Notes

Notes gives you a full writing environment inside sideBar, organised in folders and always accessible to sideBar when you need it.

​

Organisation

Notes live in a hierarchical folder structure. You can create folders inside folders to whatever depth makes sense for how you work. Individual notes sit inside those folders. Pinning keeps a note at the top of the notes view. Useful for anything you reach for constantly. Notes you don’t need day-to-day can be archived instead of deleted; the folder view shows an archived count so nothing is hidden from you.

​

Creating and Editing

Create a new note from the menu. A note’s title comes from its first line, so whatever you write first becomes the title, no separate naming step required. Changes save automatically as you write; a Saved indicator appears briefly to confirm each save. The editor remembers your cursor position, so when you come back to a note it’s exactly where you left off. On iPad, closing a note also exits the expanded note view and returns you to the normal split layout. Notes are local-first. If you create or edit a note while offline, the change is applied immediately on that device and syncs automatically when you reconnect.

​

Formatting

Notes use rich text. On iPhone and iPad, tap the textformat button in the editor controls to open the formatting popover. On macOS, click the floating textformat button at the top right of the editor. The popover lets you change the current line’s text style or apply inline formatting to the current selection. Available formatting includes:

• Text styles: Body, Title, Heading, Subhead
• Inline formatting: Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Inline Code
• Lists: type - or * to start a bulleted list, or 1. to start a numbered list
• Checklists: type [] to start a checklist item

The text-style row is visual rather than text-only, so each style is shown with its own note typography instead of a plain menu label. On macOS, the same note formatting actions are also available as top-level items in the Format menu instead of nested submenus. To start a list while typing, begin a new paragraph and type one of the list triggers followed by a space:

• - or * for a bulleted list
• 1. for a numbered list
• [] for a checklist item

These triggers only work at the start of a paragraph. Checklist items can be toggled directly in read mode by tapping or clicking the checkbox. Checked items stay in place and automatically gain strikethrough styling until you uncheck them. Pressing Return after a Title, Heading, or Subhead starts a new Body line. Body lines continue as body text when you press Return. Code blocks stay multiline, and pressing Return twice on an empty trailing code block line exits back to Body text. In lists and checklists, Return creates the next item, and pressing Return on an empty trailing item exits back to Body text.

​

Note Actions

From the context menu (long-press a note in the list) or the toolbar menu when viewing a note, you can:

• Pin / Unpin: keeps the note at the top of the notes view
• Move: reassign the note to a different folder
• Copy Text: copies the note content to your clipboard
• Share Text: opens the system share sheet with the note content
• Download: exports the note as a plain text file
• Archive / Unarchive: moves the note out of your main view without deleting it
• Delete: permanently removes the note after a confirmation prompt

Swipe left on any note to delete it directly. Folders support Rename (swipe right or context menu) and Delete (swipe left or context menu). Search is available across all your notes at once. Results update as you type, so you don’t need to submit a query to start seeing matches. Archived notes you have already loaded on a device stay available there offline. If an archived note was never cached on the current device, sideBar lets you know it is not available offline yet.

​

Scratchpad

The Scratchpad is a special note that’s always one tap away, from any view in the app. It’s designed for quick captures, the kind of thing you want to get down before you lose it. It auto-saves with a short delay so you can type and move on without thinking about it.

​

Widgets

Pinned notes appear in sideBar’s Pinned Notes home screen widget, giving you quick access without opening the app. If you have not pinned any notes yet, the widget shows your most recent notes so it never stays empty just because nothing is pinned. See Widgets & Extensions to set it up.

​

Keyboard Shortcuts