The slash menu

The slash menu is the quickest way to add anything to a page, without taking your hands off the keyboard. Type / and a list of everything you can add appears. Type a few letters to narrow it and press Enter: /table gives you a table, /info a blue panel, /todo a checklist.

It opens at the start of a line or after a space, so typing a date like 9/24 or a phrase like and/or never opens it by accident.

Typing /h2 at the end of a line makes that line a heading; /table on the next line adds a table.

Using it

1. Type / at the start of a line, or after a space.

2. Keep typing to narrow the list: /tab leaves Table and Table of contents. If nothing matches, the menu says No matching blocks.

3. Press Enter for the highlighted item, or click one. The ↑ and ↓ keys move the highlight. Escape closes the menu and leaves what you typed as it was.

Words it understands

Each item answers to its name and to a few other words, so you can type whatever comes to mind first:

Each element’s page lists the words it answers to. See Elements.

Changing the line you are on

Some items change the line the cursor is on rather than adding a new one. Type /h2 at the end of a sentence (after a space) and that whole line becomes Heading 2. Type /text at the end of a heading and it goes back to normal text. /quote and the panels (/info and the rest) wrap the line the same way, and inside a panel, choosing another panel changes its color.

The + menu

Everything in the slash menu except text styles and lists is also in the + menu on the toolbar (+ Insert on a phone). It is the same list, so whichever you learn first, the other holds no surprises. It comes in three groups: Insert (tables, pictures, code, layouts and the rest), Panels, and Live content.

The + menu does one thing the slash menu cannot: it can wrap text you have already written. Select one or more paragraphs, then choose Blockquote, Code block, Expand, Decision, Excerpt or any of the panels, and your text goes inside it. Choose Link with words selected, and they become the link’s text.

A sentence selected, then + and Decision: it is marked as a decision.

Anything else chosen with text selected replaces the selection, just as typing would.