# Keep notes beside your book

This page is about notes: the reminders you leave on a scene or chapter, and the longer documents—research, a to-do list, a scrap of worldbuilding—you keep beside the book. None of it ever prints.

### Open your notes

Click **Notes** at the top of the editor. A panel opens on the right with three tabs: **Scene**, **Chapter** and **Book**. Click **Notes** again to close it.

![Screenshot 2026-10-14 173646.png](https://help.authortools.net/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/screenshot-2026-10-14-173646.png)

*Screenshot: the notes panel open, on the Book tab, with a few lines of notes typed in.*

### Notes on a scene or chapter

The **Scene** tab is a scratch pad for the scene you have open—what still needs doing, what to check, what you were thinking when you stopped. The **Chapter** tab is the same for the whole chapter: "cut the second argument," "check the date against book 3." Type, and it saves as you go.

These notes travel with their scene or chapter, so when you open a different scene, the panel shows that scene's notes instead.

### The book's notes

The **Book** tab holds whole documents. Click **+ New note** to start one; it opens in the middle of the screen, in a wide editor with all the usual formatting, and you can give it a title at the top. Click a note in the list to open it again, and drag the list into whatever order suits you.

#### Tags

Under the title, add a few tags—*character*, *place*, *plot*, or any word you like. Once your notes have tags, they appear as small buttons at the top of the list, each with a count. Click one to show only those notes; click it again to see them all. Over time this becomes a small bible for the book that you can sort through.

#### Turn a note into a codex entry

If a note about a character or place deserves a proper home, click **Make this a codex entry** at the top of the note. It becomes an entry in your universe's codex, and the note is set aside, marked **codex**, with a link to the entry. See [Notes that become codex entries](https://help.authortools.net/link/37).

#### Archive or delete a note

**Archive note** sets a note aside without losing it. Archived notes gather under **Show archived** at the bottom of the list; click **Restore** beside one to bring it back.

**Delete note** removes it for good. It asks first, and suggests archiving instead if you'd like to keep the text.

### Who sees your notes

Everyone you've invited to the book can read its notes, so they're a good place for things your co-author or editor should know. Owners and co-authors can write and change them.

If you've connected an AI assistant to Write, it can read your notes and add to them too—a handy place for it to leave research or a list of things it noticed. See [Working with an AI](https://help.authortools.net/link/26).