Create an outline

Need better ways to organize and navigate large notebooks? Create outlines (also known as table of contents) with collapsible multi-level structure to jump directly to any section without scrolling.

Outlines act as a table of contents, helping you quickly navigate, organize, collapse, and restructure long documents for better focus and clarity.

You can import a PDF with an outline, create one yourself, or have Goodnotes AI generate it for you.

View the document outline

1. Open a notebook or a Text Document.

2. Open the Sidebar and then the Outline tab.

   

    

   

    

Create an outline manually

For a notebook:

While on a notebook page:

1. Open the More menu.

   

2. Choose Add Page to Outline, enter a title for your outline item, and confirm.

   

3. Go to another page and repeat steps 1 & 2 to add more outline items.

💡 You can also open the Pages tab in the Sidebar, tap the down-arrow under a page thumbnail and choose Add Page to Outline. Repeat for other page thumbnails as needed.

• The same page can be added to multiple outline items, allowing you to organize the same content by different criteria (e.g., by week and by team) within a single document.

For a Text Document:

In a Text Document, you can create an outline by structuring your document with heading tags (H1, H2, H3). Select a heading type in your document, and it’ll automatically appear in the Outline tab.

Generate an outline automatically

ℹ️ This feature isn't available for Text Documents, which use heading tags to create their outlines.

1. Open the Sidebar > the Outlines tab > Generate Outline.

   

2. Adjust the action for all pages or a page range, then choose the Send icon to confirm.

   

3. Review the generated outline. Expand or collapse items using the right-arrow or down-arrow icons. If it looks good, choose Insert in Sidebar.

   

 ℹ️ Automatic outline generation uses AI credits. If you run out of credits, you can create an outline manually, upgrade your subscription, or purchase an AI Pass add-on.

Work with document outlines

ℹ️ You can jump to an outline item in a Text Document from the Outline tab in the Sidebar, but you can't edit it there. To restructure the outline, use heading tags within the document.

From the Outlines tab, you can do any of the following:

• Jump to a page associated with an outline item: Tap the title of the outline item.

• Rename or delete an outline item: Long-press its title and choose Rename… or Delete.

   ℹ️ Deleting an outline item only removes the navigation link—it doesn't delete the actual page or content. Your notes remain safe.

• Reorder outline items: Drag an item to a new position between other items.

  

• Nest an outline item: Drag the item on to another item. The newly dropped one becomes a sub-item to the parent item.

  💡 You can create up to 3 levels of subitems to match your document's structure (for example: Chapter 1 → Section 1.1 → Subsection 1.1.1).

• Unnest an outline item: Drag the item out of its parent item to a new position.

• Expand or collapse an outline item: Tap the right-arrow or down-arrow icon, respectively.

  

• Order the outline by page: Tap the top-left corner icon > Sort by Page Number.

  

   ⚠️ Using this feature will restore the page number sequence but will remove any custom ordering you may have created.

Use cases

• Studying from textbooks: Create chapters and sub-sections for exam-ready organization. Collapse past chapters to focus on current material.
• Meeting and project notes: Nest notes by week, phase, or team. Collapse completed sections to keep your workspace tidy.
• PDF clean-up: Fix messy or missing outlines on imported PDFs with custom structure that makes sense to you.
• Long research documents: Build multi-level topics to jump across hundreds of pages quickly without losing your place.
• Teaching materials: Organize units, lessons, and subtopics into an expandable syllabus structure.
• Knowledge bases: Consolidate many topics in a single notebook and keep navigation tidy with collapsible sections.

Tips and tricks

• Start with AI generation: Use AI to create a quick outline structure, then manually refine it to match your needs perfectly.
• Use descriptive titles: Clear, specific outline titles make it easier to find what you need at a glance.
• Create outlines as you go: Add outline items while taking notes rather than trying to organize everything later.
• Collapse strategically: Keep only the current section expanded to reduce visual clutter and improve focus.
• Consistent structure helps: Use a similar outline structure across related documents for easier navigation.

Questions & answers

• Will my outlines sync across devices?

  Yes, outlines are part of your document and sync automatically through iCloud or Goodnotes Cloud to all your devices.

• Can I search for outline items?

  Yes, you can search for them by title and find results in the Outline tab of the Search Sidebar:

  

• Why has my PDF outline lost its order?

  If your previously existing PDF outline items are no longer in the correct order after updating to version 7.0.22 or later, you can restore them by sorting them by page number.

• Why doesn't my exported PDF contain the document outline?

  Make sure you choose Editable PDF Export Format to preserve the document outline. See PDF outlines and hyperlinks are missing when I export a document