# Notes

> Markdown that stays markdown, folders and notes in one tree, wikilinks and backlinks, three privacy settings, and an Inbox you clear one keystroke at a time.

Notes are markdown. The file is markdown, the editor edits markdown, and what
you export is what you wrote, with no rich-text layer in between to translate.

## The four views

A control at the top of the note switches how you see it, and your choice is
remembered separately for a phone and a computer.

- **Write**: live preview. A heading looks like a heading as you type it, and the
  markdown symbols step aside except where your cursor is. The default
  everywhere.
- **Source**: the raw file, with every `##` and `**` in view. For fixing a broken link or
  checking a table.
- **Write and preview**: source and rendered page side by side. Computer only.

- **Read**: the rendered page and nothing else.

> **On the phone:** A phone has no room for two panes, so it offers Write, Source and Read, and a
> preference for side by side set on a laptop never follows you onto it.
>
> On a phone the note is one page: the bar with the way back, the title and the
> text scroll together. Focus, the outline, and text size and width sit under
> **More** (the three dots), beside the note's other actions. Long links and
> code wrap to the screen, and a wide table or code block scrolls sideways on its
> own without moving the rest of the note.

## What you can write

Headings, bold and italic, `==highlight==`, lists, task lists, tables, code
blocks with highlighting, quotes, callouts in the `> [!note]` form, images,
footnotes, and math via KaTeX. Type `/` for a menu that inserts headings,
lists, tables, callouts, code, images and links to other notes without leaving
the keyboard. Select some text and the formatting buttons appear next to it.

A note that opens with a frontmatter block, as many notes from Obsidian do,
shows it as a block of properties at the top instead of a stray rule and a
heading.

Checking a task box in the rendered view changes the exact character in the
source that produced it. The naive way counts checkboxes in render order, and
it quietly checks the wrong line as soon as a note contains a code block with a
`- [ ]` inside it.

> **Tip: Long notes** The outline lists a note's headings so you can jump between them, and a thin
> bar shows how far through you are. The foot of the note gives its word count
> and reading time. The display menu sets the column width and text size.

**Distraction-free mode** puts the note full screen with the
same toolbar and shortcuts as the normal editor. It has no key, because the
obvious key for it is the one your browser already uses for full screen.

## Folders, notes and tabs

The panel on the left is one tree of folders and notes, like a file browser.
Drag a note into a folder, or a folder into another folder. The tree refuses a
move that would put a folder inside itself.

**Right-click in the tree**

- **A folder**: add a subfolder, rename it, move it, delete it, or set it to weave
  privately.

- **A note**: pin it, move it to a folder, or delete it.

Everything else a note can do (copy, export as markdown, share, pin to a
family, the privacy settings) is in the note's own actions menu.

Collapse the panel and the note takes the whole width. Open a second note and a
strip of tabs appears above the editor, so you can move between the notes you
have open. Each workspace keeps its own tabs, and a tab closes by itself when
its note is deleted or no longer shared with you.

> **On the phone:** Touch has no drag and drop, so on a phone each row has a move action instead.
>
> In the phone app, open a folder from the folder chip beside the Notes title;
> the **⋯** next to it renames the folder, moves it inside another, or deletes
> it. Deleting asks first, and asks which: keep the notes (they move to the top
> level) or delete them with the folder.

## Linking notes together

Type `[[` to link to another note by title, with suggestions as you type.
`[[Title|shown text]]` changes what the link says, and `[[Title#Heading]]`
points at one section. Links imported from an Obsidian vault resolve the same
way.

Every note lists its backlinks, the notes that point at it, so a note gathers
its own context without you keeping an index. They are worked out from the
database on your device, so they are right offline too.

A card can have notes filed against it, and the note shows that link back. The
graph in [The Mind](https://themarginapp.com/docs/the-mind) reads wikilinks as well: a link says two
things are related, and the Mind takes it at its word.

## The Inbox

Press `⌘ ⇧ K` anywhere to capture. It works while you are typing in another
field, so a thought that arrives mid-sentence does not have to wait. The
capture box is one blank field with nothing to choose: the first line becomes
the title, and you can rename it later. Press `Enter` and it lands in the
Inbox, online or offline. Close the capture box without saving and your words
are still there when you open it again. The mic in the capture box takes
dictation: tap it or hold it and talk. See
[Talking instead of typing](https://themarginapp.com/docs/voice).

![Capture now, file later: the shortcut, a few words, Enter, and it waits in the Inbox (14 seconds, silent).](https://themarginapp.com/docs/media/loops/dl28/dl28-poster.webp)

_Capture now, file later: the shortcut, a few words, Enter, and it waits in the Inbox (14 seconds, silent)._

A short one-line capture is read as you type, the same way a board's add row
reads it (see [Typing a card in one line](https://themarginapp.com/docs/boards-and-cards#typing-a-card-in-one-line)).
Type "dentist Tue 3pm every 6 months" and the date, time and repeat show as
chips. `Enter` still saves it to the Inbox; **Put it on this board**
beside the chips puts it on a board instead, with the date set. A `#word` becomes a label on the card and `@name` assigns someone already on the board; nobody is messaged. A `#tag` that
names a board picks that board.

### A list stays a list

Type or say a list and it shows as a list before you save it. "milk eggs bread
butter" becomes four items, and so does "milk, eggs and 2 loaves of bread", one
item per line, a numbered list, or a run of dictation with "and" or "next"
between the things. Common phrases stay whole ("olive oil", "ice cream",
"toilet rolls", "peanut butter"), and an amount goes with the item after it:
"a dozen eggs" is eggs, 12, and "2 cans tomatoes" is tomatoes, 2 cans. A
sentence that is not a list, like "call mom about the trip", is left alone.

![A typed list shows as four items before you save it (14 seconds, silent, on a phone).](https://themarginapp.com/docs/media/loops/dl109/dl109-poster.webp)

_A typed list shows as four items before you save it (14 seconds, silent, on a phone)._

Tap an item to edit it, split it, join it to the next one, move it or remove
it. When the split rests on a word The Margin does not know, it says so, so
you can check it. Then **Add 4 to Groceries** (the count and
the list are yours) puts each item on your shopping list as its own line with
its amount, or
**Make a checklist** keeps a list that is not groceries.
`Enter` still saves your words to the Inbox exactly as written, and
**Keep as one note** hides the list. All of this works
offline. The same list shows in the phone app's capture sheet and when you
share text into The Margin from another app.

In the Inbox, **Not a list** is saved with the capture, so
the phone and the desktop stop offering it as a list together. Something
that arrived by email, a scan or a share is offered as a list only when it
plainly is one: bullets or numbers, a heading like "Packing list:", or mostly
things you buy. A forwarded email, a letter or a few paragraphs of writing
stay one capture, and the Inbox shows them as plain words, without the
asterisks of their formatting.

### Where a capture probably goes

A moment after a capture saves, The Margin suggests a short title if you left
it without one (with Undo beside it) and, when it is clear, a board or a
shopping list it belongs on. The suggestion is a chip under the capture and
never files anything by itself. When the suggestion is a shopping list, the
capture shows the items it would add, each one editable, so a list never
lands on the shopping list as one long line. If the words could only be split
by guessing, the same suggestion reads them as separate items too.

### Other ways in

Everything below lands in the same Inbox, and all of it is set up from
**Settings > Capture**.

![The capture page opens straight to a blank capture; Enter saves it to the Inbox (14 seconds, silent).](https://themarginapp.com/docs/media/loops/dl111/dl111-poster.webp)

_The capture page opens straight to a blank capture; Enter saves it to the Inbox (14 seconds, silent)._

- **The capture page.** `themarginapp.com/capture` opens straight to a blank
  capture. Bookmark it, or give it a keyboard shortcut in your computer's
  settings. If you installed the app, press and hold its icon (right-click on
  a computer) and pick **Capture**.
- **Your browser.** Drag **Save to The Margin** to your bookmarks bar. On any
  page, click it: a small window shows the page and any text you selected,
  and `Enter` saves it. On a recipe page it offers to save the recipe
  through the recipe importer instead. The bookmark holds no password or key;
  the window it opens is signed in the way this tab is. If you are signed
  out, the window asks you to sign in first and then shows the same page and
  selection, ready to save. A very long selection is dropped on that trip, so
  select it again if you need all of it.
- **Email.** Settings > Capture, and the empty Inbox, show your private
  address, `in+…@themarginapp.com`. Forward or send any email to it and it
  becomes a capture: the subject is the title, the message is the note, and
  PDFs, pictures, calendar invites and office files come along (up to 5 files
  and 8 MB an email). In the Inbox its card opens with one line, such as
  "Email · Coach Dana" with her address beside it, and then the message. For
  a forward, that line names whoever wrote the original. Choose which workspace it lands in, or make a new address
  if it leaks; the old one stops at once. An address takes up to 50 emails a
  day, and mail that fails email authentication is turned away. In a Family
  workspace, an email that looks like it has dates also offers them for the
  calendar, the way a forwarded school letter does, and nothing is added until
  you confirm.
- **Sharing from another app.** In the phone app, pick **Margin Share** in
  the iPhone share sheet, or **The Margin** in Android's share menu, from any
  app: a page, a link, some selected words or up to four pictures. A sheet
  shows what came in and which workspace it goes to, and **Save to Inbox**
  files it. Words and links are saved on the phone, so a share made offline
  is kept and syncs later; pictures need a connection. If you installed the
  web app instead, share to The Margin the same way and it lands in the same
  Inbox.

A capture that is just a web address opens with a tap and shows a card with
the page's title and picture, so a link saved in a hurry is recognizable later.
See [Links and previews](https://themarginapp.com/docs/links).

Captures are not notes yet. They stay out of your notes list, out of note
search and out of memory, and they do not file themselves. An inbox that files
itself is an inbox you stop trusting.

Each capture has one question hanging over it, which is where it goes. There
are four answers:

| Key | Where it goes                                             |
| --- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| `n` | A note of its own                                         |
| `b` | A card on a board, and you can make the board on the spot |
| `a` | The end of a note you already keep                        |
| `⌫` | Gone, which is the right answer for most captures         |

`e` edits a capture first. `j` and `k`, or the arrow
keys, move through the queue, and acting with nothing selected takes the item at
the top. `q` puts you back in the capture field, and `?` opens
the command panel with every key listed.

Appending carries on the list you were already writing: a bullet stays a
bullet, a numbered list gets the next number, and a task list gets a new
unchecked box.

> **Note:** None of these keys fire while you are typing in the capture field. A deleted
> capture can be brought back for six seconds.

> **On the phone:** On a phone the feather in the header opens capture, straight to a blank field.
> In the Inbox, swipe a capture right to keep it as a note and left to delete it.

## Writing in a note together

Two people can type in the same note at the same time. Each of you sees the
other's cursor in their color, with their name on it, and a line under the
title says who else is there ("Sara is writing here too"). Nobody is asked to
choose between two versions: both people's words land where they typed them,
even in the same paragraph.

The note saves the way it always does, on each device, so the words are kept
even if the connection drops mid-sentence. If you lose the connection you keep
writing; when you are back, what you typed and what the others typed meanwhile
are put together. On the phone the line under the title shows who is there,
and the merging works the same; the other cursors are drawn on the web.

Writing together needs a Family or Team plan, like live presence on boards
(see [Sharing and permissions](https://themarginapp.com/docs/sharing-and-permissions)). It works for
anyone who can edit the note: workspace members, and people the note was
shared with as an editor. Someone with a view-only share watches the words
arrive. A note locked with a PIN or sealed in the vault is never edited
together while it is locked.

## Version history

A note keeps its earlier versions, so an edit you regret, a clash between two
devices or an assistant's rewrite can be undone. Open the note's menu and pick
**Version history**: pick a version to read it, then
**Restore this version**. The text the note has now is kept as
a version first, so a restore can itself be undone.

A version is kept when an edit starts, at most one every ten minutes, and the
last 50 are kept. Edits made by an assistant are kept the same way. A note
locked with a PIN or sealed in the vault keeps no new versions, and its older
versions stay hidden until it is unlocked. Versions are never added to memory.
On the phone, the same list is in the note's actions.

An assistant connected over MCP can read the list with `get_note_history` and
bring a version back with `restore_note_version`.

## Scanning paper, and finding the words in pictures

**Scan a document** in quick capture (the scan icon beside the
microphone; on the phone, the pill under Capture's title) photographs each
page and keeps them together as one PDF in your Inbox. A scan needs a
connection, because the PDF is made and stored online.

On Pro, Family and Team, The Margin also reads the words in every picture or
PDF you attach to a note, a card or a whiteboard. Search finds the file by any
word in it, under **Words in files** in the command panel and on the phone's
search. On Free, a scan is still kept as a PDF; its words are not read.

Pasting or dropping a picture into a note stores it as an attachment on the
note. Page limits, which files are read, what it costs and storage per plan
are in [Files and scans](https://themarginapp.com/docs/files-and-scans).

## Keeping a note away from the assistant

Three settings in the note's actions menu, from lightest to strongest:

| Setting              | What the assistant gets                                                                                                                                       |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Weave privately**  | The Mind still learns from the note, but its suggestions go into a collapsed group in Organize, recall never leads with it, and a memory export leaves it out |
| **Hide from memory** | Nothing. The note stays in your notes and your own search, and it is never embedded or retrieved                                                              |
| **Move to Vault**    | Nothing, and the note is hidden on screen too until you unlock the Vault with your passphrase                                                                 |

> **For agents:** Hidden and sealed notes are never retrieved at all, so they cannot be
> paraphrased into an answer about something nearby. See
> [Curating the Mind](https://themarginapp.com/docs/curating-the-mind) and [Your data](https://themarginapp.com/docs/your-data).

## Getting notes in and out

Import a folder of markdown files and the folder structure comes with it. A
zipped Obsidian vault brings its whole tree. Importing the same vault a second
time updates the notes already there instead of duplicating them, so you can
move over in stages. Notion exports work too. See
[Importing from other tools](https://themarginapp.com/docs/importing-your-life).

Export one note from its actions menu, or all of them, as markdown. The folders
and the wikilinks survive the round trip.

> **Known limit:** Free holds 100 notes. Pro, Family and Team do not count them.

**Where to next**

- [Importing from other tools](https://themarginapp.com/docs/importing-your-life): Obsidian, Notion and plain markdown
- [The Mind](https://themarginapp.com/docs/the-mind): what it does with your notes and links
- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://themarginapp.com/docs/keyboard-shortcuts): capture, the Inbox keys and the rest


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Section: Doing the work. Checked against the running product on October 5, 2026.
Web page: https://themarginapp.com/docs/notes. Every docs page: https://themarginapp.com/docs/llms.txt