Notes Table and other Views

Note: macOS 13+ / iOS 16+ is required, available from NotePlan v3.15.2

The Notes Table allows you to view and organize the contents of any folder (including its sub-folders) in a flexible, customizable layout. When you click on a folder in the sidebar, its notes appear in a table or as cards arranged on a board. This makes it easy to see more information about each note at a glance and quickly sort, group, or filter them using Frontmatter (or other metadata).

Key Features

  • Table View (Style: List): Display notes in a structured table, showing key fields from each note’s frontmatter.
  • Cards View (Style: Cards): Toggle to a card-based (Kanban style) layout to drag and drop notes between columns (from v3.16).
  • Grouping & Filtering: Organize notes by tags, dates, or any metadata, and filter out what you don’t need.
  • Sorting: Sort notes based on frontmatter keys (e.g., status, priority, assigned user) for faster navigation.

How to Use

  1. Select a Folder: Click on any folder (or sub-folder) in the sidebar (macOS and iOS). All notes within that folder (and its sub-folders) are displayed in the table or board.
    • Note: On iOS tapping on a folder expanded it originally, now it opens the notes table. You can still expand the folder tapping on the chevron / arrow icon on the right of the folder.
  2. Switch Views: Use the toolbar or context menu to switch between table and card views (from v3.16).
  3. Configure Fields: In the table view, you can choose which frontmatter fields appear in the rows.
  4. Group & Filter: In both views, apply filters to narrow down notes by their metadata and group them to create logical sections (e.g., ‘In Progress’, ‘Done’).
  5. Drag & Drop (Card View): Rearrange notes among columns to reflect status changes or different stages of a workflow.

Use the Notes Table & Board feature to get a clear overview of your projects, track notes through different stages, and quickly make updates—all without having to open each note individually.

macOS

iOS

Toolbar

At the top you can see a toolbar with various options which let you switch the view, set a filter, group your notes, or sort them and more. Here's how to use it:

  • Style: List or Cards
    • Select "List" if you want to see your notes in a list or table format.
    • Select "Cards" to display your notes as cards and group them into columns to create Kanban boards for example.
  • Fields
    • Turn on/off which fields you want to see in the list or on the cards. There are a few default fields: date, folder and tags. You can add additional fields by using Frontmatter in your notes.
  • Group By
    • As the name says, it lets you group your notes by some field, such as folder, tag, dates or any custom Frontmatter fields you have added to your notes. Inside the Cards view this lets you create a Kanban board.
  • Filter By
    • Select by which field you want to filter your notes to narrow down what you are searching for. For example, if you want to review your book notes and they are spread across your folders, you can use this filter to hide all the other notes. This menu item pairs with "Equal", explained below.
  • Equals
    • This menu item works together with "Filter By". Here, you define by which value your notes should be filtered. For example, if "Filter by" is "Type", you can select a specific "Type" value in "Equals", like "Book Note" (this would be a custom Frontmatter field/value you have to add to your notes).
  • Sort By
    • Lets you sort by the default fields or a custom Frontmatter field. If you drag cards in a Kanban view (Style: Cards combined with grouping by some custom field), an "order" field will be automatically added to enable custom sorting.
  • Arrows Up/Down on macOS or "Ascending" / "Descending" options in the sort menu on iOS
    • This lets you define the sort order, ascending or descending, A-Z or Z-A if sorted by title for example.

Where is the Toolbar on iOS?
On iOS the toolbar is a compact menu button top right beside the search field.

What to use Notes Tables for?

You can use them to categorize your notes, for example, if you are taking book notes. Or for project management to utilize different project states, like "Active", "Planning", and "Waiting". It's also useful to add dates as values, like weeks (W01-2025, etc.) and then group by this value (weeks) to get a sense for a timeline.

Learn more in this video:

Changing Properties

You an change properties directly in the table by clicking on the property and selecting a different value. If you see just one option to select, you need to add more values to other notes first. This view picks up the existing values from all the notes it has access to.