Writing from the keyboard

Everything you can do with the mouse while writing a note has a key too. Mod is ⌘ on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux; Alt is ⌥ on macOS. Keys with a name in Settings → Shortcuts can be changed there (see Keyboard shortcuts).

Moving between regions

The note’s window has five regions: the editor, the formatting toolbar, the outline, the right sidebar and the bottom bar.

• F6 moves focus to the next region and ShiftF6 to the previous one, in that order. Regions that aren’t showing, such as a closed right sidebar, are skipped.
• In the desktop app, F6 past the bottom bar goes back to the editor. On the web, it goes on to the browser’s own address bar and panes, as F6 does on any page.
• Esc in the toolbar, the outline, the right sidebar or the bottom bar puts you back in the note, where the cursor was. Menus, popovers, dialogs and text fields still close with Esc first.

The actions are Move focus to the next region and Move focus to the previous region (rows focus_next_region and focus_previous_region). Focus the active note’s editor and Focus the active note’s comments are in the command palette, with no key until you give them one.

Tab and Shift+Tab

Tab and ShiftTab indent and outdent only on a list or task line (including its continuation lines, and lists in quotes and callouts) and in a code block. In a table, they still move between cells. On any other line, Tab moves focus out of the editor to the next control, and ShiftTab to the one before it.

The toolbars and the outline

The formatting toolbar and the bottom bar are each one stop for Tab. Inside one:

Coming back to a toolbar puts you on the button you used last. Moving onto Zoom in the bottom bar doesn’t open its slider; Enter, Space or ↓ does.

In the outline, ↑ and ↓ move between headings, and Enter jumps to the heading with the cursor on it. ShiftF10 or Mod. on a heading opens its menu.

Acting on what’s at the cursor

ModEnter does what a click would do on the item the cursor is in, or right next to:

• a mention: opens the person’s note;
• a [[wikilink]]: opens the note;
• a URL, a Markdown link or an autolink: opens it;
• a path to a file on your computer: shows it in Finder or File Explorer;
• a #tag: searches for it in the Search tab;
• a database block, in Preview: opens the database;
• a task line: ticks it. To do or in progress becomes done, and done becomes to do. Like a click on the checkbox, this applies directly, even while you’re suggesting.

Anywhere else, ModEnter adds a blank line, as before. In a read-only note it still opens links, but doesn’t tick tasks. A wikilink inside code doesn’t open or create a note, with the key or with Mod+click.

The menu at the cursor

Mod. opens a menu for what’s at the cursor. It’s the same menu ShiftF10 and the Menu key open, so it works on a selection, a tag, a mention, a code block, a table cell and an outline heading too.

What’s at the cursor comes first in the menu:

• A link, a tag, a mention or a path: its card, the same one a right-click opens (see Clicking in Preview). Since 0.20.0 Remove link keeps the link’s text: removing [[#Intro]] leaves Intro, not a #Intro tag. While you’re suggesting, Edit link… and Remove link are written as your suggestions, or refused where a suggestion can’t go, such as a change to a link’s URL.
• A task line: To do, In progress and Done, then Change due date…, Change assignee… and Remove due date.
• A suggestion: who made it and when, Accept, Reject, Next suggestion and Previous suggestion. After you accept or reject one, the next suggestion is selected.
• A table: Wrap text (checked when it’s on), then Convert to database… where the table offers it.
• An image or media file: see Images.

When the cursor is on more than one of these, a suggestion comes before a link, and a link before a task. In a read-only note, and in a shared note you can only comment on, the items that change the note aren’t shown.

Suggestions

F8 and ShiftF8 go to the next and previous suggestion. A screen reader hears which one it is, such as “Suggestion 2 of 5 · @ana”, and that Mod. opens its menu to accept or reject it.

Block widgets

In Preview, some blocks show as widgets with their own buttons and links: a database view embed, a database’s Open database card, a [TOC] table of contents, the Next steps card in a new vault, a plugin’s placeholder, a rendered diagram, an image or media card, and a day’s tasks block.

• ↓ from the line above a widget moves into it, to its first control. ↑ from the line below moves to its last control.
• Inside, ↑ and ↓ move between its controls. Past the first or last one, you’re in the next widget or back in the text.
• Enter opens or presses the control. In a table of contents it jumps to the heading.
• Esc skips past the widget, in the direction you were moving, back in the text.

A hint, “↑ ↓ move · ↵ open · Esc back to text”, shows when you move into a widget.

A rendered diagram is first one stop: Enter opens it in the viewer, as a click does (an empty diagram opens its editor), and while it’s focused, + and - zoom in and out and 0 resets the zoom. Since 0.20.0 Its toolbar’s buttons come next. A selected block takes Enter, and Delete or Backspace removes it, except a database view (see Clicking in Preview).

Images and media

An image or media card is one stop, followed by its toolbar’s buttons. Enter or Space on the card opens the viewer. Since 0.20.0 Mod. on the card or the image’s line opens its menu:

• Replace file…
• Width: 25%, 50%, 75% or Full width. This is the same width as dragging the card’s handle, kept on this device.
• Copy path
• Delete

In a read-only note, and in a shared note you can only comment on, Replace and Delete aren’t offered.

A person’s card

With the cursor in a mention of someone in your People, Mod. opens their card, with their details and the person’s actions, and ModEnter opens their note. Since 0.20.0

Moving sections and list items

Alt↑ and Alt↓ move:

• A heading’s whole section, with its subsections, past the section before or after it at the same level. The heading never moves without its text.
• A list or task item with its sub-items, past the item before or after it.
• Any other line, or a selection, as before.

At the first or last section or item, and on the note’s title, nothing moves. Each press is one undo. A numbered list keeps its numbers in order.

Sections and list items don’t move while you’re suggesting (“Switch to Editing to move a section”), or when a suggestion or comment crosses the edge of the part you’re moving. Dragging a section by its grip is refused in the same case.

Note actions in the palette

These command palette actions run the same code as their buttons, and you can give each one a key in Settings → Shortcuts:

The note’s Status card, from the bottom bar’s save icon, shows its counts as “1,284 words · 6,912 characters · 7 min read”.