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Comments: Write in the Margins of Your Notes

Like pencil annotations in the margins of a book, a comment is material you keep alongside a note without it ever entering the text: an idea to explore, a reference, an email excerpt to keep at hand for your next writing session. Two simple rules: a comment is never published with the note, and it is meant to be temporary — anything worth keeping becomes a note or a linked task.

Create a comment

Comments attach either to a specific passage or to the note as a whole.
1

Select a passage

Highlight the text you want to comment on, then click the 💬 bubble in the formatting toolbar — or press ⌘⇧M. The field is ready: type or paste, and it sticks to the passage.

2

Or comment on the whole note

Use the shortcut without selecting anything: the comment attaches to the note itself — perfect for an agenda received by email or a general remark.

3

On your phone

Tap the 💬 button in the note's action bar to see and open comments.

Shortcut

⌘⇧M (Ctrl⇧M on Windows)

Find them in the outline

The outline to the right of your note has become the margin: dashes for your headings, beads for your comments, resting on a single thread. Hover the thread: labels reveal themselves in a wave under your cursor. Click a bead: the note scrolls to the passage, highlights it, and the comment opens right next to it. Prefer to see everything at once? The icon at the top of the thread pins the full panel open.

Tip

The open comment card stays put while you edit the text — that's the point: reread your excerpt while you rewrite the passage.

When the text changes

A comment stays anchored even as you rewrite the note — correct, move, rephrase freely. If the passage disappears entirely, nothing is lost: the comment keeps its original excerpt ("was attached to…") and moves to the note level. Restore the passage and it reattaches by itself.

Retiring a comment

Reread, copy what matters, delete. That is the normal life cycle of a margin note: most fade away, the best ones become notes. There is no "resolved" state and no guilt counter — comments are scaffolding, and scaffolding comes down when the wall stands.

With your AI assistant

If an assistant works on your notes (through the API or the MCP server), it can read and leave comments — its own appear in blue ink, yours in red. You always know who wrote what, and it never touches your text: the margin is where you think together.

Related guides

Notes: Capture, Process, and Organize

Understand the full lifecycle of notes in Keepsake. From quick capture in the Inbox to keeping them as notes, turning them into tasks or entries, and finding them on contact profiles and pages.

The publishing flow: from idea to published note

Take a note from idea to publication at your own pace: Idea → In progress → To review → Ready → Published. Stages you can customize, a colored badge on each note, "Keep to publish" from the Inbox, and a flow bar in the Notes view.

Format Your Notes with Markdown

Learn how to use Markdown in Keepsake to format your notes with bold, lists, checkboxes, headers, and more. Simple syntax guide for beginners.

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