Notes

Adding a note

Notes live on a patient's page, separate from their session history — use them for anything that doesn't belong in a specific visit's chart: a phone call, a billing note, a reminder for next time.

Formatting a note

Notes (and the session note, and any long-text custom field or form answer) are written in a plain text box with a small formatting toolbar. What you type is stored as ordinary text — so it exports, imports, and searches like text — and is rendered as formatted text wherever the note is displayed, rather than showing raw asterisks and dashes.

• Bold and italic — the toolbar buttons, or ⌘B / ⌘I (Ctrl on Windows)
• Strikethrough — the toolbar button, or ⌘⇧X. Useful for recording a correction without deleting what was there: 15 minutes 20 minutes
• Links — ⌘K, or the link button. Selecting some text first turns that text into the link
• Lists — start a line with - for a bullet or 1. for a number. Press Enter and the next item's marker is added for you; press Enter on an empty item to finish the list
• Checklists — start a line with - [ ]. Mark one done by changing it to - [x]
• Headings — start a line with #, ## or ### to label a section of a longer note. Three levels, largest first — most notes only need one
• Quotes — start a line with >, for quoting a patient's own words
• Nesting — Tab and Shift+Tab indent and outdent the current line, which is how a list item becomes a sub-item

The + button on the toolbar lists all of these with their shortcuts. You can also open that list without leaving the keyboard by typing / on a new line or after a space — then filter by typing, and press Enter to insert. The list opens right where you are working: at the cursor when you typed /, or under the + button when you clicked it.

While you write, the markers themselves fade back and what they mark stands out — a heading line reads as a heading, bold text looks bold, a quoted line is tinted, and a finished checklist item is struck through. The note is still ordinary text underneath (you can select and edit the ## or the asterisks like any other characters); the colouring is only there so a long note doesn't read as punctuation.

If you'd rather not see the markers at all, turn on Formatted note editor in Settings → Display. Headings then appear at their real size, bold text is genuinely bold, quotes get an indent bar, and checklist items become checkboxes you can click to tick off. Everything on this page — the toolbar, the shortcuts, the / menu — works the same either way, and notes are stored identically, so it's purely a question of which you'd rather look at while writing.

Editing a note

Use the pencil button on a note, or just double-click the note text. Changes save when you click away, and there's a Save button too if you'd rather be sure.

Checklist items in a saved note can be ticked straight from the note — no need to open it for editing. Clicking a box updates the note the same way editing it would, so the change shows up in the note's "edited" time.

Pinning a note

Pin a note to keep it separated at the top in its own Pinned section, regardless of when it was written — useful for something you want visible every time you open the patient, like an allergy or a standing instruction.

Who wrote it, and when

Each note shows who added it and a relative time ("2h ago") — hover the timestamp for the exact date and time. Editing a note marks it "edited" the same way.

Searching notes

The search box above the note list filters by note text and runs on the server, so it reaches every note on the patient's record — not just whatever page happens to be loaded. Older notes load in batches as you scroll (a "Load more" link appears once there are more than fit on one page); the search box searches across all of them regardless.

Form breadcrumbs

When you link a submitted form to a patient, a short breadcrumb note is added automatically recording when it was submitted — the full set of answers stays on the patient's Forms panel rather than being dumped into the note itself.

Deleting a note

Deleting a note moves it to the trash rather than erasing it — see Trash & recovery.