Forms and checklists

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What’s filled in on the page is written into the file, saved like typing, and can be undone as typing can. All of it works in Work too, where the file can’t be typed into. On a slide being presented, none of it does: boxes, choices, fields and dates show as they stand.

Tasks

- [ ] take out the trash shows a checkbox, and - [x] a checked one. Clicking a box rewrites the [ ] in the file, as an ordinary (undoable) edit. - ( ) and - (x) are radio buttons instead: only one in a list can be chosen, and choosing one clears the others’ (x).

- [x] take out the trash
- [ ] water the plants

- ( ) tea
- (x) coffee

Boxes in a row, - [ ][ ][ ], are one box with stages (see Recipes). A list in ::: cards draws each choice as a card, to tap anywhere (see Cards).

Sections to finish

A heading written with a box, ## [ ] Stretch, is a section to finish. Its line ends in a Done button; pressed, it reads ✓ Done, the title goes into the done ink, and the heading in the file becomes ## [x] Stretch. Pressing it again takes that back. A section written done, ## [x] Stretch, starts folded on the page, out of the way; click its heading to open it (Folding the page).

A section is done, too, once everything in it that can be done is: its boxes ticked, its choices made, and each section with a box under it done. It shows ✓ Done on its own then, and stays done until one of them is undone. A section with nothing in it to tick or pick is done only by its button. ## \[ ] Stretch keeps the brackets as typed.

### [ ] Ways to embrace today

- [ ] Read the "man in the arena" speech
- [ ] Watch an old family video

### [ ] Stretch

- [x] Reach for the ceiling
- [x] Touch your toes

Fields

A line starting @ is a form field: a label, a colon, and whatever’s filled in after it, which can be nothing yet. Each colon is a line of blank, so a longer answer gets more room, running to the end of the line:

@ My Name: Josh
@ Date:
@ Notes:::

The value still goes on the one line in the file, wrapping only on the page, and a blank grows if it outruns its lines. Click the label, the blank, or beside them to fill it in, right on the page: Enter (or clicking away) writes it into the file; Esc puts it back; Tab and ⇧Tab write it and move on, as they would from anywhere on the page: to the next link, button or field, or the one before. The value is shown just as typed, with no markdown.

A field can say what goes in it: text in braces at the end of its label is a hint, shown faint in the blank until something’s filled in. It goes with the label, before the colon, since what follows the colon is the value. It isn’t part of the label, and a screen reader hears it as the blank’s placeholder.

@ Hours of sleep last night {e.g. 7.5}:
@ The Way of Kings {What would you argue with the author about?}:::

A label that really ends in braces escapes them, @ Set \{a, b\}:.

On a slide being presented, or on an exported page, a field can’t be filled in: it reads as its label and what’s written there, or as blank, still showing its hint. A field of choices, below, shows the one picked, and on a slide it can’t be changed. On an exported page its buttons can be clicked, but nothing is saved.

A field whose value is nothing but ( ) choices is one to pick from, its radio buttons in a row after the label. Clicking one writes (x) in front of it, and ( ) in front of the rest.

@ Session: ( ) Sat AM (x) Sat PM ( ) Sun AM ( ) Sun PM

A field’s value can say what kind of value it holds. A value that’s a date, date:[], makes the field a date: it shows the calendar date: shows anywhere else, and picking a day writes it into the file in the value’s place. A value of number:[] makes it a field that holds a number: it’s filled in as any field is, but only a number can be typed, and it’s written back as number:12[]. As with date:, the value goes after the colon and the brackets hold what to show instead, empty for a blank. The hint still goes in braces before the colon.

@ When: date:[]
@ Due: date:2026-11-10[]
@ Age {e.g. 12}: number:[]
@ Guests: number:12[]

A value that isn’t a number (number:twelve[]) stays as typed, as a date that isn’t one (date:2026-02-30[]) does. On a slide or an exported page, a date or number field reads as its value, or as blank.

A field can go under a list item, indented to the item’s text, to ask more about that item:

- ( ) **High energy · Pleasant**
  @ Closest word: ( ) Excited ( ) Happy ( ) Joyful
- ( ) **Low energy · Pleasant**
  @ Closest word: ( ) Calm ( ) Content ( ) Serene

Under a choice, answering the field picks the choice too: picking “Calm” writes (x) in front of “Low energy · Pleasant” as well, and clears the other choice’s, as one edit. Picking another choice after lets go of the answer too, so only the choice picked has one: “Calm” is cleared with “Low energy · Pleasant”. What’s typed in a blank stays, since it’s more to lose.

Blanks in a sentence

A blank can also sit inside a sentence, filled in the way a madlib is: [@ and what goes there, which shows small under the blank. It’s filled in as a field is, and the answer is written after a colon and shown bold, to stand apart from the sentence.

The [@ an animal: walrus] jumped over the [@ a piece of furniture].

Square brackets typed into it are written as round ones, so they don’t end it early. One followed by ( is a link, as [text](url) is, and a backslash (\[@ ) keeps it as typed.

A blank in a choice’s line, - ( ) **Other** · [@ what else], picks the choice once it’s filled in, so the answer and the (x) go into the file together.

Dates

date: is a day, written year-month-day and read in words. Words in the brackets are shown instead, and with no day at all it is a blank to pick one into:

Drafts by date:2026-11-10[the deadline], reviews by date:2026-11-17[], and
the party on date:[].

Hover a date and a calendar shows its month, the day marked. Click the date (or press Enter on it) and the calendar stays open: ‹ and › go from month to month, and clicking a day writes it into the file in the date’s place. The arrow keys move by a day or a week, PageUp and PageDown by a month, Enter picks, and Esc or a click elsewhere closes it. This works in Work too, though not on a slide. A date that isn’t one (date:2026-02-30[]) stays as typed.

Starting over

reset:[] is a Start over button: it clears every box in its section (the heading it’s under, to the next at that level or above), plain, staged or a choice, as one edit you can undo. reset:[Clear] names it. It’s as much for a todo list or a game as for a recipe.

It empties the section’s fields too, in the same edit, wherever they are in it, as in tabs or columns. That’s a field’s value, a blank in a sentence, and a field’s choices. A field that holds a date or a number stays one, ready for the next: @ When: date:2026-11-03[] becomes @ When: date:[]. Each puzzle in the section goes back to its start, in that same edit. It stops at a ---, so it clears the same page in Edit as in Work, and under no heading, its section is that page.

@ Grateful for: the sun
@ When: date:2026-11-03[]
@ Mood: ( ) Low (x) Good
- [x] Walk to the [@ where: river]

reset:[]

A date in a sentence stays, as Due date:2026-11-10[] might be the deadline and a recipe’s log is headed by one; so does a definition.

Progress

progress: draws a bar, and says how far along it is. Two numbers in the brackets, done and of how many, draw it as written; the words after it say what’s counted.

progress:[326/1007] pages

Empty brackets count the boxes in its section (the heading it’s under, to the next at that level or above, or the slide it’s on), and how many are ticked. A staged box counts once it’s full; a choice isn’t a box, and neither is the heading’s own Done button, which says the whole section is done.

progress:[] packed

- [x] Passport
- [x] Charger
- [ ] Rain jacket

The bar fills as the boxes are ticked, in Work too. On a slide, on an exported page, or once the page is a record (below), it shows the boxes as the file has them.

Timers

timer:[2m] is a timer: its time, and a Start button. Started, it counts down, and can be paused, resumed or reset; it doesn’t start by itself.

Breathe in for four and out for six. timer:[2m]

The time is in hours, minutes and seconds, each a number and its letter, in that order: 90s, 2m, 1m30s, 1h. Anything else (timer:[soon]) stays as typed. Several on a page each run on their own.

At zero it stops, says Time’s up, and sounds three short tones; a screen reader hears it then, and not the count as it goes. Nothing of it is written to the file, so it runs on a slide, in Work, and on a page past its open-until: too. Going to another page or slide doesn’t stop it: it still sounds at zero, and shows where it got to when you come back. An exported page only says how long, having nothing to count down with.

Closing a form

Some pages are filled in for a while and are then a record: a day’s checklist, a sign-up sheet, a quiz. open-until: in the front matter says until when.

---
title: Potluck sign-up
open-until: 2026-11-08 18:00
---

It’s a day and a time, read by the clock of whoever has the page open; a day alone (open-until: 2026-11-07) is open to the end of that day. The byline says so, Editable Until 18:00 on 8 November 2026, Two Days Away, counting down by the minute, and a workbook says it atop each page.

Once the time has passed, the page’s boxes, choices, fields, dates and puzzles show what was left in them and can’t be changed, and an empty field has no hint. The byline then says No Longer Editable, and when it closed on hover, or when the keyboard reaches it. If the time passes while the page is open, it shuts there and then: what was being typed into a field is kept. Playing something back (a video, a sound) still works, and Edit still edits the file: change the time to open it again.

An exported page says until when it could be edited, without the count, or that it no longer can. Should the page’s inputs still write to the file a day after it closed, the server refuses them, a day late so that a server whose clock or time zone isn’t yours errs towards open.