Move and select blocks

1. Point at the block. A grip (☰) appears in the margin beside it — for a heading, between its fold arrow and the text.
2. Drag the grip. A picture of the block follows the pointer, and a blue line shows where it will land. Near the top or bottom of the note, the note scrolls.
3. Let go.

Press ⌘Z once to put the block back. To move the block the cursor is in one block at a time, choose Format ▸ Move Item ▸ Up or Down (⌃⌘↑ or ⌃⌘↓).

Dragged into another app, a block is copied there as text.

A selected picture — with the blue frame and corner handles — can still be picked up by its grip in the margin beside it.

When you are not writing — the note as it opens, or after you finish writing. To finish writing, tap the keyboard button at the end of the bar above the keyboard (iPhone), hide the keyboard with its own key (iPad), or press Escape on a hardware keyboard.

1. Touch and hold the paragraph, list item, heading, callout, picture, PDF, file or table. It lifts under your finger.
2. Drag it. A blue line shows where it will land. Hold it near the top or bottom edge of the screen and the note scrolls — the deeper into the edge, the faster.
3. Let go. Over the title it goes to the start of the note; over the empty space under the last line, to the end.

A tap still starts writing where you tap (or, on a picture, opens it), and touching and holding a link does what it always does.

While you write, touching and holding text is for the text — the magnifier, the cursor, selecting. The grip then stands at the right end of the block the cursor is in: a blue ☰ on a pale blue pill. Touch and hold it, then drag, to move the block. A picture, a PDF, a file or a table lifts when you touch and hold it even while you write.

With a keyboard, Format ▸ Move Item ▸ Up and Down (⌃⌘↑ and ⌃⌘↓) move the block the cursor is in one block at a time. With a trackpad, the grip also follows the pointer.

Right-click (or Control-click) a block's grip for its menu. The block is selected while the menu is open.

While you write, tap the grip at the right end of the block for its menu.

1. Click a block's grip. The block is selected: drawn whole, the width of the column, in the selection color, with no text cursor.
2. ⌘-click another grip to add that block or take it off. ⇧-click a grip to add every block from the last one you clicked to that one.
3. Press ↑ or ↓ to move the selection to the block above or below; ⇧↑ and ⇧↓ grow it, and shrink it again on the way back.

Press Return to go back to writing, with the cursor at the end of the block. Press Escape, or click in the text, to cancel the selection. Typing does nothing while blocks are selected.

With blocks selected:

• Delete — press ⌫ or ⌦, or choose Edit ▸ Delete. It asks first, such as Delete 2 Blocks? One ⌘Z brings them all back.
• Copy — ⌘C copies the whole blocks with their formatting. ⌘X cuts them without asking; ⌘Z brings them back.
• Move — ⌃⌘↑ or ⌃⌘↓ moves every selected block up or down together, and they stay selected. Or drag the grip of a selected block: all of them travel together and land where the blue line is, in their order. Dragging the grip of a block that is not selected moves just that block.
• Right-click a selected block (or its grip) for the block menu, acting on all of them: Turn Into, New Task (a task from each block), Copy as Markdown, Move Up, Move Down and Delete. Add Comment is there only when one block is selected.

Blocks next to each other are turned into the new kind together, so list items stay one list. For several blocks, Turn Into offers only what makes sense for several — see Turn Into for several blocks.

There are no circles beside the blocks on the Mac: you select there the way you select files in the Finder, with a click, ⌘-click and ⇧-click. The circles belong to iPhone and iPad, where a finger needs something to tap.

1. When you are not writing, touch and hold a paragraph, list item, heading, callout or attachment, and let go without moving. It is selected: tinted and outlined in blue, with a blue tick in a circle at its right end. Every other block gets an empty circle.
2. Tap another block, or its circle, to add it. Tap it again to take it off.
3. To take many at once, draw a finger down or up the circles. Started on a ticked circle, the same swipe takes them off again.

A vertical swipe anywhere else still scrolls the note. To go back to reading, tap ✕ at the end of the bar at the bottom, press Escape on a keyboard, or tap below the last block.

The bar at the bottom acts on every selected block:

• Turn Into — for one block, everything the block menu offers. For several, only what makes sense for several — see Turn Into for several blocks. Blocks next to each other are turned together, so list items stay one list.
• New Task — a task from each block.
• Copy — the blocks as they are, Copy as Markdown, or Share….
• Delete — asks first, such as Delete 2 Blocks? One undo brings them back.

To move the selected blocks, touch and hold one of them and drag: all of them go together and land where the blue line is, in their order, still selected. One undo puts them all back.

To comment, use a single block's grip or select words — there is no comment for several blocks at once.