holding it, Kept will not let you turn it into ordinary text. Aim Turn into or /text at it and every row is drawn dimmed with the reason: Top 3 points at your day, so it can't become text. Converting it would leave you with an address where your day was, and no way back. Delete still works, and so does Undo.

Copy, share, print, or export a daily note and each block comes out as a readable line: Top 3, and that day's own priorities after it. Never an address.

Cards

A card is another note shown as a block: its title on the card's face, and the page itself rising from under it with its first lines showing. A page you make from inside a note is a page inside that note (a subpage, see Pages inside pages); a card can also show a page that lives somewhere else, and then a small chain sits beside its title and VoiceOver calls it a Linked page.

There are four ways to make one:

• Type /card on a line: the line becomes a card for a new page titled with the words you had typed, or Untitled when the line was empty. /page (or /subpage) does the same with a link instead of a card.
• On iPhone, tap Page in the keyboard bar: a link to a new page lands on your line and the page opens on its title.
• Choose Turn into → Page: the lines you are on (paragraphs, headings, quotes, list items and to-dos, next to each other) move into a new page named by the first one, and one link takes their place. Words you select inside a line move on their own, and a link named for them takes their place in the sentence; the rest of the line stays exactly as it was. Pictures, tables, cards and a to-do that is already a task stay where they are.
• New subpage in a note's menu makes an empty page inside it and opens it.

One Undo puts your words back; the new page stays in Notes. A page with no title yet says Untitled in a quieter ink, an empty page reads Empty page, a page whose words have not reached this device yet shows soft placeholder lines, and a page that is gone reads Page unavailable, so a card is never a blank box.

Four sizes

Touch and hold a card on iPhone, or right-click it on Mac, and choose how it shows: Show as Link (the page's name on its own line), Small card (a square), Card (the full width, one title line and two lines of the page), or Wide card (two title lines and four lines of the page). The current one is ticked. Changing it is one step Undo takes back, and it never changes the page or where it lives. Small cards that follow each other share a row, up to four across: as many as fit while each square stays at least 100 points wide on iPhone, so a phone shows three and larger text shows two. Anything between two small cards, even an empty line, starts a new row. At the largest accessibility text sizes every card stacks the full width with its whole title. The same menu has Open, Move up, Move down, and Delete. Delete removes the card from this note and never the page it shows.

Small cards side by side

Small cards next to each other always share a row, however they got there:

• Drag a card. On iPhone, press a card, hold it for a moment, and move: it lifts and follows your finger. Let it go over a small card and it lands beside it, on the side you let go over, with a line standing in the gap to show where. Hold without moving and the card's menu opens instead.
• Make it small. Choose Small card for a card right after another small card.
• Type `/card` under a small card. On the line right under a small card, /card makes a small card too, and it joins the row.
• Delete one. Delete a card from a row and the others close the gap.

The note glides to its new layout, the row and everything under it moving together, instead of jumping. With Reduce Motion on, it changes at once.

Opening a page

Tap a card or a link on iPhone and the page grows out of it: the card opens to the whole screen, its title travels to become the page's title, and the page that was peeking out becomes the page. Back folds the page back into the card it came from. Every size opens the same way. With Reduce Motion on, the page simply fades in and Back is the ordinary one. A page opened this way never brings up the keyboard, unless it is empty and waiting for a name. On Mac, a card opens its page in the editor; see Notes on Mac. A page inside another one shows its path above its own title, starting from the top page: tap any page in it to go there, which is different from Back, which returns to wherever you opened the page from. A table row's page shows the table's note last, as Open source table.

A page with no name shows as Untitled page in the note's preview and in search. On Mac, a card has the same drag handle in the margin as any block, so you can drag it anywhere in the note.

A card reads as its page's title wherever the note is read as text: in search, in previews, in a copy, and in an export. An iPhone or Mac on an earlier version of Kept shows the card as a link to the page, and keeps it when it saves the note. Words someone types into that link on an earlier version stay in the note and show as text.

Collapsibles

A collapsible folds nested writing away. Make collapsible or /collapsible on one line keeps that line's style, including a heading, and opens an empty line inside it for you to type. A line that is already a collapsible stays as it is. Select several blocks and the same action wraps them as one group with an empty title; it does not turn each selected line into its own collapsible. Return at the end of a heading that already owns nested writing starts a paragraph after it, and those nested lines stay with the heading. Return on a collapsible that does not yet own anything opens the first line inside it.

Click or tap the triangle to hide or show what it owns. Closed collapsibles keep their contents in the note; they are just tidier to scan. Drag a block onto an expanded collapsible to put it inside, or drag it back out. A numbered list item can take a nested child the same way: drop on the item's middle to nest, or before or after it to stay at that item's level.

Older notes that used a dedicated toggle type still open. They behave as a paragraph-style collapsible header.

Find in note

⇧⌘F on Mac searches the note you are writing; ⌘F focuses Search notes in the sidebar. On iPhone, open Find in note from the note's three-dot menu, including while reading with the keyboard closed. The keyboard goes to the search field. Find in note covers the body, not the title. Return walks to the next match and Shift-Return to the previous; ⌘G and ⇧⌘G do the same. Matches stay highlighted in the body while you type in Find on both platforms. On iPhone, its bar and keyboard take the note's own light or dark, following it if it changes while Find is open. A collapsed collapsible opens for the search without changing the note.

Open Replace when you want to change one match or all of them. One undo brings a replace or replace-all back. Done returns you to the note after replacement; leaving the note closes Find's keyboard bar. Reopening Find restores the last query, selected, so the next thing you type replaces it. esc closes Find and leaves you on the match you walked to, or puts the caret back if you never moved.

Save status

Every open note has one small status line in its header. On iPhone it sits where the title goes; in today's note it sits under the date. On Mac it sits beside the note's actions. It keeps the same place and size whatever it says, so nothing on the page moves when it changes. On iPhone the line draws no glass while it has nothing to say, and sits in a glass capsule whenever it says something, so _Not synced_ reads as the button it is.

• Nothing while you type, or when you have only opened the note. Renaming the note counts as typing: the line goes quiet until the new name has gone.
• _Saving…_ when a change is taking longer than usual to leave. Each note is timed on its own, so opening a second note never inherits the first one's wait.
• _Offline_ when the device has no connection. Open the line to see _Offline · not synced_ when the note has changes that have not been sent.
• _Not synced_, in the caution colour, when a change could not be sent. Tap or click the line for Retry, or Review to see changes the server turned down. On iPhone the details say _Couldn't sync_ with the button beneath, drawn in the same light or dark as the note.
• _Synced_ once a change you made in this note has left the device, you have paused, the displayed page agrees with the note, and nothing about it is waiting, held for review, or refused. On iPhone the line's details show the time it synced. On Mac, a note that is in sync shows nothing at all, as Today's note does; the line speaks up when something is saving, offline, waiting, or refused.

Tap or click the line any time for the full sentence. VoiceOver reads the whole state and says it aloud once when you go offline or a change does not sync; ordinary saving stays quiet. On iPhone, touch and hold the line at larger text sizes to read it enlarged.

Review earlier writing

Availability: This recovery update is part of the 1.9.8 candidate. Full iPhone, Mac, and shared-delivery checks are still in progress. See Known limits.

When a newer copy is available after you reopen a note, that copy stays on the page while you review earlier writing. Earlier chosen versions and original writing remain available with their formatting. Writing that needs review stays separate from the saved copy; Kept holds typing and remote updates when it cannot safely match the typed page to the note.

If a collaborator deleted the note's last paragraph while you were typing, reopening on iPhone or Mac keeps the note empty and offers your held words for review. Choosing Use note version keeps that empty note without adding a blank paragraph. Tap or click the empty page to begin writing again. An ordinary empty note with no recovered writing still opens with a blank line ready to type.

Open Your draft or Your full draft to inspect earlier writing, and use Copy full draft to copy its words. Use note version in a member note, or Use latest version in a shared-link note, chooses the current note in the existing editor. In a member note that is the shared note as it stands: what collaborators changed while your typing was held, a deleted paragraph included, stays as they left it, and the choice sends no words of its own. The original recovered writing stays available until the choice is safely accepted. Undo returns the choice to review; Redo restores the choice. Reopening Kept does not silently treat an undone choice as delivered, even when Undo changed only the choice rather than the visible words.

If Kept says it could not keep the revision on this device, keep the page open and try again. Do not treat that message as a saved draft.

Imported documents open read-only

A document you brought into Kept through document import, such as a PDF or a file Kept read for you, opens read-only: you can read it, select its text, and copy from it, but there is no caret, and the formatting bar, slash palette, and paste do not act inside it. A line above the note explains why. Kept keeps the document exactly as it arrived, so what you read is what was filed. Notes you write yourself stay fully editable, including anything you paste into one; to work from an import, copy what you need into a new note.

Everything the document holds is read-only, not only its paragraphs. Its name stays as it was filed, a table inside it shows its numbers but takes no typing and no row or column commands, and a picture keeps the description and size it arrived with. Find still searches an import and walks its matches, and Replace is not offered; a match inside a folded section is counted but the section stays folded, because opening it would change the document. If you had already started typing when Kept learned the note was an import, your words are not lost: Kept offers Keep a copy, which saves them as a note of your own and reloads the import. A name you had typed comes along with that copy, and the note goes back to the name it was filed under.

Editing from a shared link

A shared link on iPhone keeps the owner's note separate from your own library while using the same calm reading and writing surface. A view link has no caret, formatting bar, slash palette, paste, or comment control. A comment link keeps the body read-only and offers an action to comment on the note. An edit link gives you the ordinary body-editing controls while keeping the title read-only, and every save uses that link's access to update the shared note. It never writes the owner's note through your personal notes store.

Kept pulls the latest shared body when the note opens and whenever the app returns to the foreground. While the note remains open, it also checks for newer saved changes. If an edit cannot be delivered, Kept keeps the full draft beside the shared note. Use latest version opens the current authorized note and keeps unresolved drafts available. Compare the versions, then paste only the words you want to reapply. See Review earlier writing.

An edit link can save your edit after someone has changed the same words. When your edit replaces those newer words, Kept says Your edit was saved and replaced newer words. The receipt stays through refreshes until a later save without a replacement. It does not offer that delivered edit as a lost draft. Any separate writing that still needs review stays available. If only some lines were saved, retrying sends the lines that were not saved; it does not send the saved lines again over changes made afterward.

If the link is revoked while the note is open, editing and comments stop. Kept says _This link no longer works. Ask the owner to share it again._ It does not say the note is missing, and it does not move the shared note into your own library.

Review words replaced by a collaborator

If you own the note and a collaborator's edit replaces newer words, opening that note on iPhone or Mac, or receiving the change while it is open, shows Replaced by a collaborator. The notice shows the earlier words recovered from your note's saved history. Choose Restore to put them back as a new saved change. Earlier revisions stay in history, and other lines in the note stay as they are.

When several replacements are available, Kept shows the most recent one it can restore. If none can be restored, it shows the most recent notice so you can copy any recovered words. Dismiss hides that revision's notices for this note and account on this device, including after you reopen the note. It does not change the shared note or hide a later replacement.

Restore needs the saved earlier block and an unchanged place to put it. If Kept cannot recover that block exactly, or the line has changed again, it leaves the note alone and explains why. Copy words keeps the recovered words for you to place yourself, including when Restore is unavailable. Wait for the latest note to arrive and review any typing still on the page before restoring. A connected agent cannot read these replacement notices or restore from them yet.

Availability: This notice and the corrected edit-link receipt are part of the 1.9.8 candidate. iPhone and Mac verification is still required before release.

Keep private details when writing together

Existing checklists, Keep as a list, labeled links, picture references and page cards keep their saved state when you write together. Invited editing uses the complete saved note and its accepted changes. Task, picture and child-page references keep their own access rules. See Shared note privacy.

Writing together

Availability: Editing a note together is arriving gradually while we finish it. If your share sheet shows only Publish and Export, it is not on for your account yet.

In a note you share with people (Edit a note together), everyone writes at once, on iPhone and Mac.

While you compose an accented letter or use an input method, other people's changes wait until your composed text is committed. Your letters and theirs then stay together in the note, including when both of you type in the same paragraph.

• Who is here. Beside Share at the top of the note, a small stack shows the people in the note right now: up to three circles with their initials in their own color, then +N. When nobody else is present, Shared remains beside Share so you can still see that the note is shared. Tap the avatar stack to see each person, the device they are on, and whether they are editing or idle; the same person on iPhone and Mac shows once. Someone who has not typed for a minute, or has put Kept away, fades to half strength, and leaves the stack soon after Kept goes to the background. People slide into and out of the stack; with Reduce Motion on they fade instead.
• Cursors with names. Each other person's cursor is a thin bar in their color with their first name and an iPhone or Mac symbol above it. The name shows while they move and fades after three seconds of stillness; with Reduce Motion on it disappears without fading. What they select is tinted in their color. While someone has typed in the last two seconds, the ring around their circle brightens. There are no spinners and no "someone is editing" warnings.
• Two people, one line. Your own typing lands at once; theirs arrives about a quarter of a second later, in the right place, and your cursor stays put when someone types above it. If you both type at exactly the same spot, both words stay. If someone deletes a paragraph while you are typing in it, the words they saw go and your new words stay as a paragraph in that place. A change only removes what its author saw.
• Undo is yours. Undo takes back your own changes, never anyone else's. If someone has since changed the lines an undo would restore, Kept drops that step rather than erase their words. Undo brings back your own change even if someone removed the same words a moment earlier.
• Checkboxes are shared. Anyone in the note can tick a box, and everyone sees it at once. In a shared note a checkbox stays a checkbox; it does not become a task for anyone (Turn a line into a task applies to notes that are yours alone).
• Tables are edited together too. In a shared note, people can edit a table's rows, properties, and views. A row's page keeps its own sharing, so a table never shares one (Share a table). A plain grid in a shared note shows its rows and numbers but takes no typing or row and column commands.
• Colors stay put. The owner always has the first color, and everyone else gets theirs in the order they joined, the same on every device.
• Offline. While writing in a shared note without a connection, read its status line. If your shared edits can be sent after reconnecting, it says _Offline · your edits are saved on this iPhone_ (or _this Mac_). Otherwise, the note's owner sees _Offline · your edits stay on this device. They are not in the shared note yet._ Those owner edits can be recovered with Keep a copy; they are not sent to the shared note automatically. Other people editing the note see _Offline · these edits are not saved on this device. Leaving this note or closing Kept loses them._ If Kept cannot tell where an edit belongs, it keeps those words beside the note under Your unsent edits, with Keep a copy.

In a version of Kept older than 1.9.2, a note shared with people takes no edits: what you change there is kept for Keep a copy, the way the next section describes, and never written over anyone's words. A note you published with an edit link saves the way the next section describes.

If a shared edit cannot be applied

Your shared-note edits are kept on this device before Kept tries to deliver them. _Kept on this device. Not delivered yet._ confirms local recovery; it does not say the other person has received the edit. If Kept cannot keep an edit, keep the note open and try again.

If the note changes while your editor is open, Kept keeps both versions rather than applying your words against an unrelated newer version. Your draft or Your full draft lets you inspect and copy the full retained writing before choosing what to reapply. A later conflict does not replace an older unresolved draft. Keep a copy, where offered, files a retained snapshot as a private note titled Unplaced edits and needs a connection. Loading the latest shared-link version keeps its unresolved drafts beside the note. See Review earlier writing.

This recovery is not a server history of every collaborator's earlier versions. It cannot recover an earlier remote paragraph that this device never retained. A private note still uses last-writer-wins for concurrent edits unless it holds a table with properties; see Sync and offline.

A new, empty note says _Start writing_ in the same size as the words you are about to type, at every text size, and the prompt steps aside once the note has the caret. A heading that wraps onto a second line keeps its lines close together, so it still reads as one heading, on iPhone and Mac.

A connected agent that can edit a note still cannot list Kept's automatic changes. That history tool is registered and stays unavailable.

Markdown export

Markdown export starts with the note’s title. It keeps highlights as ==highlight==, inline code with closing backticks, and collapsible sections as <details> with their nested writing inside. Table-cell line breaks become <br> so a cell stays in its row. Page cards use their current names. Internal page links still open in Kept. Words you selected for a page link keep their wording after joining paragraphs or renaming the linked page. A collapsible heading keeps its heading level inside the exported section, a to-do keeps its check, and code keeps its fence, language and line breaks.

Selected words linked to a page keep their wording when you copy or cut them and paste into another line, including at its start or end. Renaming that page later leaves those words as you wrote them. Reopening a note restores the cursor within its own line, including spaces and indentation at the end of code.

If an image uploads but cannot yet be displayed, Try again checks that same uploaded picture. It stays outside the note until it can be shown.

Next: The daily note.

At the largest text size, typing / opens the insert and format sheet when the space between the title and keyboard cannot show useful palette rows. It keeps your invocation rather than showing an empty strip. Note updates use plain accessibility wording.

Selected-word page links keep their own labels independently of automatic title links to the same page, including after Cut, Paste into a task-linked to-do, target rename and reopening. Inline HTML paste preserves spaces around the copied words, just as plain-text paste does. The additive authored_label run field records each occurrence; older authored_link_hrefs content remains readable.

If opening a note is interrupted, Try again restarts opening while keeping retained writing available for review.

On Duo column layouts, note text and tables share the available page width. Tables that need more room scroll horizontally and show an edge cue and scroll indicator instead of fading text at the edge.

On an open Duo, the text uses a 499-point measure at the default size, and a half-fold keeps a 335.5-point measure while the crease widens. Flat table viewports run to the page edge with square clipping; a partial fold keeps the viewport eight points clear of the crease. cells align with the text gutters at rest and show a deliberate next-column peek when scrolling is needed.

Insert and Style use the list page on a Duo spread, including the lower page while upright and creased. The note keeps its own width. Folding the device moves the current tools to a sheet and unfolding returns them to the list page; the selected destination and search continue.

On the Duo cover, Insert and Style stay inside the note’s available content area, clear of the reserved system region. The tools adjust when that region changes. Closing returns to the same writing position.

When a Duo note changes width, the editor keeps the first visible words at the same reading position where there is room, while preserving the live caret and Undo history. Its title moves with the document; a compact name stays in the page header after the full title scrolls away.

Opening a note on Duo prepares the editor at its final writing width before revealing it. Its lines keep that width while the row becomes the page, and Back reverses the move. Ordinary and daily notes use the same motion on the cover and inner display; Reduce Motion uses a crossfade. A row opened as it first appears in the list follows the same move.

Completing a linked to-do keeps its checklist line above the Undo receipt, including while the keyboard is open. Reopening a to-do keeps your place.

When shared-note privacy protection is enabled, co-editing uses the shared writing while older source text, import details and private picture or page references stay with the owner. Checklist state, link labels and table values remain shared. See Shared note privacy.

Older notes can contain a whole Markdown document inside one heading block. The reader shows that malformed block in body type so its paragraphs stay readable, while preserving the stored words and block identity. Multiline Markdown with several structured lines and no rich formatting becomes separate headings, paragraphs, lists, checklists, quotes and code blocks. A single heading or text carrying rich formatting keeps its original heading level, literal markers, marks and links. A pasted heading such as “# Support # pointer” keeps its heading typography after saving and reopening, even without bold, italic or a link.