Docs/Navigation/Search

Search

Press ⌘⇧F (or Ctrl⇧F) to open Find in Notes — a search across the text of every note in your project, not just their titles. Results update as you type, and clicking any match opens the note with your cursor already on that line, ready to edit.

Opening it

The search window has two modes: Find and Find and Replace. You can switch between them at any time with the toggle at the top. There are three ways in:

⌘⇧F
Opens in Find mode. Works from anywhere in the app, whether or not you're typing in a note.
⌘⇧H
Opens straight into Find and Replace mode.
Command palette
Type "Find in Notes" in the command palette (⌘K), for when your hands are already there.
Not the same as ⌘F

⌘F (without Shift) searches only within the note you're currently reading. The full ⌘⇧F search covers your whole project. If you're only finding matches in the note you already have open, you pressed the wrong one.

What gets searched

Search looks through the actual text of your notes, line by line. If you can read it in a note, search can find it — including things like tags or links, which match simply because their text is there.

Note content
Yes. Every line of every note is searched.
Note titles and names
No — only what's written inside a note. To jump to a note by its name, use Quick switch instead.
Match case
Off by default, so uppercase and lowercase are treated the same. Turn on the Aa button to match capitalization exactly.
Pattern matching
By default your search is treated as plain text. Turn on the .* button if you want to search with a pattern for more advanced matches.
The search window with a word typed into the search field and results below, grouped by note. Each result shows a snippet of the line with the matching text highlighted.
Screenshot — Search results for a query

Reading results and jumping in

Results are grouped by note. Each group can be collapsed to tidy away a note with many matches. Click any result to open that note with your cursor placed right on the match — you can start typing immediately.

Search as you type

Results update automatically as you type — there's no button to press or Enter key to hit. Turning match case or pattern matching on or off refreshes the results the same way. A running count of matches sits at the top.

Find and Replace

In Replace mode you add the replacement text, and each result gets a checkbox so you can pick which matches to change. Replace Selected changes only the checked ones; Replace All changes every match. Each result previews how the line will read afterward.

Search vs. Quick switch vs. the command palette

Three tools that each answer a different question:

Search — ⌘⇧F
Find a passage. Use it when you remember something you wrote but not which note it's in.
Quick switch — ⌘P
Jump to a note by its title. See Quick switch.
Command palette — ⌘K
Run an action — a menu command, a tool, a setting — by name. See Command palette.