Styling Notes

Overview

Daeda Notes supports both HTML formatting and visual style presets to create professional, scannable notes that stand out in your CRM timeline.

What you can do: Format text with HTML, use color-coded styles, and create visually distinctive notes.

When to use it: When you need notes to be more than plain text - for emphasis, organization, or visual hierarchy.

Business value: Better readability, faster scanning, clearer communication, and more professional documentation.

Built-In Style Presets

Style Options

Daeda Notes provides four visual style presets that add background color and icons to your notes:

None (Default)

Appearance: Clean white background, no icon
When to use: Standard documentation, routine notes, general information

Best for:

Regular workflow documentation
Standard activity logging
General team updates
Most common use case (70% of notes)

Info (Blue)

Appearance: Light blue background, info icon
When to use: Informational updates, confirmations, status changes, positive notifications

Best for:

Status updates (“Deal moved to Proposal”)
Confirmations (“Payment received”)
Process milestones (“Onboarding completed”)
General notifications
Positive updates

Example Uses:

MQL qualification notifications
Deal stage progressions
Successful workflow completions
Meeting confirmations

Warning (Yellow)

Appearance: Light yellow background, warning icon
When to use: Cautions, attention needed, important reminders, action required soon

Best for:

Important deadlines approaching
Action items requiring attention
Cautions and reminders
Things that need follow-up

Example Uses:

“Contract renewal in 30 days”
“Missing required information”
“Follow-up needed by Friday”
“Payment pending”

Error (Red)

Appearance: Light red background, error icon
When to use: Failures, critical issues, problems requiring immediate action, workflow errors

Best for:

Workflow action failures
Critical issues
Immediate action required
Problems blocking progress

Example Uses:

“Data enrichment failed”
“Payment declined”
“Required field missing”
“API call failed”

HTML Formatting

Supported HTML Tags

Daeda Notes supports these HTML tags for formatting:

Text Formatting

Bold:

<strong>Important text</strong>
<b>Also bold</b>

Italic:

<em>Emphasized text</em>
<i>Also italic</i>

Underline:

<u>Underlined text</u>

Combined:

<strong><em>Bold and italic</em></strong>

Lists

Unordered Lists:

<ul>
  <li>First item</li>
  <li>Second item</li>
  <li>Third item</li>
</ul>

Ordered Lists:

<ol>
  <li>Step one</li>
  <li>Step two</li>
  <li>Step three</li>
</ol>

Nested Lists:

<ul>
  <li>Main item
    <ul>
      <li>Sub item</li>
      <li>Sub item</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Another main item</li>
</ul>

Links

<a href="https://example.com">Click here</a>

With tokens:

<a href="{{deal.proposal_url}}">View proposal</a>

Line Breaks

First line<br>
Second line<br>
Third line

Multiple breaks:

Paragraph one<br><br>
Paragraph two

Horizontal Rules

Section one
<hr>
Section two

HTML Best Practices

Keep It Simple

Good:

<strong>Status:</strong> Approved<br>
<strong>Approver:</strong> {{owner.name}}<br>
<strong>Date:</strong> {{today}}

Too Complex:

<div style="background: #f0f0f0; padding: 20px; border-radius: 5px;">
  <span style="color: #333; font-size: 14px;">Status: Approved</span>
</div>

HubSpot may strip complex HTML for security.

Use Lists for Readability

Instead of:

Action items: Review proposal, Schedule call, Send contract

Use:

<strong>Action Items:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Review proposal</li>
  <li>Schedule call</li>
  <li>Send contract</li>
</ul>

Structure Information

<strong>Deal Summary</strong><br><br>

<strong>Amount:</strong> {{deal.amount}}<br>
<strong>Stage:</strong> {{deal.dealstage}}<br>
<strong>Close Date:</strong> {{deal.closedate}}<br><br>

<strong>Next Steps:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Send proposal by EOD</li>
  <li>Schedule demo for next week</li>
  <li>Follow up with decision maker</li>
</ul>

Combining Styles and HTML

Style Selection Strategy

The style preset affects the note’s background color and icon, while HTML formatting affects the content structure.

Example: Error Note with Formatted Content

Style: Error (red background)

Content:

<strong>Workflow Failed</strong><br><br>

<strong>Error:</strong> Data enrichment service timeout<br>
<strong>Record:</strong> {{contact.email}}<br>
<strong>Time:</strong> {{today}}<br><br>

<strong>Required Actions:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Verify contact email is valid</li>
  <li>Manually enrich data</li>
  <li>Re-enroll in workflow</li>
</ul>

Result: Red-highlighted note with clear error details and action items

Example: Info Note with Links

Style: Info (blue background)

Content:

<strong>Proposal Sent Successfully</strong><br><br>

Proposal: <a href="{{deal.proposal_url}}">View Document</a><br>
Sent to: {{contact.email}}<br>
Sent by: {{owner.name}}<br><br>

<strong>Next Steps:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Follow up in 2 business days</li>
  <li>Answer any questions</li>
  <li>Schedule contract review call</li>
</ul>

Result: Blue info note with clickable proposal link and formatted next steps

Common Note Patterns

Status Update

Style: Info

Template:

<strong>Status Update:</strong> {{status}}<br><br>

<strong>Updated by:</strong> {{owner.name}}<br>
<strong>Date:</strong> {{today}}<br>
<strong>Previous status:</strong> {{previous_status}}<br>
<strong>New status:</strong> {{new_status}}

Action Items

Style: Warning

Template:

<strong>Action Required</strong><br><br>

<strong>Due Date:</strong> {{due_date}}<br>
<strong>Owner:</strong> {{owner.name}}<br><br>

<strong>Tasks:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Task one</li>
  <li>Task two</li>
  <li>Task three</li>
</ul>

Error Report

Style: Error

Template:

<strong>Error Encountered</strong><br><br>

<strong>Error Type:</strong> {{error.type}}<br>
<strong>Time:</strong> {{timestamp}}<br>
<strong>Affected Record:</strong> {{record.id}}<br><br>

<strong>Resolution Steps:</strong>
<ol>
  <li>Step one</li>
  <li>Step two</li>
  <li>Step three</li>
</ol>

Meeting Summary

Style: None

Template:

<strong>Meeting Summary</strong><br><br>

<strong>Date:</strong> {{meeting.date}}<br>
<strong>Participants:</strong> {{participants}}<br>
<strong>Duration:</strong> {{duration}}<br><br>

<strong>Key Points:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Point one</li>
  <li>Point two</li>
  <li>Point three</li>
</ul>
<br>

<strong>Action Items:</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Action one - Owner: {{owner1}}</li>
  <li>Action two - Owner: {{owner2}}</li>
</ul>

Approval Decision

Style: Info (if approved) or Warning (if denied)

Template:

<strong>Approval Decision</strong><br><br>

<strong>Decision:</strong> {{approval.decision}}<br>
<strong>Approver:</strong> {{approver.name}}<br>
<strong>Date:</strong> {{today}}<br>
<strong>Comments:</strong> {{approval.comments}}

Workflow Token Integration

Dynamic Content

Use workflow tokens to insert dynamic data:

<strong>Deal Updated</strong><br><br>

<strong>Deal Name:</strong> {{deal.dealname}}<br>
<strong>Amount:</strong> {{deal.amount}}<br>
<strong>Stage:</strong> {{deal.dealstage}}<br>
<strong>Owner:</strong> {{owner.firstname}} {{owner.lastname}}<br>
<strong>Close Date:</strong> {{deal.closedate}}

Conditional Content

While you can’t use if/then inside the note content, you can use workflow branches:

Branch 1 (High Value):

<strong>High Value Deal Alert</strong><br><br>
Amount: {{deal.amount}} <strong>(Above $50,000)</strong>

Branch 2 (Standard):

<strong>Deal Update</strong><br><br>
Amount: {{deal.amount}}

Troubleshooting

HTML Not Rendering

Symptoms: Tags appear as text instead of formatting

Cause: HubSpot filters certain HTML for security

Solution:

Stick to basic tags listed above
Avoid <script>, <style>, inline CSS
Test HTML in a note editor first

Formatting Looks Wrong

Check:

All tags are properly closed
No unmatched opening/closing tags
Nested tags are in correct order

Example of bad nesting:

<strong><em>Text</strong></em>  <!-- Wrong! -->

Correct nesting:

<strong><em>Text</em></strong>  <!-- Right! -->

Links Not Clickable

Check:

Using proper <a> tag syntax
URLs include https://
Quotes around href value

Correct:

<a href="https://example.com">Link</a>

Best Practices Summary

Choose the right style for the note’s purpose (Info most common, Error rare)
Use HTML for structure (lists, bold, line breaks)
Keep it simple - avoid complex HTML
Be consistent - establish team standards for note formats
Test templates - verify HTML renders correctly
Use tokens - make notes dynamic and data-rich
Prioritize readability - scannable > comprehensive