Notes: capture anything, find it later
Notes: capture anything, find it later
Most of what you need on a form is structured — a name, a date, a policy number — and that belongs in your profile. But some things are not structured. A case number a clerk read out over the phone. The three questions you want to ask the mortgage broker. The reference number on a letter you will need in six weeks.
Notes is where that goes.
Opening Notes
Click Notes in the sidebar. On the Notes page, Alt+Shift+N creates a new note and puts your cursor in it immediately.
If you turn on the optional Status bar (Settings → Extended tools), that shortcut works across the whole app: away from the Notes page it opens a small capture window over whatever you were doing, so you do not lose your place. See Keyboard shortcuts, the command menu, and dictation.
The Notes screen is two panes: your list of notes on the left, the note you are editing on the right.
Writing
The editor supports the formatting you actually use:
- Headings — H1, H2, H3
- Bold (⌘B / Ctrl+B) and italic (⌘I / Ctrl+I)
- Bullet lists and numbered lists
There is no Save button. Your changes are saved as you type.
The first line becomes the note's title if you leave the title field empty, so you can just start writing.
Pinning
Notes you return to — an ongoing checklist, a running log — can be pinned. Pinned notes sit in their own section at the top of the list and stay there regardless of when you last edited them. Everything else is ordered by most recently updated.
Finding a note
There are two ways:
- The search box in the Notes list filters your notes as you type — title and body both.
- The AI assistant can search your notes and can also create one for you. "What did I note about the inspection?" and "Make a note that the inspection is booked for the 14th" both work.
Deleting
The delete button removes a note from your list and from search results. Treat it as permanent — there is no trash view to restore from.
What Notes is good for
- Reference numbers in flight — case, claim, ticket, and confirmation numbers you need for a few weeks and then never again.
- Prep for a call or appointment — questions to ask, documents to bring.
- Things not yet ready for your profile — a new address you have not moved into yet, an employer you have not started at.
- Voice-first capture — dictate into AI chat and ask it to save the result as a note. See Keyboard shortcuts, the command menu, and dictation.
What Notes is not good for
Notes are free text. my-id.ca cannot autofill a web form from a note the way it can from your profile — autofill reads structured fields. If you have written down something you will reuse on forms (a new phone number, an updated employer, a passport expiry), move it into your profile. See Keep your profile accurate.
Privacy
Notes live in your account under the same protections as the rest of your data: encrypted at rest and never shared unless you share it. Because notes are free text, they are also the easiest place to accidentally write down something sensitive — a full SIN, a password, a card number. Structured fields in your profile exist precisely so you do not have to. See Is it safe to store my SIN.
Related
Frequently asked questions
- Can anyone else see my notes?
- No. Notes are private to your account. They are never included in a document share, a request from a business, or a signature envelope.
- Do I need to save a note?
- No. Notes save themselves as you type. The list reorders so the note you just touched sits near the top.
- What happens when I delete a note?
- It is removed from your list and from search results. Deleting is not something you can undo from the app, so pin or copy anything you might want back.