Insert anything with /

Type / and a few letters to put a heading, a list, a table, a task, a date or a file into the note without leaving the keyboard.

Use the / menu

1. Type / at the start of a line, or after a space.
2. Keep typing to narrow the menu: /tab for a table, /task for a task, /today for today's date.
3. Choose a command.

With a keyboard, press ↑ and ↓ to move through the menu, Return to choose, and Escape to close it.

As soon as you type something after the /, the menu is sorted by how well each command matches, so the top row is always the best answer and Return can be trusted. Commands answer to their names in English and in Czech, with or without accents, and to a few other words too: /todo finds the checklist, /meet the recorder, /grid the table.

What the menu offers

• Style — Heading 1 to Heading 5, Body Text, Quote, Bulleted List, Numbered List, Checklist
• Blocks — Table, Callout, Separator, Sketch
• Insert — Photo Library and Scan Documents (iPhone and iPad), File (File or Picture on the Mac), Recording, Link, Link to Note
• Do — New Task
• Date — Today, Tomorrow, Current Time, Pick a Date

Choosing Callout opens the list of callout types; the types also answer to their own names, such as /warning or /tip. /code makes a block of code.

Some commands need one more answer — a table's size, a link's address, a note, a date. The menu closes and a picker takes its place. If you cancel the picker, the note stays as it was.

When / is just a slash

The menu opens only at the start of a line or after a space, so https://, 1/2 cup, 12/8/2026 and similar text never open it. What you type after the / stays in the note while the menu is open: if it turns out not to be a command, it is simply left there. Choosing a command takes the typed characters back out.

Press ⌘Z to take back what a command did. When a command ended in a picker, such as a table's size, a second ⌘Z takes back the characters you typed to reach it.

Link a note with @

Type @ the same way, and the menu offers notes to link to — searched as you type, with the same search operators as the note list — and dates. Picking a note writes a link to it.

Quotes and separators

• Quote — choose it from the / menu, or type > at the start of a line.
• Separator — choose it from the / menu or from ⊕ in the editor bar, or type three or more - on a line and press Return. It draws one line across the full width of the note, at any window size and on every device.

Turn the menus off

In Settings ▸ Editor ▸ Commands, one switch turns off / and one turns off @. Both are on to begin with, and each device keeps its own choice.

See Also: Write and format · Callouts · Tables · Links to the web and between notes