---
title: Collapsible Headings
description: Collapse and expand sections to navigate long notes
---

Long notes with multiple sections can be easier to navigate when you can collapse content under headings. Octarine lets you fold sections away to focus on what matters.

### How to Collapse Headings

Click the collapse icon (arrow) that appears next to any heading to hide or show the content beneath it:

- **Collapse** — Click the down arrow (▼) to hide all content under that heading
- **Expand** — Click the right arrow (▶) to reveal the content again
- The collapsed state is saved with the note and persists across sessions

This works with all heading levels (H1 through H6). When you collapse a heading, everything beneath it—including subheadings—gets hidden until you expand it again.

### Hierarchical Collapsing

Collapsing follows the heading hierarchy, so when you collapse a higher-level heading, all lower-level headings beneath it are also hidden:

- If you collapse an **H1**, all H2-H6 headings under it will be collapsed until the next H1
- If you collapse an **H2**, all H3-H6 headings under it will be collapsed until the next H1 or H2
- If you collapse an **H3**, all H4-H6 headings under it will be collapsed until the next H1, H2, or H3

This makes it easy to hide entire sections and subsections at once.

### Keyboard Shortcuts

For faster navigation without using the mouse:

- `Option/Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + [` — Collapse the current heading section
- `Option/Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + ]` — Expand the current heading section

### When to Use This

Collapsible headings are particularly useful when:

- Working with long documents that contain many sections
- Focusing on one part of a note while editing
- Getting an overview of a note's structure without scrolling
- Presenting or reviewing documents section by section
- Temporarily hiding reference material while writing

### Navigation with Collapsed Headings

Even when sections are collapsed, you can still:

- Use the [Outline Navigation](/note-management/outline-navigation) command to jump to any heading
- Search for text within collapsed sections—Octarine will expand them automatically when showing results
- View the full structure in the [Meta Sidebar](/note-management/meta-sidebar#outline) outline tab