Editor Notes

What are editor notes?

Editor notes are internal, per-page text annotations that you can attach to any page of your PDF template directly inside the Mergram editor. They are designed for collaboration and reference — use them to leave instructions for teammates, document field placement decisions, record merge instructions, or jot down any context that should travel with the template.

Notes are never included in merged PDF output. They exist only in the editor.

How to add notes

1. Open a template in the editor

   Load any saved template or create a new one by uploading a PDF and connecting a spreadsheet.

2. Navigate to the desired page

   Use the page controls to go to the page where you want to add a note.

3. Open the notes footer

   Look at the bottom of the editor area. You’ll see a thin bar labeled Notes with a sticky note icon. Click it to expand the notes panel.

4. Type your note

   Click the text area and start typing. The note is automatically associated with the current page. Your changes are saved whenever the template auto-saves or when you manually save.

5. Collapse when done

   Click the Notes header again to collapse the panel. A truncated preview of the current page’s note is shown in the collapsed bar.

Resizing the notes panel

The notes panel can be resized to give you more or less writing space:

• Drag the handle — Place your cursor on the grip bar at the top of the expanded panel and drag up or down to resize.
• Keyboard shortcuts — With the text area focused, press Shift+↑ to grow the panel or Shift+↓ to shrink it. Each press adjusts by roughly one line.

The panel auto-grows to fit your text as you type, up to a maximum of approximately 20 lines. It shrinks no smaller than roughly 2 lines.

Saving and persistence

Notes are saved as part of the template’s editor configuration, alongside canvas data, form mappings, and other editor state.

• Auto-save — Notes are marked as “dirty” when you type, triggering the normal auto-save cycle. There is no separate save button for notes.
• Manual save — Clicking the template save button also saves the current notes.
• Template reload — When you or a teammate opens the template later, all page notes are restored.
• Merge round-trip — Notes survive navigation to and from the merge screen. Pressing the browser back button after previewing a merge returns you to the editor with all notes intact.

Read-only mode

When a template is locked by another user (or another browser tab), the editor enters read-only mode. In this state:

• You can still view all page notes by expanding the panel
• The text area is read-only — you cannot edit or add notes
• The drag handle is hidden — the panel cannot be resized
• A lock banner at the top of the editor indicates who holds the lock

Once the lock is released, you can edit notes again.

Use cases

Here are practical ways teams use editor notes:

Tips

• Be concise — Notes are for quick reference. Link to external docs for lengthy instructions.
• Date important entries — When noting changes or decisions, include the date for traceability.
• Use the badge counter — The collapsed bar shows how many pages have notes. Use this to quickly scan whether notes exist across your document.
• Notes are not a merge field — Text in notes cannot be used as merge placeholders. If you need per-row variable text, use a text field on the canvas.

Limitations

• Editor-only — Notes are never rendered in PDF output, email body, or any export format.
• No rich text — Notes are plain text. Bold, links, and other formatting are not supported.
• No per-user notes — Notes are shared with the template. All team members see the same notes.
• No export — Notes cannot be exported separately from the template. They are part of the template data.
• Not searchable — The template list does not search note contents. Notes are only accessible inside the editor.