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The body of a task or note

A body holds formatted text, checklists, mentions, pictures and files.

Every task, note and item in Roma has a title and a body. The body is where the work lives: the notes you take, the checklist of steps, the picture of the receipt, the PDF of the lease. It is the same body on the Mac, in the browser and on your iPhone, and everything you put in it has a plain Markdown form, so nothing you write is locked into Roma.

What a body can hold

Headings, paragraphs, bold, italic and strikethrough, inline code and code blocks, bullet lists, numbered lists, checklists, quotes, a rule, links, mentions, pictures and attached files. That is the whole set, and it is the set a Markdown file can hold too. There is no underline and no table in a body, because Markdown has no clean form for them. The body is never where a list's properties live: a rating, a stage or a date belongs to a property on the list, and the item fills it in (properties).

Writing and formatting

On the Mac and in the browser, select some text and a toolbar appears with twelve controls: bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, a code block, two heading sizes, bullet list, numbered list, checklist, quote and a link. On your iPhone the same row sits above the keyboard, with an @ button for mentions and a picture button that opens your photos.

Markdown works as you type. A line that starts with # becomes a heading, - a bullet, 1. a numbered list and > a quote. Paste text written in Markdown and it arrives formatted, checklists included, and a pasted list whose lines start with • becomes a list. Inside a list, typing - or 1. at the start of an item makes a nested list under the item above, which on the iPhone is the way to indent. On the Mac and in the browser, ⌘⇧↑ and ⌘⇧↓ move the paragraph or list item you are in up or down.

The body saves as you type and reaches your other devices on its own. View the same task on your iPhone and it reads as it did on the Mac, line for line.

Checklists

A checklist is how a task carries its steps. Tick a box and the tick is saved at once, without the keyboard coming up on your phone. Select several checklist rows and tick one, and they all tick together. Your operator and any agent working on the task tick the steps as the work moves along, so the checklist reads as the state of the work rather than a diary of it (create a task).

Type @ in a body to mention another task, a note or an item. A mention is a chip that stays live: rename the task it points at and the chip reads the new name, delete it and the chip says so. On a shared task or note you can mention the people on it, and the picker lists them. Paste a web address and it becomes a link. A link to a page of Roma opens inside the app, and on the Mac and in the browser ⌘ click opens it in a new tab.

Pictures and files

A picture can sit anywhere in a body. On the Mac and in the browser, paste or drop an image into the text and it uploads where you put it. It shows at a capped height to keep the body easy to scan, a control on the picture expands it to its full height, and a click opens it full size. Right click a picture for Copy image, Download image and Delete image. On your iPhone, the picture button above the keyboard adds one from your photos, a tap opens it full screen, and Save to Photos is in its menu.

A PDF or a text file sits in a body too, as a chip with the file's name. On the Mac and in the browser, paste or drop a file of up to 10 MB into the body, or onto the title. A click previews it inside Roma, a PDF in its viewer and text as text, and the right click offers Preview, Download and Delete. On your iPhone a tap opens the same preview, with Share as the way out, and you delete the chip by selecting it and deleting it.

Who else writes in a body

Your operator edits a body when you ask it to, and so does an agent you connected (what an agent can do). A span another writer changed flashes green when it lands. Every edit, yours and theirs, is kept in the item's version history under the writer's name, so a rewrite you did not want is one restore away. How much the operator rewrites on its own when you dictate is your AI editing setting. On a shared task or note, everyone with access types into the same body, and you see each other's carets and names while you work (working together on a shared list).

Questions people ask

Can I use Markdown in a task's body?

Yes. Type the markers and they turn into formatting as you go: # for a heading, - for a bullet, 1. for a numbered list, > for a quote, and the usual marks for bold, italic, strikethrough and code. Pasted Markdown is read the same way. Everything a body holds has a Markdown form, which is also how your operator and any connected agent read and edit it.

Where do pictures I add to a task go?

A picture becomes part of the body, between the paragraphs where you put it, and is stored privately with your account. It is not a separate attachment list. Every device that opens the task loads it from the body, and on the Mac and in the browser a right click copies or downloads the original.

Can two people edit the same note at the same time?

Yes, on a shared task or note. Everyone with access types into one body, each person's caret and name show while they work, and the edits merge as they happen. Your own ⌘Z steps back through your own edits alone, and the version history keeps every writer's changes under their name.

Does the body show in the list?

In the full size row shape, the first lines of the body show under the title on the card, so a glance at the list tells you what the task is about. The compact row shows the title alone. Pictures and files add nothing to that preview.