Write and organize notes

Notes holds Markdown notes for Personal or the selected team. A note's title is its first line of text; there is no separate title field. Changes are saved as you type, and the status above the text reads Saving… and then Saved. Press Ctrl/⌘ S to save at once.

Write a note

Select New note, or press N. The list on the left shows every note in Personal or the selected team, newest first. Select a note to open it.

Write in the Markdown view, or in the Formatted view, which shows the note with its formatting; both change the same Markdown. Markdown uses plain characters for structure:

# Heading
**bold** and *italic*
- list item
- [ ] checklist item
[link text](https://example.com)

The toolbar works in either view: Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, Heading, Subheading, Quote, Bullet list, Numbered list, Link, Insert image and Insert separator. Link opens a drawer for the text and a web or email address; if the selected text is an address, the address is already filled in. With the cursor in a link, the drawer is titled Edit link and also has Remove link. Insert image opens the image picker: choose pictures from Your images or upload new ones (see Use the image library). Pasting a picture into the text uploads it to Your images and adds it to the note.

Pasting into the Formatted view keeps headings, lists, links, bold and italic. Tables, checklists and line breaks written in Markdown are kept when you edit in the Formatted view.

Convert a note to a To-do

Open the note's More menu, or the ⋯ menu on its row in the list, and choose Convert to To-do…. A New To-do window opens with the note's title in the field and Today chosen under it. Change the title or choose another day if you need to, then press Enter. The To-do is added to Personal or the selected team, with the rest of the note's text as its notes.

Tick Move the note to Trash to delete the note once the To-do is made. The message that follows has Restore note to bring it back, and you can restore it from Trash within 30 days. Leave it unticked to keep the note: the To-do then links back to it. The box stays as you left it the next time you convert a note. It is shown only for a note you may move to Trash.

Convert to To-do… is shown once the note is saved, if you can add To-dos in Personal or the selected team.

Turn a checklist line into a To-do

In the Formatted view, an unticked checklist line shows → To-do. Select it to create a To-do with that line's text in Personal or the selected team. The line is ticked in the note, and the To-do links back to the note. See Use To-dos.

Corkboard view

Select Corkboard view, or press C, to see your notes as cards. Select a card to open that note. List view or Esc closes the corkboard.

Keyboard shortcuts

Select the keyboard-shortcuts button in the page bar, or press ?, to list the current shortcuts.

Browser or operating-system shortcuts can take precedence when they use the same keys.

Export, move and delete a note

The open note's More menu, and the ⋯ menu on each row of the list, have:

• Export as Markdown and Export as .txt, which download that note.
• Move to another team, for a note created in the wrong place. Choose the destination and select Move note. Save any edits first. People in the destination can open the note; people in the team it left may lose access. The destination's plan must have room for another note.
• Move to Trash. The note moves at once; select Undo in the message to put it back, or restore it from Trash within 30 days.

Export notes, below the list, downloads every note in Personal or the selected team as a .zip of Markdown files.

Where notes are kept

A note belongs to Personal or the team that was selected when it was created. If a note seems to have disappeared, check Personal and your other teams, or search for it with Search (⌘K), which looks through all of them. Personal and each team have their own note limit: 200 notes on the free plan, and 1,000 with Pro for Personal or the Team plan for a team.

If the status reads View only, your access to the team does not allow editing.

Notes on Dashboard

Dashboard shows your latest notes from Personal and every team under the assistant. Select New note, or press N, to write one without opening Notes, or select a note to change it in a window on Dashboard. It is the same note as in Notes, saved as you type. To convert a note to a To-do, or move a note to Trash, select More in its window, or right-click the note (press and hold it on a phone or tablet), then choose Convert to To-do… or Move to Trash. Convert to To-do… works as it does in Notes and adds the To-do to the note's team. See Find your way around Magpie.

If you are signed out while a note is open in Notes or on Dashboard, the note says it was not saved and keeps your text. Sign in again in a new tab and return to the note: it will be saved then.

Notes in the mobile app

The mobile app lists the notes in Personal or the selected team, with Search notes above the list, and New writes a new one in Markdown. A note opens with its formatting shown. Choose Edit note from the note's menu to change its Markdown, then Save. The same menu has Move to another team and Move to Trash.

While you edit, the app keeps a draft of your text on the device and in Magpie, and removes it once the note is saved. A long draft is kept only in Magpie; the editor says when a draft is too long to keep on the device. If the note was changed somewhere else while you were editing, the app shows the latest saved version: choose Use latest version or Replace latest with this draft.

Notes and the assistant

The assistant can search your notes, read a note when you give it the note's link, write a new note, change one, and turn a checklist line into a To-do. It moves a note to Trash only when you confirm it in your message. It reads notes in Personal or the selected team.

For a note that will not save or show its formatting, copy the text somewhere safe before reloading, then Contact support.