# Organize your notes

> Folders, tags and tag pages, projects, pins, Move to…, working on several notes at once, and the Trash.

Applies to Canto 1.0 beta 3 · Updated Oct 10, 2026 · https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/organize

Canto gives you a few ways to keep notes in order, and you can use as many or as few as you like: folders for where a note lives, tags for what it's about, projects for a piece of work with its own chats, and pins for what you open every day. Search finds everything either way.

## Folders

Folders are in the sidebar under **Notes**. Make one with `⇧⌘N`, **New folder** in the sidebar's **+** menu, or **New subfolder** in a folder's right-click menu. Folders go four levels deep, like `Work/Projects/2026/Q4`.

Right-click a folder for:

* **New note** and **New canvas** inside it.
* **Chat with this folder**: **New scoped chat** starts a chat that reads only this folder and its subfolders; **Add to current chat's scope** adds it to the chat you have open.
* **Rename**, **Move to…** and **New subfolder**.
* **Delete…**: the notes and canvases inside move to the Trash; the folders themselves can't be brought back. The sheet names everything that goes before you confirm.
* **Select multiple**: see [Several notes at once](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/organize#several-notes-at-once).

Drag notes and folders in the sidebar to move them.

## Move to…

**Move to…** is in a note's right-click menu and in its header's **⋯** menu. It's a quick sheet: type to filter your folders, use the arrow keys and `↩` to move the note, or make a new folder right there.

## Tags

Add tags to a note in the row under its title, with **Add tag…**. Tags can be named in Korean, Japanese or any other language; a name made only of emoji isn't accepted, and Canto says why.

Click a tag (in a note, or in the inspector's Context) to open its **tag page**: every note with that tag, newest first, with its folder, and the other tags in use as chips to move between them. The tag page's **⋯** menu is where a tag is managed:

* **Rename tag…**: every note with the tag shows the new name.
* **Change colour**.
* **Delete tag…**: the tag comes off every note that has it. **The notes stay.**

To tag many notes at once, select them in the sidebar and choose **Tag … selected notes…**, then **Add** or **Remove**. `⇧⌘F`, or ⌘K's **Show tags**, opens search, where any tag is a filter.

The Inbox can suggest tags for notes that have none; see [The Inbox](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/capture#the-inbox).

## Pins

Right-click a note, canvas or chat and choose **Pin**. Pinned items sit in the sidebar's **Pinned** group, at the top, until you choose **Unpin**. Pinning never counts as editing a note.

## Projects

A project is a piece of work with its own chats: a name and colour, a description, instructions every chat in it follows, and, if you like, a folder. Projects are in the sidebar under **Projects**; make one with **New project**.

A project's page lists its chats, with **New chat** and **Add existing chat**. You can also add notes and canvases to it.

What a project's chats look at is set under **Advanced** when you make or edit the project:

| Choice                          | What chats in the project read                                                             |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| This project only (the default) | Only this project's notes and chats. Chats elsewhere don't see them.                       |
| Project, then all notes         | This project first, then the rest of your notes. Chats elsewhere can find these chats too. |
| Only what I add                 | Nothing on their own: only what you attach or have open.                                   |

A project's **⋯** menu can archive it (its chats stay, but it takes no new ones) or delete it. Deleting a project turns its chats into regular chats; its notes and folders stay as they are.

## Several notes at once

Choose **Select multiple** in the sidebar's right-click menu, then tick notes, canvases and folders. Right-click the selection for:

* **Move … selected items to…**
* **Tag … selected notes…**
* **Pin or unpin … notes**
* **Delete … selected items…**
* **Clear selection**

Asking Canto to file, tag or link many notes in one go is [Let Ask edit](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/edits#edits-across-many-notes).

## The Trash

Deleted notes, canvases and chats go to the **Trash**, in the sidebar's **Library**. It opens in a pane like any other page, with the inspector as its preview.

* **Search the Trash** (`⌘F`) and filter by **Notes**, **Canvases** and **Chats**.
* Each row says where the item came from, how big it is and how many days it has left. If its folder is gone, it says where a restore will put it.
* Select an item to preview it in the inspector, with what restoring or deleting it would change.
* **Restore** puts each item back where it was. A deleted folder isn't listed, but its notes are, and they go back to the nearest folder that still exists.
* **Delete forever…** asks first and names what goes, including links in other notes that become plain text. Deleting a note forever also deletes its own chats.
* **Empty Trash…** deletes everything in it.

A note in the Trash opens with one quiet bar: **Restore** and **Delete forever…**. A chat in the Trash has no composer.

Items are deleted for good **30 days** after they went to the Trash. Choose **7 days**, **30 days**, **90 days** or **Never** in **Settings › Sync & storage › Trash › Delete from the Trash after**. Backups keep their own copies until they age out; see [Backups, history and the Trash](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/backups).

## The Library

The sidebar's **Library** group holds the places that aren't notes: **Attachments**, **Meetings**, **Remembered**, the **vault graph** and the **Trash**. All chats is under **Chats**. Each opens in a pane, so back and forward work as they do for notes.

* Attachments: [Files, images and links](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/files)
* Meetings: [Voice and meetings](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/voice#meetings)
* Remembered: [What Canto remembers](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/memory)
* The vault graph: [Related notes and the graph](https://lonelyduck.io/docs/canto/related#the-vault-graph)