---
title: "Take notes in a meeting"
description: "Write your own notes beside a meeting, link a line to a moment in the transcript, and add notes from the menu bar during a call."
updated: "2026-10-16"
canonical: https://docs.recordstead.app/meetings/take-notes
---

# Take notes in a meeting

Keep your own notes with a meeting, next to its transcript and summary. Notes
save as you type, and they are never used to write the summary.

## Write notes

1. Open the meeting in **Meetings** and click the notes button next to its
   actions menu (⋯), or choose **Show Notes** from that menu.
2. Type in the **Notes** panel. There is nothing to save.

**Your result:** the notes stay with the meeting. The panel stays open while
you move between meetings in that window.

If the panel says it could not read or save your notes, your text is kept;
click **Try Again**.

## Link a line to a moment

Type a time in brackets, such as `[12:30]`, and it becomes a link: click it to
open the transcript at that moment. A line that starts with a time also
appears under that passage of the transcript as **Your note**. Click it to go
back to the line in your notes.

## Add a note during a call

While a meeting is recording, click the pencil at the bottom of the menu bar
panel. **Your Note** opens with the time in the call already filled in.

1. Type the note. Return starts a new line.
2. Click **Add Note**, or press ⌘Return.

**Your result:** the note is added to that meeting's notes with its time in
front, so it links to the transcript once there is one.

If you close the panel before adding, the note waits: click the pencil again
to finish it, even after the call ends, or click **Cancel** to discard it. If
a note cannot be added, click **Copy Text** to keep what you typed. A call you
[follow without recording](https://docs.recordstead.app/recording/live-transcript-only) has no notes.

## Where your notes go

- [Search](https://docs.recordstead.app/meetings/search-meetings) finds text in your notes.
- [Exporting a meeting](https://docs.recordstead.app/meetings/export-transcript) saves its notes in their
  own file.
- A [connected assistant](https://docs.recordstead.app/assistants/connect-an-assistant) can read them in
  the workspaces you turn on for it.
- Deleting the meeting deletes its notes. Forgetting a person in People leaves
  your notes as you wrote them, so edit them yourself if they name that person.