Text editing

Text blocks

Deepnote features a rich text editor, making it very easy to add style and structure to your textual narrative. Similarly to writing code, editing text is also based on the concept of blocks: each structural element in your text (heading, paragraph, list item etc.) is represented as an individual block in your notebook.

You can add a text block by clicking on the + (add block) button. From there, you can select from a range of different text block types, including paragraph, headings, lists and callout blocks.

You can also add text blocks by clicking on the Text button at the bottom of your notebook.

💡 Pro tip: paragraph blocks can be easily converted into other block types by using Markdown-style shortcuts. Typing ‘-’ or ‘1.’ and pressing Space at the beginning of your paragraph will create a bulleted or numbered list. Other similar shortcuts include ‘#’ for heading; ‘|’ for callout; and ‘[ ]' for to-do blocks.

Text formatting

Once you added a text block, you can apply formatting to the text via the formatting toolbar. Just highlight a piece of text and select from various styling options such as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, and code. You can add a hyperlink by clicking on the link button.

💡 Pro tip: The quickest way to add a hyperlink is by copying a URL and then simply pasting it on the highlighted text (Cmd+V).

Text block operations

Besides formatting, you can also perform standard block operations available in the block sidebar, such as reordering, commenting, duplication, deletion, and so on. Reordering can also be done by drag-and-dropping the handle on the left-hand side of the block.

One of the most useful operations is to convert from one type of text block to another (for instance, change from paragraph to callout block). You can do this by clicking on the hamburger (Block action) menu and select the block type you’d like to convert to.

💡 Pro tip: The callout block has additional styling options available in the Block action menu. You can select from four different colors to apply to your callouts.

Markdown blocks

In some cases, you may wish to use some text editing option which is not (yet) supported by our native text blocks (eg. inserting a table or image). For these scenarios, you can rely on Markdown blocks. You can add these the same way as other text blocks: by clicking on + (add block menu) or by using the Text button at the notebook’s footer section.

When in editing mode, Markdown blocks feature two separate sections:

• in the upper part you can write and edit text using Markdown syntax;
• the lower part will provide a real-time preview showing the results of your edits.

You can exit the editing mode by clicking outside of the block; or by selecting the Render option in the block’s sidebar menu. Here, you can also access a cheat sheet listing the most frequently used Markdown operators.

💡 Pro tip: You can easily insert an image into your notebook by copying the image and then pasting it (Cmd+V) within in any block. This will automatically upload the image to the file system and create a Markdown block that displays the image.