Inline Comments

Add notes and annotations directly in your text.

Last updated March 2026

Overview

Inline comments let you attach notes and annotations to specific passages of text in your draft. They're like sticky notes you place directly on your prose — visible while you work, invisible in the final product.

Comments appear as highlights in the editor and are listed in the Notes panel, accessible from the header bar. They're stripped from all exports, so they're purely a writing aid for your eyes only.

The editor showing highlighted text with an inline comment, and the Notes panel visible

Comments highlight text in the editor and are listed in the Notes panel

Adding a Comment

To add a comment:

Select text in the editor — the passage you want to annotate.
Click the comment button in the floating toolbar, or use the right panel.
Type your note in the comment field that appears.
Save the comment.

The selected text is now highlighted in the editor, visually indicating that a comment is attached. The comment text is stored alongside the draft and is immediately visible in the Notes panel.

Tip

Keep comments short and actionable. Instead of “This needs work,” try “Tighten pacing here — too many beats before the reveal.” Specific notes are far more useful when you come back to revise.

Viewing Comments

In the Editor

Commented text appears with a highlight in the editor. This makes it easy to spot which passages have annotations as you scroll through your draft. The highlight is subtle enough not to be distracting while you write, but visible enough to catch your eye during review.

The Notes Panel

Click the Notes button in the header bar to open the Notes panel. It lists all comments for the current draft. Each entry shows:

The commented text (a snippet of the passage you annotated)
Your comment note

Click on any comment in the list to jump to that passage in the editor. The editor scrolls to the highlighted text, making it easy to navigate between annotations even in a long draft.

The Notes panel showing a list of inline comments with snippets and notes

The Notes panel lists all annotations for the current draft

Managing Comments

Comments are easy to manage as you work through revisions:

Resolve a comment — once you've addressed the note, remove the comment. The highlight disappears and the comment is removed from the Notes panel.
Edit a comment — update the note text if your thinking changes or you want to add more context.
Navigate between comments — use the Notes panel to jump from one annotation to the next. This creates a natural revision checklist.

Info

Comments are saved automatically as part of your draft. They persist across sessions, so you can add a comment today and come back to it next week.

Comments & Exports

Inline comments are stripped from all exports. When you export your draft to DOCX, PDF, or any other format, the comment highlights and notes are removed. The exported document contains only your clean prose.

This means you can leave as many comments as you want without worrying about cleaning them up before exporting. They're a private writing aid that never leaks into your final manuscript.

Use Cases

Inline comments are versatile. Here are some common ways writers use them:

Self-editing notes. Leave yourself reminders during a first draft: “Come back and describe the room,” “Check the timeline here,” “This dialogue feels too long.”
Research questions. Flag things you need to verify: “Is this historically accurate?” “Look up what this weapon actually looks like.”
Revision reminders. Mark passages for specific revision passes: “Tighten prose,” “Add sensory detail,” “Check character voice consistency.”
Continuity tracking. Note details that need to stay consistent: “Sarah has blue eyes here — verify against Chapter 3,” or “This happens on Tuesday in-story.”
Alternative ideas. Jot down alternative versions of a passage: “Could also end this scene with the door slamming shut instead.”

Tip

Use the Notes panel as a revision checklist. Add comments as you write, then work through the list during your editing pass. Resolve each comment as you address it. When the tab is empty, your revision pass is complete.

Tips

Comments + Prose Mode. Prose Mode hides comment highlights, giving you a clean reading view. Toggle between modes to switch between “annotated draft” and “clean read” views.
Comment before generating. If you're about to use AI Write on a new scene, add a comment at the insertion point with notes about what the scene should accomplish. This helps you stay intentional.
Don't over-comment. Too many comments can be as distracting as none. Focus on actionable notes that will genuinely help during revision.
Comments are per-draft. Each Draft node has its own set of comments. If you split a chapter across multiple drafts, each one has an independent comment list.

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