---
title: "Writing a note"
slug: workspace/note
url: https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/note
section: workspace
audience: workspace
app_route: "/[slug]/[user]/notes/[id]"
permissions: [note.view, note.update, note.share]
mobile: "/notes"
updated: 2026-09-08
source: Projectri documentation
---

# Writing a note

The note editor — formatting, tables, charts, callouts and templates, with live co-editing, comments anchored to a selection, version history and sharing.

![Writing a note](https://projectri.com/docs-shots/workspace-note.png)

## What it is

The note editor is one writing surface with three panels beside it: comments,
properties and version history. Several people can type in the same note at the
same time, and what each of them writes merges character by character rather
than one overwriting the other. The same editor opens a
[document](/docs/workspace/document); only the module differs.

## How to get there

Open a note from the [Notes](/docs/workspace/notes) list, from a project's notes
tab, or from a link somebody sent you. Reading needs `note.view` and access to
that particular note. Writing needs `note.update` *and* edit access on the row —
either alone leaves you with a page you can read but not change. Sharing needs
`note.share` and being the note's owner.

If you have no access at all the page says *"You don't have access to this note.
Ask the owner to share it with you."*

## How to use it

### Write

1. Type in the body. Enter makes a new paragraph; the title is the field at the
   top.
2. The toolbar's first group sets **Title**, **Heading**, **Subheading** and
   **Body text**.
3. **Bold** (⌘B), **Italic** (⌘I), **Underline** (⌘U) and **Strikethrough** are
   next, followed by a popover for **Text colour** and **Highlight**.
4. Then **Bullet list**, **Numbered list**, **Quote**, and an **Alignment**
   popover carrying **Align left**, **Align centre**, **Align right**,
   **Justify**, **Indent** and **Outdent**.
5. **Add link** takes a URL and offers **Remove link** when the caret is already
   in one. A bare hostname gets `https://` added. Clicking a link opens it;
   Alt-click puts the caret inside it instead.
6. **Clear formatting** strips styling from the selection.

Pasted content always arrives as plain text. Tab and Shift+Tab move between
table cells, and indent or outdent inside a list.

### Insert something other than prose

- **Table** — hover the grid to pick a size up to 6 × 7, with a header row on by
  default. Once the caret is inside one, **Insert** offers **Row above**, **Row
  below**, **Column left**, **Column right**, **Toggle header row**, **Delete
  row**, **Delete column** and **Delete table**.
- **Chart** — pick **Column**, **Bar**, **Area**, **Pie** or **Donut**, give it
  a title, type label-and-value rows, and press **Insert chart**.
- **Insert** — **Code block**, **Checklist**, **Divider**, **Two columns**, five
  callout tones (**Note**, **Success**, **Warning**, **Danger**, **Neutral**),
  and **Subscript** / **Superscript**.
- **Templates** — **Meeting notes**, **Project brief**, **Weekly status**,
  **Product spec**, **Retrospective** and **Report**.

Click the left edge of a checklist item to tick it off.

### Comment on a passage

1. Select the text and press **Comment** in the toolbar. The selection appears
   above the composer as a quote; **Remove quote** drops it.
2. Type and press Enter to send. Shift+Enter makes a newline.
3. A thread can be replied to, resolved and reopened. You can edit and delete
   your own comments; the note's owner can delete anybody's.
4. The panel filters between **Open** and **All**.

### Look at the history

1. Open **Version history**.
2. Each entry shows its number or name, who saved it, when, and a badge —
   **Saved** for one you cut by hand, **Restored** and **Replaced** around a
   restore.
3. **View** previews a version. **Restore this version** puts it back.
4. **Name** a version to keep it for ever; unnamed ones are pruned.
5. **Save a version now** cuts one deliberately.

### Share it

1. Press **Share**.
2. Add people by name or email and give each **Can view**, **Can comment** or
   **Can edit**.
3. **Everyone in the workspace** switches the note between **Workspace** and
   **Private**.
4. **Public link** → **Create link** produces a read-only address at
   `/share/note/<id>` that works without signing in. **Turn off** revokes it.

### Ask Nia

**Ask Nia** binds the open note to the assistant. She can read it, draft it, add
a section, rewrite part of it, insert a chart, apply a template or set the
title. While she works, a skeleton shows the *shape* of what is arriving —
headings, list rows, a table — rather than fake text. On a note you can only
view, she can read but not change it, and says so.

## What it affects

- **Saving.** The editor saves 900 milliseconds after you stop typing, and the
  indicator reads **Unsaved changes**, **Saving…**, **All changes saved** or
  **Could not save**. A pending save is flushed if you close the tab.
- **Everyone else sees it as you type.** While a co-editing session is live the
  body is owned by the merge layer, not by the autosave, so two people typing in
  the same paragraph both keep their words. The avatars above the body show who
  else is in the note, ringed brightly while they are editing. Nothing is shown
  when you are alone.
- **A restore never destroys anything.** Restoring saves the current state as a
  version first, so a restore can itself be undone.
- **Sharing notifies.** Granting somebody access sends a bell entry, a push and
  an email.
- **A public link is not indexed** and exposes only the title, the body, the
  author's name and the workspace name. No comments, no attachments, no history.
- **Comments notify widely.** A new comment reaches the owner, everyone the note
  is shared with and everyone already in the thread. An `@` mention notifies
  that person as a mention rather than as a general update.
- **The properties panel counts** words, characters, reading minutes, headings,
  tables, charts, images, links and checklist progress, and reports the owner,
  dates, share count and whether the link is public.

## On mobile

The phone opens the same note read-only. It renders the stored body, the file if
the row is one, attachments and export — and it watches co-editing live, so a
colleague's sentence appears as they type and the roster above says who is in
the room. Writing, renaming and deleting stay on the web.

## Limits and gotchas

- **Image insertion is documents-only.** The image button is not offered on a
  note, because notes have no attachment endpoint behind it.
- There is no slash menu and no Markdown shortcuts. Blocks come from the toolbar
  popovers.
- Comment threads are one level deep — a reply to a reply is folded onto the
  parent. A quote is capped at 400 characters and a comment at 5,000.
- Version content over 512 KB is not stored, only its size. Such a version
  previews as *"This version's content is no longer stored."*
- Versions are kept in full for 7 days, then one a day for 90 days. Naming one
  keeps it for ever, and the newest version always survives.
- **Can view** cannot comment; **Can comment** can. Both see a read-only body
  and no toolbar.
- Icon, tags and status are stored on a note but no screen exposes them for
  editing.
- Projects are changed from the chip in the meta row, not from the properties
  panel, which shows them read-only on purpose.

## Related

- [Notes](/docs/workspace/notes) — the list, and the row actions.
- [A document](/docs/workspace/document) — the same editor, plus files and attachments.
- [Nia](/docs/features/nia-assistant) — what she can do inside a document.
- [Exports](/docs/features/exports) — PDF, Word, Markdown and plain text.

## Related

- [Notes](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/notes.md): Every note you can reach — your own, ones shared with you and ones the workspace publishes — with filters, a trash tab and row actions for pinning, duplicating and sharing.
- [A document](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/document.md): One document — the file preview or the written body, its attachments, comments, version history, sharing and export.
- [Nia, the assistant](https://projectri.com/docs/features/nia-assistant.md): What Nia can read, what she can do, how she works by voice, with files, in a document or on a board, and the things she deliberately cannot see.
- [Exports and downloads](https://projectri.com/docs/features/exports.md): What you can take out of Projectri, in which formats, who is allowed to, and what a download deliberately leaves behind.
