Fields

Fields define the structure of your notebook. Every note in a notebook shares the same set of fields. This page covers how to add, manage, and configure fields, along with a full reference for all 27 field types.

How Fields Work

When you add a field to a notebook, it appears on every note in that notebook, both existing and new. If you have a "Contacts" notebook with 50 notes and you add a "Birthday" date field, all 50 notes will gain that field immediately.

Fields have a type that determines what kind of data they hold and how they look in the app. A Short Text field gives you a single-line text input. A Rating field gives you tappable stars. A Date field gives you a date picker. And so on.

Each notebook can have as many fields as you need, and you can add, remove, and reorder them at any time.

Adding a Field

1. Click the gear icon in the toolbar to open notebook settings.
2. In the Fields tab, click Add Field.
3. Pick a field type from the grid. Types are organized into ten sections: Text, Contact, Numbers, Date, Selection, Rich Content, Measurement, Scanning, Action, and Layout.
4. Enter a name for the field.
5. If the type requires configuration (like a currency code or tag options), fill in those settings.
6. Optionally, turn on Show in note list to display this field's value as a subtitle on note cards in the sidebar. You can also toggle this later from the field list.
7. Click Add.

Watch tutorial

Managing Fields

Open the Fields tab in notebook settings to see all your fields in a list.

Reordering

Drag fields up and down in the list to change their order. The order here determines how fields appear in the note detail view and as columns in the table view.

Renaming

Tap or click the three-dot menu on any field and choose Rename. Type the new name and press Enter.

Deleting

Tap or click the three-dot menu and choose Delete. A confirmation dialog appears. Deleting a field removes it from every note in the notebook, along with all its values. This cannot be undone.

Editing Configuration

For field types that have configuration (Currency, Tags, Select, Reference, Description, Formula, Image), tap the three-dot menu and choose Edit Settings.

Field Visibility

Each field has an eye icon toggle that controls whether it shows as a subtitle line in the Notes view note list. This is a display preference, not a data change. Hidden fields still appear in the note detail panel and in the table view.

The first field in your list has a star icon instead. This indicates it's being used as the note title (if you have "Use first field as note title" enabled in notebook settings).

Text Fields

Short Text

A single-line text input. Good for names, titles, short descriptions, or any brief piece of text.

Long Text

A multi-line text area that expands as you type. Use this for longer content like notes, descriptions, or paragraphs.

Secret

A text field that's hidden behind biometric authentication (Face ID or Touch ID). The value displays as dots until you tap to reveal it. Useful for passwords, PINs, or other sensitive information.

In Notes view, tap the eye icon to authenticate and reveal the value. In Table view, each secret cell shows an eye icon — tap it to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID, then click to select and click again to edit, just like other text fields.

On web forms, secret fields render as regular text inputs (the biometric protection only applies within the app). Secret fields are excluded from search results and the REST API for privacy.

Contact Fields

Email

A text field for email addresses. Tap the value to open a new email in your default mail app.

Phone

A text field for phone numbers. Tap the value to start a call.

URL

A text field for web links. Tap the value to open it in your browser.

Number Fields

Number

A numeric input. Whole numbers display without decimals. You can use the stepper controls or type a value directly.

Currency

A numeric input with a currency symbol. When you create a Currency field, you pick the currency code (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, and many others). The value displays with the appropriate currency formatting.

Rating

A 1 to 5 star rating. Tap or click a star to set the rating. Tap the same star again to clear it. Ratings display as filled and unfilled stars throughout the app.

Formula Fields

Pro: Formula fields require a Neatbase Pro subscription.

Formula fields compute a value automatically from other numeric fields in the same notebook. They're read-only: you can't edit them directly.

Write your formula using field names in curly braces and standard arithmetic operators:

• {Price} * {Quantity} — multiplication
• {Subtotal} + {Tax} — addition
• {Total} / {Count} — division
• {Revenue} - {Expenses} — subtraction

Formulas can reference Number, Currency, Rating, Duration, and Percent fields. They skip other Formula fields to avoid circular references.

Error states:

• #REF? — The formula references a field name that doesn't exist.
• #ERR! — The expression is invalid or can't be evaluated.

Date

A date field that displays as a tappable pill. Tap the pill to open a calendar date picker. Dates display in an abbreviated format (e.g., "Apr 5, 2026").

Options

Date fields have four optional settings you can enable from the field editor:

• Notify on date — Sends a local notification on the date as a reminder. By default the reminder fires at 9:00 AM; if "Include time" is also enabled, it fires at the stored time. You can also turn off all date reminders globally in the app's notification settings.
• Add to Calendar button — Shows a calendar button next to the date pill. Tap it to add the date as a calendar event in your default calendar. If "Include time" is enabled, it creates a timed event with a 1-hour duration starting at the stored time; otherwise it creates an all-day event. The calendar event includes a link back to the note in Neatbase, so tapping the event URL opens the note directly in the app.
• Highlight on date — Shows the date in red on the day. Past and future dates render normally. Off by default — leave it off if you don't want color emphasis.
• Include time — Captures and displays a time alongside the date. The date picker switches to a combined date + time picker, and the date displays as "Apr 5, 2026, 3:00 PM" instead of just "Apr 5, 2026". Affects how notifications fire, how calendar events are created, and how the REST API formats the value (ISO 8601 datetime instead of plain date).

Selection Fields

Toggle

A yes/no switch. Useful for marking things as done, active, paid, or any other binary state.

Tags

A multi-select field with predefined options. When you create a Tags field, you enter the available options as a comma-separated list (e.g., "Design, Marketing, Engineering"). Notes can have any combination of the available tags.

You can optionally enable single-select mode in the field's configuration, which limits each note to one tag at a time instead of allowing multiple selections.

Select

A single-choice dropdown. When you create a Select field, you enter the available options as a comma-separated list (e.g., "Active, Inactive, Pending"). Each note picks at most one value.

Tapping the field opens a custom dropdown popover with all the configured options. The currently selected one is marked with a checkmark, and a Clear selection button at the top lets you remove the value. The popover is taller than a standard system dropdown, so longer option lists are easier to scan.

Use Select when you want a constrained pick-one experience (like a Status, Stage, or Category field). If you need multiple choices on the same note, use Tags instead. If you want some flexibility (typing new options on the fly), Tags is also the better fit — Select strictly validates against the configured options, both in the app and in the API.

Reference

Pro: Reference fields require a Neatbase Pro subscription.

A Reference field links to a note in another notebook. When you create the field, you pick which notebook it should link to. You can then pick a specific note from that notebook as the value.

For example, a "Projects" notebook could have a Reference field that links to notes in a "Clients" notebook.

Back-References

When a note is referenced by notes in other notebooks, a back-references section automatically appears below the fields in the note detail view. This shows you every note across your notebooks that links to the current note, grouped by source notebook. Each back-reference is tappable to navigate directly to the referencing note.

Rich Content

Checklist

A list of to-do items with checkboxes. Each item has a title and a checked/unchecked state. The field displays a counter showing how many items are done (e.g., "3/5 done").

You can add new items, toggle their completion, and swipe to delete them.

Image

An image field that accepts photos and pictures. You can add an image by:

• Using the Photos picker to select from your photo library (iPhone and iPad)
• Clicking the field and using the file picker
• Dragging and dropping an image file onto the field (Mac)

The image displays as a preview in the note. Supported formats include PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and SVG.

Color

A hex color value. In Notes view, the field shows a native color picker, a text input for entering hex values manually (e.g., #FF5733), and a swatch preview of the selected color. You can use either the picker or type a hex code directly.

In Table view, the color displays as a small colored swatch next to the hex value.

Comments

Pro: Comments fields require a Neatbase Pro subscription.

A CRM-style activity log. Each entry is a short comment (up to 2000 characters) with an automatic date, plus the author's name if the notebook is shared. Long comments collapse after 8 lines with a "Show more" link so the activity log stays scannable. Use it for call logs, status updates, customer notes, or anything that benefits from a chronological per-note thread.

In Notes view, the field shows the entries newest-first as small cards (author and relative date in the header, content below), plus a text input and Post button at the bottom. Each card has a small × button that deletes the entry after a confirmation dialog. Entries can't be edited once posted — to make a correction, delete and re-post.

In Table view, the field shows a count pill (e.g., "5") instead of the full content. Open the note to add, view, or delete entries.

In a shared notebook, comments posted by other participants trigger a local notification ("Alice posted a comment") just like new shared notes do. Anyone in the share can delete any comment, regardless of who posted it.

Comments are searchable: the content of every entry is included in Spotlight search (so you can find a note by something said in a comment) and in the in-app search bars in both Notes view and Table view.

Comments fields are not collectable on web forms — they're designed for internal team activity, not public submissions.

Measurement Fields

Duration

A time duration stored as hours, minutes, and seconds. In Notes view, the field shows three separate numeric inputs for hours (h), minutes (m), and seconds (s), along with the formatted total (e.g., "2h 30m").

In Table view, the duration displays in its formatted form. Duration values are stored internally as total seconds, so they can be referenced in Formula fields.

Percent

A numeric value between 0 and 100, displayed with a progress bar. In Notes view, the field shows a text input for the percentage value and a colored progress bar that fills proportionally. The bar turns green when the value reaches 100%.

In Table view, a compact progress bar and the percentage value are shown side by side. Percent values can be referenced in Formula fields.

Scanning Fields

Barcode

A text field for barcode values. You can type a barcode string manually, or on iPhone and iPad, tap the Scan button to open the camera and scan a physical barcode. The app generates a visual Code 128 barcode image below the text field when a value is entered.

Barcode values are plain text strings. The scan button uses the device camera and appears only on iOS devices that support barcode scanning.

QR Code

A text field for QR code values. You can type a value manually, or on iPhone and iPad, tap the Scan button to open the camera and scan a QR code. The app generates a visual QR code image below the text field when a value is entered.

QR code values are plain text strings — they can contain URLs, identifiers, or any other text.

Action Fields

Button

A clickable button that opens a URL you configure. Useful for wiring notes to external systems — open an invoice, trigger a webhook, jump to a CRM contact, or launch any internal tool keyed off the note.

When you add a Button field, you enter:

• Name — used as the button's visible label, so make it action-oriented (e.g. "View Receipt" or "Send Webhook").

• URL — the link the button opens. You can use two placeholders that get replaced per note:

  • {NOTE_ID} — the note's unique ID.
  • {NOTEBOOK_ID} — the notebook's unique ID.

  Example: https://invoices.example.com/r/{NOTE_ID} will open a different page for each note.

The button looks and acts the same on every note in the notebook by default — tap it to open the resolved URL. You can also override the URL or disable the button on a single note, both via the long-press / right-click menu in the app and via the REST API.

Override on a single note (in-app) — long-press (iPhone/iPad) or right-click (Mac) the button to open a menu:

• Edit URL for this note… — opens a sheet where you can type a custom URL just for the current note (placeholders work the same way). Leave it blank to use the field default.
• Reset to default URL — shown when a per-note override exists; clears the override.
• Disable on this note / Enable on this note — toggles whether the button is clickable on this note.

Override via the REST API — PUT /v1/notes/{id} with an object value: "MyButton": {"url": "https://...", "enabled": false}. Either key is optional; the keys you omit keep their current state. Send null for the field to clear both back to defaults. Useful for automation hooks like "lock the action button on completed notes" or "swap the destination per customer".

curl -X PUT https://cloud.neatbase.com/api/v1/notes/A1B2C3D4-... \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "fields": {
      "Send Webhook": { "url": "https://hooks.example.com/abc", "enabled": true }
    }
  }'

Disabled placeholder URL (#) — if you set the URL (either the field default or a per-note override) to literally #, the button is forced disabled. This overrides the enabled flag — the button stays grayed and uncallable even if enabled is true. Two common patterns:

• Set the field's default URL to # so the button is disabled by default on every note, and provide a real URL per-note (via long-press → Edit URL, or the API).
• Set a per-note override to # to suppress the button on a specific note without changing enabled.

The exact match is just # (with optional whitespace). Things like https://example.com#section still work normally.

Button fields are excluded from web forms (there's nothing to collect). Via the REST API, each note response includes the resolved URL as a string, with the placeholders already substituted — handy for piping notes into automation pipelines.

Layout Fields

Layout fields don't store any data. They're visual elements for organizing the look of your notes.

Divider

A horizontal line that creates a visual separation between fields. Useful for grouping related fields together within a note.

Heading

A bold label for a group of fields. Use a Heading to introduce a section ("Contact Info", "Project Details", "Status") so related fields are clearly grouped. The heading text is larger and bolder than a Description, and the spacing is asymmetric — the heading sits closer to the field directly below it than to the field above, so it visually attaches to the group it labels.

When you add a Heading field, you just type the heading text in a single input — no separate "name" needed.

Description

A read-only text paragraph that displays the same static text on every note. Useful for instructions, reminders, or commentary that should appear alongside specific fields. For grouping fields under a clear label, use a Heading instead.

When you add a Description field, you just type the description in a single textarea — no separate "name" needed.