Blocks you can add

Lists, checklists, tables, code, callouts, tabs, panels, a table of contents, maths, footnotes, and files, from the toolbar or by typing a slash.

Everything here is in the toolbar, or arrives by typing / and its name. The menu filters as you type, so /cal is enough to reach a callout.

Lists

A numbered list of three steps, in the middle of a note. — Tab indents an item, Shift-Tab moves it back out.

Bulleted or numbered, nested as deep as you want. Tab indents the item you're on and Shift-Tab moves it back out, so you can reshape a list without reaching for the mouse.

Typing - or 1. at the start of a line makes one without the menu.

Checklists

A checklist with two items still to do and one ticked, which has sunk to the bottom. — A ticked item can sink, so the list stays about what is left.

Tick something off and it can sink to the bottom, so the list stays about what's left. The arrow beside the checklist button decides that, for the checklist you're in or for every one in the note.

Sinking moves the item in the note itself, so an export, a copy, and everyone else's screen all show the same order you do. Unticking an item lifts it back above the ticked ones, not to the exact spot it came from.

Delete ticked, in the same menu, clears the ticked items and anything nested under them, in one step that ⌘Z undoes.

Inside a list item

A list item or a checklist item can hold a code block, a picture, a file, or a recording under its words. Add one from the item's line, with the toolbar, a slash, or ```, and it goes under that item's text. Add it on a fresh, empty item and it joins the item above instead. To carry on with the list, press Return three times at the end of the code.

It all moves with its item, so a ticked item that sinks takes its code with it.

Tables

A three column table with a heading row, and the handles that appear around it. — The handles appear when the pointer is over the table, and are always there on a touch screen.

Drag an edge to resize a column or a row, with a mouse or a finger. The handles around the outside move a whole row or column, and the two plus buttons add one.

Code

Syntax highlighting for about 35 languages, guessed if you don't pick one, with a copy button in the corner.

Callouts

A tinted callout box holding a tip, with an icon and a title. — A callout takes anything a note can hold, including another callout.

A tinted box for a note, a tip, or a warning. Anything can go inside one, including another callout. The gear at its top right sets the kind, the colour, and the size; on a phone, tap into the callout first.

In Markdown a callout is a quote that opens with [!NOTE], [!TIP], or [!WARNING], the way GitHub and Obsidian write them.

Collapsible panels

A collapsible panel, closed, with its title showing and a chevron to open it. — Closed, a panel is one line. Click the chevron to open it.

A panel folds a section away behind its title. That's what a long note wants when only part of it is the part you're reading. Give it a title, put anything you like inside, and click the chevron beside the title to open or close it. Click the title itself and the cursor goes into it, so you can rename it.

Tabs

A row of titles across the top, and one panel showing at a time. Each panel holds anything a note can: lists, tables, code, pictures, a callout. Type /tabs, press Control+Option+B on a Mac, or use the toolbar's tabs button, and the line you're on becomes the first tab, with an empty second one beside it. Press a title to switch to it, and the plus at the end of the row to add a tab. Double-click a title (double-tap on a phone) to rename it, and while you're renaming, the bin beside it removes the tab, after asking, since what's in it goes too. Hold a title and drag it to move it along the row; on a phone, hold it still for a moment first, then slide. When there are more titles than fit, the row slides sideways.

Which tab is showing is yours alone: it isn't saved with the note, so switching never moves a collaborator's screen, and undo takes back words rather than flipping tabs. An undo whose change sits in a hidden tab brings that tab forward. On a published page the tabs still switch, and on paper every tab is printed under its title.

In Markdown, tabs are written between  and , with  before each tab's content, which is how the assistant and a connected app write them.

Type /toc to list the note's headings where the caret is, as links: press one to jump to that heading. It keeps itself up to date as you add, rename, or move headings, and leaves out the title on the first line. A published page shows the same list, with working links.

Quotes and dividers

A quote set in from the margin, with a divider under it. — A quote sits in from the margin. A divider is the line between two thoughts.

A quote sets a passage in from the margin, for somebody else's words. A divider is the line between two thoughts, and typing three dashes on an empty line makes one.

Equations

Maths written as LaTeX, inline in a sentence or on a line of its own. /equation opens a box to type into and renders what you type as you go, so a mistake shows up while you're still looking at it.

Footnotes

A raised number where you're writing, with its words collected at the foot of the note. The numbering looks after itself: add one in the middle and everything below it renumbers.

Sticky notes and note cards

A yellow post-it sitting beside a numbered list in a note. — A sticky sits beside the line, not in it.

A sticky note is a post-it that sits beside a line rather than in the flow of it, for a remark that shouldn't break the sentence. They work the same way on a PDF.

A note card puts another of your notes into this one as a card, so a note can point at the note it depends on.

Images, PDFs and other files

Drop a file in, paste it, or use /image. A picture appears in place, a PDF gets a reader with its own tools, and a sound file gets a player that can turn it into text.

Each of those has more to it than a block, so they have their own section: Images and files, Reading and marking up a PDF, and Recordings and transcription.

Last updated 25 September 2026