---
title: Notes in the margin
date: 2026-08-22
description: A quick look at the two asides this site knows how to make.
---

Most of what I write should just be the thing itself. Sometimes a thought doesn't belong in the sentence, though, it belongs next to it. :margin-note[(like this — a margin note sits beside the column on a wide screen, and drops under the paragraph on a small one)] That's what margin notes are for. Parentheticals you can actually skip.

Notices are the opposite. They interrupt on purpose.

::notice
**A note you shouldn't skip.** Use a notice when the aside *is* the point for a minute. It stays in the column, navy, hard to miss.
::

And if it needs to break the column entirely:

::notice{bleed}
**Full-bleed.** Same idea, but it runs edge to edge. Save it for the one time in a piece you actually want to shout.
::

That's the whole vocabulary. Margin for a mutter. Band for a point. Everything else is just the writing.

> A blockquote gets the little pointing hand in the left margin. Use it when you're quoting someone, or when you want a line to feel pointed at.