The best keyboard shortcuts for the Notes app on Mac

Most people love shortcuts, especially keyboard shortcuts. These give us quicker ways to accomplish tasks and navigate apps and web pages. And if you use the Notes app on your Mac, there’s no better place to use them. When you’re jotting down a note, you want a fast way to do it and move on.

For all of you note-takers, we’ve compiled a list of keyboard shortcuts for the Notes app on your Mac.

iMac keyboard - Notes keyboard shortcuts

The Notes window

You can use the following shortcuts to work with the Notes app and the window itself:

  • Show the window: Command + 0 (zero)
  • Show notes in list view: Command + 1
  • Show notes in gallery view: Command + 2
  • Move between window areas: Tab
  • New note: Command + N
  • New folder: Shift + Command + N
  • Search notes: Option + Command + F

Note editing and formatting shortcuts

You can format your notes and add things to them with quick keyboard shortcuts:

  • Use Title formatting: Shift + Command + T
  • Use Heading formatting: Shift + Command + H
  • Use Subheading formatting: Shift + Command + J
  • Use Body formatting: Shift + Command + B
  • Increase the text size: Command + Plus Sign (+)
  • Decrease the text size: Command + Hyphen (-)
  • Attach a file: Shift + Command + A
  • Create a link: Command + K
  • Zoom in on a note: Shift + Command + Greater Than Sign (>)
  • Zoom out of a note: Shift + Command + Less Than Sign (<)
  • Print a note: Command + P

List shortcuts

If you like to use lists in Notes, whether bulleted, numbered, or checked, keep these shortcuts in mind:

  • Use Checklist formatting: Shift + Command + L
  • Increase a list level: Command + Right Bracket or Tab
  • Decrease a list level: Command + Left Bracket or Shift + Tab
  • Move a list item up: Control + Command + Up Arrow
  • Move a list item down: Control + Command + Down Arrow
  • Add a line break in a list: Control + Return
  • Mark or unmark a checklist item: Shift + Command + U

Table shortcuts

If you work with tables in your notes, these keyboard shortcuts are handy:

  • Insert a table: Option + Command + T
  • Add a row below: Option + Command + Down Arrow
  • Add a row above: Option + Command + Up Arrow
  • Add a column to the right: Option + Command + Right Arrow
  • Add a column to the left: Option + Command + Left Arrow
  • Add a break within a cell: Option + Return
  • Move one cell to the right: Tab
  • Move one cell to the left: Shift + Tab
  • Select a row: Shift + Left Arrow or Right Arrow
  • Select a column: Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow
  • Select a table: Command + A while your cursor is in the table

Keyboard shortcuts for Notes on Mac

As you can see, there are tons of keyboard shortcuts for Notes on Mac. Those you decide to use most often will become such habits, you won’t even think about it, while others make be tough to remember. So bookmark this page and revisit it for new shortcuts you haven’t tried.

Do you have any tips or other shortcuts for Notes on Mac? If so, please share below so we can all give them a try!

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