Edit together and see who wrote what
Several people can edit the same note at once, and colors show where each person is working and who wrote what.
Applies to Web · Mac · iPhone app · shared notes
Several people can open and edit a shared note at the same time. There’s no save button: what you type appears on other people’s screens right away, and edits made in different places are all kept. The note also shows who is looking at it and who wrote which paragraph.
See who’s here
| What you see | Where | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A green indicator such as 2 viewing together | Note header | How many other people have this note open right now. Hover to see their names. |
| Participant avatars | Right side of the note header | People on this note (up to 6 shown). People who are online are marked Online next to their name. |
| Colored cursors with name tags | In the text | Where someone else is typing right now. Text they have selected is lightly tinted in the same color. |
What participant avatars do
- Click to scroll to that person’s cursor if they are editing right now. If they aren’t, you’ll be told so.
- Right-click to open that person’s menu (send a message, edit the contact and more).
- Drag a task onto it: drop a checklist line’s ⠿ handle onto an avatar to hand the task to that person. See Hand off a task.
Show authors
Authorship is shown in a color assigned to each person. A person has the same color on every device.
- Click ⋯ (More tools) at the end of the editor toolbar.
- Under View, turn Authors on or off.
| Layer | What you see |
|---|---|
| Paragraphs | A colored bar and name beside each paragraph. A paragraph’s author is the first person who wrote in it; later edits by others don’t change that. A paragraph written by several people gets a bar split into their colors. Hover to see “Written by …”. |
| Characters | Each person’s typing is lightly tinted in their color, so you can see who wrote which words even inside one paragraph. |
Authors is on by default, and the setting is remembered only on this device (browser). Turning it off also hides the tint on other people’s selections. Paragraphs inside tables don’t get an author bar.
If the connection drops
If you see Disconnected from server — edits are kept on this device and sync safely when you reconnect above the note, what you write is kept on your device and merged when the connection comes back. See When you are offline or sync stops.