Blockquote

A blockquote sets text apart with a bar down its left side, to show that the words are someone else’s: a customer’s feedback, a line from a contract, a message pasted from an email. Readers can tell at a glance where your writing stops and the quotation starts.

Insert it

Type the command at the start of an empty line and press Enter, then type or paste the quotation. Or choose + on the toolbar, then Blockquote. If you select some text first and use the + menu, the selected text goes inside the quote.

• Markdown: > and a space at the start of a line.

• Keyboard: Ctrl+Shift+B (⌘+Shift+B on a Mac).

Kinds of quotation, and when to use each

Every blockquote looks the same. What changes is what goes in it.

A short quotation

Could the export keep our own colors? Our brand team has asked twice.

One or two sentences, quoted exactly, to show what someone actually said. Customer feedback and notes from interviews are the classic use: the reader hears the customer, not your summary of them.

A longer quotation, with its source

Either party may end this agreement with 90 days’ written notice.

Notice sent by email counts as written notice once the other party acknowledges it.

From the office lease, clause 7.2

When the exact wording matters, such as a contract, a policy or a legal notice, quote it in full rather than putting it in your own words, and end with a line that says where it comes from, so a reader can check it. Press Enter inside a quote to start another paragraph in it.

A quoted message, lists and all

Hi everyone, before Friday please:

• Restart your laptop to finish the update.

• Check that the VPN connects from home.

Thanks, the IT team

A quote can hold anything a page can, including lists, tables and code. Use it to show a message as it was sent, so readers can see it is a copy and not your own instructions.

Changing and removing a quote

To take the quote away and keep its text, put the cursor in it and press Ctrl+Shift+B, or choose Blockquote from the + menu again. To carry on writing below a quote, press Enter twice at its end: the second press on the empty line steps out of it.

Good practice

• Quote, do not paraphrase. If you change the words, it is no longer a quotation: write it as normal text.

• Say who said it, in the quote’s last line or in the sentence before it.

• Not for emphasis. To make your own words stand out, use a panel; a quote tells readers the words are not yours.

• Keep it to the part that matters, and link to the whole thing.

Related elements

• Panels call out your own text: a tip, a warning.

• Code block holds text that must be copied exactly, such as an error message or a log.

• Normal text is where a paraphrase belongs.