Convenience Shortcuts for Matched Punctuation Marks ([{`”

You can enable these shortcuts to facilitate the insertion and removal of opening and closing punctuation marks. These shortcuts are disabled by default, but can be activated in Notebooks‘ settings. When active, this is how the shortcuts work:

  • Typing an opening character inserts the corresponding closing character right after the cursor, so the text you type is automatically enclosed.
  • With text selected, the selection is enclosed with the marks.
  • If the selection is already enclosed with marks, typing the opening mark removes both, the opening and closing marks.
    An exception is with brackets [] or curly brackets {} in plain text, which can be nested to support Wiki links and other Markdown commands. So you can type [twice to end up with [[|]], but typing [ a third time removes all brackets again.
  • If the cursor is positioned at the beginning or in the middle of a word, the closing characters is not inserted.
  • With the cursor just before the closing character,
    • typing the closing character steps over it, so Notebooks does add that character twice,
    • typing return steps over the closing character before adding the newline, so it does not move that character to the next line. Use shift-return to add a newline without stepping over the closing character.

Keyboard Shortcuts

This chapter is about keyboard shortcuts for Notebooks on a Mac, although many shortcuts are supported on all devices.

When using Notebooks with an external keyboard on an iPhone or iPad, hold down the command key for a list of shortcuts that are relevant to the current context.

Application-wide Shortcuts

⌥⌘B S‍how document browser (main window)
⌘N Create a new default document
⇧⌘N Create a new book (in the currently selected book)
‍⌥⌘1 ‍Show document only (hide outline and list)
⌥⌘2 Show document list and document (hide outline)
⌥⌘3 Show outline, document list and document)
⌃⌘F T‍oggle fullscreen mode
⌘⌫ Delete items currently selected in document list (when list has focus)
⌘O O‍pen in default application
‌⌘D ‌Duplicate currently selected items (selected in outline or list)
⌥⌘IShow Info
⌥⌘F ‍Global search
⌥⌘P C‍reate PDF from selected document
⌃⌘V N‍ew from Pasteboard
‍⌘↑ ‍Move to enclosing book (in document list especially)
‍⇧⌘H ‍Jump to “Home”, Notebooks’ top level

Shortcuts for all Editable Document

⌘S Save a document version.
⌘T  Insert time stamp
⌘D  Insert current date
⌘⏎  Toggle between plain text and formatted view
⇧⏎ ‌Insert soft return
⌘+/- ⌘= I‍ncrease / decrease font size, or reset to default.
⇧⌘X E‍xtract tasks
⌃‌⌥↑ ‌Move current line up
⌃⌥↓ ‌Move current line down
⌥⌘X ‌Cut current line
⌘⌫ Delete back to beginning of line or element.
⌃⌘←/→ Go to the previous/next document in the history list.

Shortcuts for Plain Text and Markdown

⌘B  Insert Markdown code for bold
⌘I  Insert Markdown code for italic
⌘~ Insert Markdown code for strike through
⌘] or ⇥ Indent current selection
⌘[ or ⇧⇥ Outdent current selection
⌘0 … ⌘5 Apply Markdown heading (#) to selected line
⌘7 Toggle comment (//).
Commented lines can be excluded from Markdown conversion and character count.
⌘K Insert Markdown link. With a valid URL copied, the URL is used as link target.
⌘L ‍Insert “- [ ]” for a Markdown checklist
⌥⌘V Paste as Markdown
‍⌥⌘L Toggle line numbers
‍⌥⌘O Toggle Overscrolling (show extra space at the bottom of the document)

Shortcuts for Formatted Documents

⌘B Make text bold
⌘I Make text italic
⌘U Make text underlined
⌘1 … ⌘7 Set paragraph style
⌘0  Set default style
⌘~  Strike through
↑⌥⌘H Add/remove Highlight from current selection
⌘K  Add or edit link to current selection
⌘L  Toggle list style for current selection
⌘⌥- (minus) Insert horizontal line
‍‍⌥⌘↓ or ↑ Delete or add a new table row
⌥⌘→ or ← ‍Delete or add a new table column

Shortcuts for Opening Documents in New Tabs and Windows

‍‍⌥⌘⏎ O‍pen current document in a new tab
⇧⌘⏎ Open current document in a new window
⇧⌘ while clicking a link Open linked document in native application
⌥ while selecting Open in New TabO‍pen item in tab behind the current one
⌥ while selecting Recent Item or Breadcrumbing menu O‍pen item in new tab
⇧ while selecting Recent Item or Breadcrumbing menu‍ O‍pen item in new window