Tables

Tables keep related things together. Add properties, choose a view, and open any row as a page.

A table lives inside an ordinary note, beside your words. Each row is one thing you are tracking: a launch task, a book, a vendor. Each property is one fact about it: a status, a date, a link. You can look at the same rows as a table, a list, or a board, and any row opens as a page where you can write as much as you like.

Availability: Tables with properties and views are still in limited testing, and whether you have them belongs to your signed-in account, the same on iPhone and Mac. Until they are on for your account, or whenever Kept cannot confirm that they are, /table and Insert → Table add the plain grid described in Writing in the editor, and Add properties and views is not offered. The grids you already have stay as they are, and being offline never takes away a table you already made. If Tables is paused for your account after you made a table, its rows stay readable as a plain grid, and the words in that note keep editing and saving.

Insert a table

Choose Insert → Table or type /table. The command is Insert table, described as Track things with properties and views. With Tables on for your account, Insert table needs a connection. While Kept adds the table, a quiet outline sits where it will appear, then the table is there, with nothing to set up first. When Kept cannot reach your notes, a simple table goes in instead and Kept says Added a simple table. Add properties and views from its menu later. Until Tables is on, /table adds the plain grid in Writing in the editor, and that line is not shown.

• What you get. A table you can name, with a Name property and a Status property. Status is a Select with three options: To do, In progress, and Done. It starts with no rows, and says Add your first row. with an Add row button. The titles across the top are the header, not a row. An empty table has that header and no rows, and counts, filters, and sorts skip the header. Kept never fills it with sample rows that look like your work.
• Two views to begin. A Table view and a List view. The first time you open a table, iPhone shows List and Mac shows Table. After that, Kept restores the view you last used in that window.
• Use a template. In the insert menu, Use a template offers Blank table, Project tracker, and Reading list. Project tracker adds Due date and Priority. Reading list adds Author, Link, and Rating. Templates carry properties and views only, no rows.
• Where a table can live. In ordinary notes and in their pages. A daily note keeps the plain grid. Kept says Tables with properties and views work in notes, not in Today.

Grids you already have

Existing grids open exactly as they did. To give one properties and views, choose Add properties and views from its menu. It needs a connection. The upgrade is something you do on purpose, and it keeps your formatting and links, your header words, your rows and their order, and your column widths and order. When Kept cannot reach your notes, nothing changes and Kept says Add properties and views needs a connection. Your table is unchanged.

Properties

A property is a column with a name and a type. A table holds up to 12, counting its Title.

The eight property types

On iPhone, dates follow your device’s locale, so UK and Australian settings show the day before the month. Changing time zones does not change the day stored in a table.

An empty value and no value are the same thing. A zero and an unchecked box are values.

Add, change, and remove a property

• Add property in Table options asks for a name and a type, then puts the new property where you choose.
• Open a property's header or menu for Rename property, Change type, Edit options, Sort ascending, Sort descending, Filter by this property, Group by this property, Hide property, Move left, Move right, Set width, and Delete property.
• A property's name is only what you call it. Two properties can share a name, and renaming one changes nothing else, so filters, sorts, and views keep pointing at the right column when you rename or move it. Moving a column keeps each value with that property, not with the place it used to sit.
• Edit options adds, renames, and removes the choices in a Select or Multi-select, up to 64. Renaming an option keeps every row that uses it. Removing an option that rows use asks what should happen to them: choose a replacement, or clear those values. Kept says how many rows it affects and offers Undo.
• Change type shows a preview with the number of values it would convert. Kept changes the type only when every filled-in value converts without losing anything. If even one cannot, nothing changes, not the values and not the type, and Kept offers Review values. If a saved view's filter or grouping would no longer make sense for the new type, Kept shows the reason and leaves the property alone. Edit that view first, then change the type. Changing Text to Link keeps an existing link only when the text you see and its destination are the same. If they differ, Kept says the change would lose a destination and leaves the property alone.
• Delete property shows how many filled-in values it holds and offers Undo.

Edit a value

Tap or click a cell to edit its value. Opening a row's page is a separate action (Open page), so a tap never does two things.

While you edit a Select or Multi-select, Add option adds a choice that is not there yet.

Add, move, and remove rows

Add row in the table's header adds a row. A row's menu has Open page, Duplicate properties, which makes a new row with the same properties, Move above, Move below, and Delete row. Rows keep the order you arrange them in, and dragging a row changes that order only while no sort is on. Rename table names the table, and Table options also has Copy visible rows and Delete table.

Views: Table, List, and Board

A view is a saved way of looking at the same rows. Kept has three.

• Table shows rows and properties in a grid. On iPhone, scrolling to the end keeps the last row above Add row, including at the largest text size.
• List shows one line per row. On iPhone each line is the row's title and up to two properties you choose, and it wraps at large text sizes.
• Board shows rows as cards in groups, such as the three Status options.

A table keeps up to eight saved views. Use Switch view in the table's header to change the one you are looking at. In Table options, Manage views has Add view, Rename view, Duplicate view, Delete view, and Set as default. The default view is the one a published page shows.

Choose the properties a view shows

Properties in the view controls lists every property with Show property, Hide property, Move up, and Move down. Each view keeps its own choice, so a List can show two properties while a Table shows them all.

Saved views, and the view you are in

A view's definition, meaning its filters, sorts, grouping, and which properties show in what order, is saved with the table and is the same on every device and for everyone who can edit the table. Which view you have open, which cell you are in, which menus are open, which groups you collapsed, where you scrolled, and any change you have not applied yet belong to you, on that device and in that window. Switching views never changes anyone else's.

Hiding a property or filtering out a row only changes what a view shows. It is not a way to keep something from the people who can open the table.

Board

A Board groups rows by one Select or Checkbox property. If a table has neither, creating a Board offers Add Status property. Kept never changes your table just because you looked at Board.

To move a card to another group, drag it from its handle, or on iPhone press and hold to lift it. Or choose Move to group from its menu, which does the same without dragging. Grouping by a Select follows the order of its options. Rows with no choice sit in No value. A Checkbox makes two groups, Unchecked and Checked.

Filter, sort, and group a table's rows

The view controls are Filter, Sort, Group, and Properties. On iPhone each opens a sheet on its controls, and nothing changes until you choose Apply. Cancel puts everything back exactly as it was. If that view is no longer in the table, the sheet says This view is no longer in the table. On Mac, Table options lists them together in the docked tools pane. Showing or hiding a property, grouping, switching views, and clearing filters or sorts take effect as you choose them.

Filter

Each condition reads in order: property, then how, then a value.

Add condition adds a line, and Add group adds a nested set of conditions. Match all and Match any choose whether every condition has to hold or just one, with one level of nested group allowed and up to twelve conditions in all. Remove condition takes a line away and Clear filters takes them all away. A condition that is not finished stays editable, and Apply waits with a plain reason beside the field that needs attention.

If nothing matches, the view says No rows match these filters. and offers Clear filters.

Sort

Add sort picks a property and Ascending or Descending. A view can have up to three sorts, applied in order. Rows that tie keep the order you arranged them in. Rows with an empty value sort last, whichever direction you choose. Remove sort and Clear sorts take them away.

Sorting only changes what you see. Your own order is never rewritten, so clearing the sorts brings it back exactly. While a view is sorted you cannot drag rows to reorder them. Kept says Clear sorts to reorder rows.

Group

Group picks one Select or Checkbox property in Group by, or No grouping. Grouping works in Table, List, and Board. Show empty groups keeps a group on screen even when it has no rows. Each empty group offers Add row.

Kept filters first, then groups, then sorts inside each group.

Adding and editing while a view is filtered

A new row takes on the values the view makes clear: the group you added it in, and any plain "is" condition. Kept never makes up a value to satisfy a range or an "any" match. The new row stays on screen until you first save it.

If you edit a row so that it no longer matches the filter, Kept lets you finish, then removes it from the view and says Row saved outside this view. with Undo.

Open a row as a page

Open page on a row opens a page with the row's properties at the top and the full note editor beneath them. Write whatever you like there: text, pictures, checklists, tables, even pages of its own.

• Opening makes nothing. Opening a row shows its title and properties and creates no page. The page is made when you first write on it. On iPhone, Write on this page (the note's owner only) makes that page once, even if you tap it twice, then opens it. On Mac the same control sits in the row's details. Someone else sees This row has no page yet., or Page content isn't shared with you. when a page exists they cannot open. On Mac, someone who is not the owner sees This row has no page yet. The table's owner can add one. If two devices start that first write at the same moment, they still end up with one page.
• The row is the source. Its title and properties live in the table. The page's name in Notes and in search follows the row's title.
• It is an ordinary page. A row's page is a page inside the note that holds the table, like any page in Pages inside pages. Its path shows above its title and ends at the table's note, as Open source table, which opens the note and shows the row. You get around with Show page path, Open parent page, New subpage, Move to page, and Make top-level.
• Going back. On iPhone, Back returns you to the table in the same view and at the same place. On Mac, a row's details stay in the docked tools pane. A wide window keeps the note beside that pane. A narrow window replaces the note and offers Back to table, which returns you to the same row.
• Deleting a row keeps its page. The row's page stays in Notes. Kept says Row removed. Page kept in Notes. Undo brings the whole row back, including details Kept does not display yet, and reattaches the page, unless you have since moved it or attached it to something else. Deleting a whole table does the same for every row's page.

Share a table

Sharing a note shares its table. People who can edit the note can edit its rows, properties, and views (Edit a note together). People who can only view see the table and no editing controls. On Mac, Kept says You can view this table. Ask the owner for edit access. A shared note cannot gain a new table. Kept says Tables can be added after this note is no longer shared.

• Row pages have their own sharing. Sharing a table never shares a row's page. Someone without access to a page sees Page content isn't shared with you. in its place.
• Starting a page. In a shared table, only its owner can write the first words of a row's page. Existing pages stay editable by the people each page is shared with.
• A page shared on its own shows only itself, never the table's properties or where it sits.
• Publishing a note puts its table on the web as a read-only table, list, or board, in the table's default view. It leaves out row pages, and it follows the same link controls as the rest of the note (Share a note).

Offline, conflicts, and Review changes

Edits to a table are saved on this device first, and the note says Saved on this device · will sync. while they wait. They survive closing Kept. Pending table edits send when Kept opens, before you open the note, and they go out once, in order.

• Different cells. If you change one cell on your iPhone and someone changes another on their Mac, both stay. That includes two properties of one row.
• The same cell. The first value to reach your account stays. The other waits under Review changes, and Kept says Your changes are saved on this device. Review them to continue. Review changes shows both values, with Use this device, Use saved value, and Copy value. Those drafts survive relaunch. Use this device submits yours against the current saved value. Use saved value keeps what is saved and keeps what you set aside in your recovery history. If something else changed in the meantime, Kept asks you to review again.
• While you type. Changes to other cells appear in place without moving your caret, your selection, or the word you are composing. A same-cell conflict waits until you finish.
• A row or property deleted elsewhere. The deletion stands. Only Copy value is offered, nothing is recreated, and Kept never quietly brings the row back.
• Undo. Undo takes back your own change. Undo of a batch of edits restores them all, unless someone else changed the same thing since. Then Kept leaves it as it is.
• Access removed while you were offline. Kept does not send your edit. It keeps your draft for you, closes what you can no longer open, and never recreates or publishes it somewhere else.
• A retry never repeats. Adding a row and losing the connection mid-save leaves exactly one row.
• Switching accounts. Nothing from the account you left can show in the one you open.

A note that holds a table with properties is saved edit by edit, the way a shared note is, including the words around the table. It is not shared: it gains no people, no invitation, and no shared badge.

On iPhoneiPhone

• A table inside a note shows up to six rows and does not scroll inside the note. Open table opens the full table, which scrolls on its own. A Board shows its first group and the total count in the note.
• In the full table, the Title column stays in place as you scroll sideways, and headers stay visible.
• Property, filter, sort, and group work all happen in one sheet that moves between steps. The keyboard or large text makes it full height. There is never a stack of sheets.
• Targets are at least 44 points, and at the largest text sizes a property's form stacks vertically instead of shrinking the text.
• VoiceOver offers Edit, Move above, Move below when the view is not sorted, Delete row, and Open page on each cell, so nothing needs a hover or a drag.

On MacMac

• Table is the first view. List and Board are there too, each built to stay quick with a large table.
• A property header shows its type, name, and whether it is sorted or grouped. Right-click it, or use its menu, for its commands. Column edges show a resize handle when you point at them or focus them.
• Table options and a row's details open in the docked tools pane, where Insert and Style open. Opening either replaces the pane that was there, and closing it brings that pane back. The note keeps that one pane. A wide window keeps the pane beside the note. A narrow window replaces the note, and a row's details then offer Back to table.
• When Kept has not reached your notes, the table takes no edit and says This table opens for editing once Kept reaches your notes.
• A row's actions appear when you point at it or focus it, without moving anything, and VoiceOver can use them without hovering.

Keyboard

VoiceOver

Every cell reads its property, its row, its value, and its type, such as "Budget, row 4, Launch plan, 1200, Number". Headers, which cell is selected, how many rows a group holds, and the row's position are all announced. Opening a page, moving, editing, and deleting are actions on each row, so you never need to hover or drag. Focus stays on the same row and property while a table is sorted or another device changes it.

Reduce Motion removes the movement and keeps everything else: your place, your focus, and gestures that follow your finger.

Copy, paste, and export

• Copy visible rows in Table options copies the rows the current view shows, after its filters and sorts, as tab-separated text you can paste into a spreadsheet.
• On Mac, paste a rectangle of tab-separated cells into a table and Kept checks it as a whole. If any cell cannot take its value, or the paste would pass a limit, nothing pastes, the table is unchanged, and Kept shows where the problem is.
• Export as Markdown writes the table as readable text, and Publish shows it as a table on the page (Share a note).
• Importing from Notion is as it was (Bring your Notion into Kept): a Notion table does not become a Kept table. Kept does not import CSV files into tables.

Older versions of Kept

A table with properties stays readable in older versions of Kept, as the text of its rows. They cannot edit it. If an older version tries to save that note, your account does not accept the replacement, and that version keeps what you typed in its review sheet instead of writing over your table.

When a table was made with something newer than your app understands, Kept shows what it can read and says Update Kept to edit this table. Nothing in it is lost or changed meanwhile.

Limits

Kept refuses a change that would pass a limit, as a whole, before saving anything. Your input stays where it was and the table is not changed. Nothing is ever cut short to make it fit.

The size of the whole note is the limit that matters in practice. A table with 1,000 rows and 12 filled-in properties may not fit in it. Pages that already sit deeper than eight levels stay readable, with their path folded.

What tables do not do

Tables have no formulas, relations, or rollups. They have no People or Files properties. A Date has no time of day. There is no Gallery or Calendar view. You cannot save templates of your own, and you cannot filter by relative dates such as this week. A table cannot sit in a daily note. Kept does not import CSV files into a table or turn a Notion table into one.

Next: Habits.