Formatting Text

Now we'll look closely at the format bar — the row of buttons above the page. Every button does one thing to your writing, lights up when the cursor is already inside that kind of text, and explains itself when you hover it. This chapter goes through the bar left to right, then the things the bar makes possible: tables, checklists, pictures and links.

Show or hide the bar with View › Show Format Bar (⇧⌘B). When a button is dimmed, no note is ready to receive it.

Emphasis ①

• Bold (a bold B; ⌘B) makes the selected words bold. With nothing selected it bolds the word the cursor is in. Press it again to undo it.
• Italic (an italic I; ⌘I) slants the words — same rules as Bold.
• Strikethrough (a struck S; ⇧⌘X) draws a line through the words, for something you have decided against but do not want to delete.

Headings and case ②

The heading menu (an "AA" icon with a label reading Body, or H1 to H6) turns the current line into a heading of that level, or back into Body Text. This is also how text size works — there is no separate font-size control. Shortcuts: ⌃⌘1 to ⌃⌘6, and ⌃⌘0 for body text. The same items are under Format › Heading.

The capitalization menu (an "Aa" icon) changes the case of the selection: Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word, tOGGLE cASE. Independently of this menu, Cocoa capitalises the first letter of each sentence as you type.

Lists ③

• Bulleted List (⇧⌘L) starts a list on every selected line; Return makes the next bullet, and Return on an empty bullet ends the list. The button has a small menu for the bullet's shape: Dash, Circle, Square. The shape is written into the file as -, * or +, so it survives in any Markdown app.
• Numbered List (⇧⌘O) numbers the selected lines and renumbers them as you add more.
• Checklist (⇧⌘U) adds a tick box. Boxes from every note gather into the Tasks collection, and ticking one there writes back to the note. Type ! followed by a date such as !2026-09-14 at the end of a task to give it a due date. Toggle Task (⌥⌘T) ticks or unticks the box under the cursor.
• Indent (⌘]) and Outdent (⌘[) ④ push the selected lines a level right or left, nesting a list item under the one above.

Everything here is also under Format › List.

Tables

Click Insert table (a grid icon). A popover shows an 8-by-10 grid; sweep across it and the caption reads 3 × 4 for the size under the pointer; click to insert a table with that many rows and columns.

• Click in a cell to type. Tab moves to the next cell (and on to the next row at the end); Shift-Tab moves back; Return moves to the cell below — the way a spreadsheet does.
• Long text wraps inside its cell, and the row grows to fit.
• To delete a table, select it and press Delete; in an empty table, Backspace removes it whole. At the edge of a cell, Backspace and forward-delete do nothing rather than eating the table.

Links and pictures ⑤

• Insert Link (a link icon; ⌘K) turns the selection into a web link. If you have copied a web address it fills that in for you. Hold ⌘ and click a link to open it; a plain click places the cursor so you can edit the words.
• Link to a File (a link with a plus badge) points the selected words at a page of one of the note's files (chapter 7).
• Remove Link (a broken link) takes the link off the selected words and leaves the words. Select the whole note first to clear every link in it.
• Insert Picture (a photo icon; also Format › Insert Image…) chooses a picture from your Mac. It lands sized to the ruled lines. Click it to select it, drag it to move it, drag its handles to resize it.
• Take a Photo with iPhone (a camera icon) opens the camera on your iPhone; take the shot, tap Use Photo, and it lands at the cursor, sized to the ruled lines.

A picture's right-click menu

Right-click a picture: Aligning Help keeps the picture snapped to the ruled lines with the text flowing around it; Freeform lets it sit anywhere; Exact Size… opens a small Picture Size dialog — Width and Height in points, "Heights land on the nearest ruled line", Set and Cancel; Remove Picture deletes it. Pictures are stored beside the note in its attachments folder.

Highlighter and pens ⑥

The Highlighter button opens the pen tray. Chapter 6 is about it.

Dog-Ear and Clear Formatting ⑦ ⑧

• Dog-Ear This Page (a bookmark icon; ⌥⌘B) folds the corner of the page you are on; folded pages are listed under Bookmarks.
• Clear Formatting (an eraser; ⌃⌘\) strips everything back to plain words — bold, headings, lists, highlights and all.

Line commands in the Edit menu

Duplicate Line ⌘D, Delete Line ⌃⌘K, Move Line Up ⌃⌘↑ and Move Line Down ⌃⌘↓ act on the line the cursor is in — quick when reordering a list.

Hover cards

Rest the pointer on any format-bar button and a card appears under it with the button's name, its shortcut and a sentence on how to use it. Those sentences are the ones quoted in this chapter.

Maya cleans up her rough notes

Maya pastes twenty lines she typed in class. She selects the first line and presses ⌃⌘1 — a heading. She selects six lines and clicks Bulleted List, picks Circle from its menu, and presses ⌘] on two of them to nest them. Three "to do" lines get Checklist (⇧⌘U) and a !2026-09-14 due date. She clicks Insert table, sweeps to 3 × 2, and types the components of paid-in capital, moving with Tab. Finally she selects "stockholders' equity" and presses ⌘B.

Summary

• Emphasis: Bold ⌘B, Italic ⌘I, Strikethrough ⇧⌘X.
• Headings from the heading menu or ⌃⌘1–⌃⌘6; Body Text ⌃⌘0; text size comes from headings.
• Lists: bulleted (three shapes), numbered, checklist with !date; Indent ⌘] and Outdent ⌘[.
• Tables from the grid picker; Tab, Shift-Tab and Return move between cells.
• Links with ⌘K (⌘-click to open); pictures from disk or your iPhone; Clear Formatting ⌃⌘\.

Common mistakes

• Clicking a link to open it — a plain click edits; hold ⌘ to open.
• Pressing Return inside a table to make a new row — Return moves to the cell below; the table's size comes from the picker.
• Using Clear Formatting to remove one style — it removes them all, highlights included.

Best practices

• Headings on every topic: they feed the outline and the page-per-heading setting.
• Checklists with due dates for anything you must hand in; they surface in the Tasks collection.
• Keep tables small and let cells wrap; a table is for comparing, not for paragraphs.

Keyboard shortcuts used

Related features to learn next

• Chapter 6, Highlighters and Pens.
• Chapter 7, Files, PDFs and Slides — Link to a File.
• Chapter 8, Collections — where checklists and links gather.