Skip to content

Manual Sort#

Sort modes in the note list normally apply a fixed rule across every note — modified date, created date, title. Manual Sort is different: it remembers the order you choose by hand, and remembers it per tag.

Each tag keeps its own arrangement. Notes under #novel can sit in one order; notes under #novel/chapter-3 in a completely different one. Switch between tags and the list updates instantly.

Available on macOS, iPad, and iPhone

Manual Sort is supported on all platforms. Drag-to-reorder works the same way on each.

Where Manual Sort Is Available#

Manual Sort is enabled on leaf tag views only — meaning any tag in the sidebar that has no child tags nested under it. That includes both top-level tags like #novel and deeply nested ones like #projects/personal/backyard.

It's not available on:

  • All Notes, Untagged, Favourites, Archived, Trash, Last 7 Days, Open Tasks — these have dynamic or rule-driven membership, so a hand-curated order would be silently invalidated by every new note or tag change.
  • Saved queries / database views — same reason: membership comes from rules.
  • Tag rollup views (parent tags with children, e.g. clicking #projects when #projects/alpha exists) — the rollup aggregates many sub-tags, so "the order" isn't a well-defined concept.

If you want to manually order a parent tag, give it its own child (e.g. rename literal #projects notes to #projects/general) and arrange that leaf instead.

Enabling Manual Sort#

Open the sort menu above the note list while viewing a leaf tag. Manual appears at the top:

  • Manual

Pick it and the list immediately becomes drag-reorderable. In any non-supported view, the Manual option simply isn't offered.

Reordering Notes#

In Manual mode, drag a note in the list to a new position. The new order is saved immediately to the note's front matter and synced via iCloud — your arrangement appears on every device.

Drop locations highlight in real time. You can drop:

  • Between two notes — sits between them
  • Above the first — moves to the top of the current tag
  • Below the last — moves to the bottom of the current tag

Per-Tag Memory#

Manual Sort keeps a separate order for every leaf tag you've ever used it under. For example:

Tag Your custom order
#novel Note B, Note A, Note C
#novel/chapter-3 Note C only (the others aren't under this path)
#research/lit-review Note F, Note D, Note E

When viewing #novel, notes sort by the #novel order. When viewing #novel/chapter-3, by the more specific path. Nested tags fall back to their parent — if you haven't manually positioned a note under #novel/chapter-3 but you have under #novel, FoldNotes uses the parent's order.

How It's Stored#

Each manually-positioned note carries a small block in its front matter:

fn-tag-rank:
  novel: "ab800-3c91"
  novel/chapter-3: "c4000-e022"

The ranks use a fractional-indexing scheme — moving one note never rewrites another's rank, so two devices reordering simultaneously merge cleanly via iCloud.

You can open any note in a plain text editor and see the rank values directly. They're just sort keys; you don't edit them by hand.

Daily Notes Are Excluded#

Daily notes (under .daily/) are never included in manual sort, even if dropped into the list. They're inherently date-organised — sorting them by hand would defeat the whole point. The drop indicator simply refuses to land on a daily note position.

Switching Modes Preserves Ranks#

If you switch to Manual, reorder a few notes, then switch back to "Date Modified", your ranks aren't lost. They sit dormant in the front matter and reactivate the moment you choose Manual again in the same tag view.

This makes the feature safe to experiment with — you can try a custom order for a day, switch back to dates, and switch forward to your saved arrangement next week.

Tips#

  • For long-form writing, tag each chapter or section note with a project tag and arrange them in narrative order. The list becomes your scene list.
  • For research projects, tag related notes and arrange them by relevance to the current thread of thought.
  • Creating a sub-tag changes a leaf into a rollup. If you've been manually ordering #novel and later create #novel/chapter-3, the sidebar starts showing #novel as a rollup view (where Manual Sort isn't available). The ranks themselves stay in the front matter — visit one of the new #novel/* leaves to see your manual order respected there.
  • Drag in the gallery too — Gallery view (macOS) respects Manual Sort. Reordering a card moves the underlying note.