Finding anything

However big your notebook grows, the note or detail you need is a few keystrokes away. Jump to a note by name with Quick Open, narrow your library with search filters, and find words inside a note, even in pictures and PDFs.

Jump to a note with Quick Open

Press ⌘O (File › Quick Open…) and type any part of a note’s title. Use ↑ and ↓ to choose, then press Return to open it. Quick Open shows up to 30 matches, and leaves out notes in the Trash and locked notes.

Quick Open goes further than titles:

Type # to jump to a tag, such as #work.
Type @ to jump to a sidebar section, such as @Todo or @Trash.

For tags alone, use File › Quick Open Tag… (⌥⇧⌘O).

Search your notes

Press ⇧⌘F (Edit › Search All Notes), or click the magnifying glass above the note list, and type. The list narrows as you type. Press Escape to clear the search and close the field.

Search looks inside the list you’re viewing. Choose Notes at the top of the sidebar to search your whole library, or pick a tag first to search only inside it. Notes in Trash and the Archive only appear when you’re viewing those lists.

Search ignores capitals and matches parts of words, so plan also finds “planning”. Accents count, so cafe doesn’t find “café”. It also looks at text Varlig recognises in your images and PDFs.

Words and phrases

Search	Finds notes that
`coffee beans`	contain both words, anywhere in the note
`"flat white"`	contain that exact phrase
`coffee -decaf`	contain “coffee” but not “decaf”
`coffee OR tea`	contain either word
`@title budget`	have “budget” in the title
`@ocr receipt`	have “receipt” in an image or PDF

Put - in front of anything, including tags and the filters below, to leave those notes out.

A few details:

OR can be lowercase too. Once a search has OR in it, every word becomes an alternative, so coffee beans OR tea finds notes with any of the three.
@title and @ocr apply to every word in the search, not just the next one.

Search	Finds notes
`#work`	tagged `#work` or any of its subtags, such as `#work/clients`
`!#work`	tagged `#work` itself, leaving out its subtags
`#reading list#`	tagged `#reading list#`, a tag with spaces
`#*/meetings`	with a tag ending in `/meetings` at any depth, such as `#work/team/meetings`
`@tagged`	with at least one tag
`@untagged`	with no tags

Filters

Filters start with @ and find notes by what they contain or their state.

Filter	Finds notes that
`@todo`	have unfinished todos
`@task`	have any todos, finished or not
`@done`	have todos that are all finished
`@pinned`	are pinned
`@locked`	are protected with a password
`@readonly`	are read-only
`@images`	contain images
`@files`	have attached files other than images
`@attachments`	have any attachments
`@code`	contain code, including calc blocks and YAML front matter
`@wikilinks`	link to other notes
`@backlinks`	are linked from other notes
`@untitled`	have no title
`@empty`	have no text and no attachments

Dates

Filter	Finds notes that were
`@today`	changed today
`@yesterday`	changed yesterday
`@ctoday`	created today
`@last7days`	changed in the last 7 days, counting back from now (use any number)
`@created30days`	created in the last 30 days (use any number)
`@date(2026-09-14)`	changed on that day
`@date(09-2026)`	changed during that month
`@date(2026)`	changed during that year
`@date(<2026-09-01)`	last changed before that date
`@date(>2026-09-01)`	last changed after that date
`@cdate(2026-09-14)`	created on that day (also works with `<`, `>`, months and years)

Dates can also be written the way your Mac writes them, such as @date(14/09/2026) in the UK, or as 20260914. Filter names also work in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

Put it together

Combine words, tags and filters to go straight to what you need:

Search	Finds
`#work @todo`	work notes that still have something to do
`"packing list" -@done`	packing lists you haven’t finished ticking off
`@ocr receipt @last30days`	notes changed in the last 30 days with “receipt” in an image or PDF
`#recipes @images pasta OR rice`	recipe notes with photos that mention pasta or rice
`@title meeting @date(>2026-09-01)`	notes with “meeting” in the title, changed after 1 September

Find and replace in a note

Press ⌘F (Edit › Find in Note) to find text in the note you’re reading, and use the arrows in the find bar to step through the matches. Find also matches text Varlig recognises in the note’s images and PDFs.

To change repeated wording, press ⌥⌘F (Edit › Find and Replace). Text recognised in images and PDFs can be found but not replaced.

Get around a long note

Table of contents (⇧⌘A): lists the note’s headings. Click one to jump there.
Fold a section (⌘’): hides a section’s body so you can see the shape of the note. Format › Unfold All brings everything back, and so does typing anything.
Back and forward (⌘[ and ⌘]): return to the notes you visited before this one. Turn on View › Show History Navigation for buttons.

To connect notes so they’re easy to find from each other, see Tags, links and backlinks.