Format Your Notes with Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight way to format text. Instead of clicking buttons like in a word processor, you type simple symbols alongside your text. For example, surrounding a word with two asterisks makes it bold. It was designed to be readable even without rendering — so your notes always make sense, whether formatted or not. Good news: Keepsake handles the rendering for you. Just type the syntax, save your note, and the formatting appears automatically.

Markdown formatting works in most text areas across Keepsake: ✅ Fully supported (formatting is displayed): • QuickNotes — your quick capture notes • Pinned notes — notes pinned to your dashboard • Journal entries — your daily reflections • Task descriptions — the detail field of a task • Tag & Page descriptions — the description area of a project page ⚠️ Partial support: • Task titles — formatting is displayed, but keep titles short and simple • Day notes — Markdown syntax works while editing (auto-continue lists, etc.), but the display shows raw text without formatting 💡 Tip: When in doubt, try it! If the formatting doesn't render, the text is still perfectly readable.

The most common formatting — make important words stand out. Bold Surround your text with two asterisks or two underscores: **important meeting** → important meeting __important meeting__ → important meeting Italic Surround your text with one asterisk or one underscore: *maybe later* → maybe later _maybe later_ → maybe later Bold and italic combined Use three asterisks: ***really important*** → really important

Mark text as crossed out, highlighted, or as inline code. Strikethrough Surround text with two tildes: ~~cancelled~~ → cancelled Highlight Surround text with double equal signs — like a yellow highlighter: ==important== → important Inline code Surround text with backticks to display it in a monospace font: `config.json` → displayed in a code-style box Great for reference codes, file names, or technical terms.

Quote text or highlight a passage by starting a line with >: > This is a quote Produces an indented block with a left border — perfect for citing messages, emails, or important passages. Multiple consecutive lines starting with > are grouped together.

Use headers to structure longer notes into sections. Add # symbols at the beginning of a line: # Big Title → creates a large header ## Section Title → creates a medium header ### Subsection → creates a smaller header Keepsake supports three levels of headers. That's usually more than enough to organize any note. Example — Meeting notes: # Meeting with Sarah ## Decisions We agreed to launch next Monday. ## Action Items - [ ] Send the brief to @Sarah@

This is one of the most useful features — create interactive checklists right inside your notes. Create an unchecked item: - [ ] Buy groceries Create a checked item: - [x] Send the email A full checklist: - [x] Book the restaurant - [x] Send invitations - [ ] Buy a gift - [ ] Prepare the playlist Once saved, the checkboxes become interactive — just click or tap on them to check/uncheck items directly. The change is saved automatically. Important: Use a dash - followed by a space, then square brackets with a space inside: [ ]. The space inside the brackets matters!

For simple lists without checkboxes, use a dash or asterisk at the start of each line: - First item - Second item - Third item Or with asterisks: * First item * Second item * Third item Both produce the same result. Pick whichever you prefer and stick with it. When to use bullet lists vs. checklists: • Use bullet lists for information: ingredients, attendees, ideas to explore • Use checklists for actions: things to do, steps to complete, items to buy

When order matters, use numbered lists: 1. Preheat the oven 2. Mix the ingredients 3. Bake for 30 minutes The numbers must be followed by a period and a space. Keepsake auto-increments the number when you press Enter.

Add clickable links to your notes in two ways: Markdown link (with custom text): [Visit Keepsake](https://keepsake.place) → displays "Visit Keepsake" as a clickable link Plain URL (auto-detected): Just paste a URL and Keepsake will make it clickable automatically: https://keepsake.place → becomes a clickable link URLs starting with www. are also auto-detected.

To visually separate sections within a note, use a horizontal rule. Type three dashes, asterisks, or underscores on their own line: --- *** ___ All three produce the same horizontal line. This is handy for separating topics within a single long note.

Beyond standard Markdown, Keepsake adds its own powerful syntax for connecting your content: @Mentions — Link to a contact: Type @ followed by a contact's name. An autocomplete menu appears — select the contact, and a mention is created. The note will appear in that contact's profile, building your relational memory. Example: Coffee with @Sarah, discussed the project. [[Page tags]] — Link to a project: Type [[ and the name of a tag or project. Keepsake auto-completes the closing brackets. Example: New idea for [[Home Renovation]] #Hashtags — Quick tagging: Type # followed by a word (letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores). Example: Great article about #productivity All three types are clickable and connect your content together. Learn more about Tags & Pages and @Mentions.

Keepsake includes several shortcuts to speed up your writing: Text formatting shortcuts Select text and use these keyboard shortcuts to instantly apply formatting: • Cmd+B / Ctrl+B → Bold (**text**) • Cmd+I / Ctrl+I → Italic (*text*) • Cmd+E / Ctrl+E → Inline code (`text`) • Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X → Strikethrough (~~text~~) • Cmd+Shift+Y / Ctrl+Shift+Y → Highlight (==text==) Without a selection, the shortcut inserts the markers and places your cursor inside. Press the same shortcut again to remove formatting (toggle). Quick link creation Select text and press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) to wrap it in a Markdown link: [selected text]() — then just type the URL. Auto-continue lists When you're on a list item (bullet, numbered, or checkbox) and press Enter, the next line automatically continues the list with the same format. Exit a list Press Enter on an empty list item to stop the list and return to normal text. Auto-close brackets Type [[ and the closing ]] is added automatically. Select text and type [ to wrap it in [[selection]]. Checkbox normalization If you type an imperfect checkbox (like -[] or -[x] without spaces), Keepsake automatically corrects it to the proper format.

Keepsake intentionally keeps Markdown simple. The following standard Markdown features are not available: • Code blocks (```code```) — not supported (inline code with single backticks works) • Tables — not supported • Images (![alt](url)) — not supported • Nested lists (sub-items with indentation) — not supported • Headers level 4+ (####) — not supported This is by design — Keepsake focuses on the formatting that matters most for personal notes and tasks, without the complexity of a full document editor. If you need any of these features, let us know at support@keepsake.place!

Here's everything at a glance — bookmark this section! Text formatting: **bold** → bold *italic* → italic ~~strikethrough~~ → strikethrough ==highlight== → highlight `inline code` → code-style box Blockquote: > quoted text Headers: # Title / ## Section / ### Subsection Lists: - Bullet item (or * Bullet item) 1. Numbered item - [ ] Unchecked task - [x] Checked task Links: [Link text](https://url.com) Or just paste a URL — it's auto-detected. Separator: --- Keepsake special: @Contact name → mention a contact [[Project name]] → link to a page/tag #tag name# → hashtag (supports multi-word tags) Shortcuts: Cmd+B / Ctrl+B → bold Cmd+I / Ctrl+I → italic Cmd+E / Ctrl+E → inline code Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X → strikethrough Cmd+Shift+Y / Ctrl+Shift+Y → highlight Cmd+K / Ctrl+K → create a link Enter on a list item → continue the list Enter on an empty list item → exit the list