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Library on iPhone

The Library is the home screen for your documents. It groups them into expandable sections for Starred, Documents, and Tags, with search and common document actions close at hand.

Library Sections

  • Starred appears when you have starred documents.
  • Documents contains All Documents, root-level documents, folders, and Recently Deleted when there are deleted documents.
  • Tags appears when your library contains inline tags such as #project.

Tap a section or folder disclosure to expand or collapse it. Outerline remembers your section and folder expansion choices between launches.

Folders are always listed ahead of individual notes at every level. Within each group, documents follow the sort order you choose from the Library’s … menu under Sort By.

View Options

Choose View Options from the Library’s … menu to show or hide the Starred and Tags sections, turn document previews on or off, and choose how dates are shown.

Title Display controls how documents are named. Automatic uses a title derived from the document’s content; File Name shows full filenames with their extensions. A title you set with Edit Title still takes precedence, and this choice never renames files. It is also available in Settings > Library.

Open and Search Documents

Tap a document row to open it in the editor. Use Library search to filter documents, folders, and tags. Search matches names, filenames, and previews, and ignores capitalization and accents, so terms such as Chloe also match Chloë. While searching, matching folders expand automatically so matching documents are easier to reach.

Create Documents

Tap the new-document button in the bottom toolbar to create an untitled document. Documents created this way always land at the top level of the Library, in All Documents, and open for editing right away.

To create a document inside a specific folder, press and hold that folder and choose New Document. The same menu includes New Subfolder.

Import a Web Page

Choose Import Web Page from the Library’s … menu to save a public HTTPS article as a Markdown note. If you have a web address on the clipboard, it is filled in for you. Pick a destination folder (All Documents by default) and tap import. The article is extracted on your iPhone, never by an outside service, and opens in the editor when it is ready. You can cancel while it is importing.

Find Notes With Spotlight and Siri

Outerline adds the saved documents in your current library to Spotlight, so you can find notes by title, tag, or text from the Home Screen. Siri and the Shortcuts app can use Outerline’s Open Document, Search Documents, Create Document, Append to Document, and Get Document from Link actions. Search Documents opens the Library search field with your term filled in. Manage Spotlight and Siri visibility in the iOS Settings app.

Use Row Actions

Press and hold a document row to open actions for that document: Copy, Publish, Edit Title, Rename, Duplicate, Move, Export as, and Star. Copy expands to Copy Link, Copy Markdown, and Copy Text.

Swiping a row exposes Move and Delete directly, without opening the menu.

Cloud Download State

If your library is stored in iCloud Drive or another cloud provider, some documents may appear before their contents are fully downloaded. A cloud icon means the item is visible but not local yet. A spinner means Outerline has requested the download and is waiting for the file provider to finish.

During initial setup, a progress row may appear near the top of the Library. That first-run progress is only for the initial library download. Documents added later from another device use row-level cloud state instead.