Markdown meeting notes template

A .md file ready to fill in for your meetings: decisions, action items with owners and due dates, open points. It opens in any editor and shows up formatted in Marko, ready to export as a PDF you can share.

Download the template (.md) ↓

What the template contains

Useful meeting notes come down to a few sections. This one has five, in the order you read them back afterwards.

• Header: date, attendees, who was absent. Enough to recall who was there and when.
• Purpose: one sentence on why the meeting happened.
• Decisions: what was settled, as short quotes that are easy to spot.
• Action items: a table with the action, its owner and its due date. Often the first section people reopen after the meeting.
• Open points: checkboxes for what still needs a decision or some missing information, for next time.

How to fill it in

During the meeting, type fast and skip the polish: one line per decision, one line per action. After the meeting, move each idea into its section and fill in owners and dates while it is all still fresh.

1. Download the template, then open it in Marko or in the editor of your choice.
2. Replace each sample line. Short notes get read more carefully than long ones.
3. If you dictated your notes to an AI and got back a block of text, paste it in Source mode, then split each sentence into a section. The raw draft turns into a clear document.
4. Check the action table: every row has an owner and a date.

From a dictated draft to clear notes

Here is an example. You dictated these notes during the meeting:

going with V2 in January, Sarah takes the mockup, still need to decide whether we keep the old export, Malik to size the server before Friday, check with legal on the terms

Each piece lands in a section. “going with V2 in January” becomes a decision. “Sarah takes the mockup” and “Malik sizes the server, Friday” become two rows in the action table, each with an owner and a due date. “keep the old export?” and “check with legal on the terms” move to open points. The same unreadable paragraph turns into notes you read back in ten seconds.

Open the template in Marko

Marko shows the file formatted: the action table, the checkboxes and the decision quotes take their place in Visual mode. You edit the text directly, and the file stays plain Markdown that your colleagues reopen wherever they want.

What the file looks like

# Meeting notes: [meeting topic]

- **Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
- **Attendees:** First Last, First Last
- **Absent:** First Last

## Purpose

In one sentence, why this meeting happened.

## Decisions

> Decision: what was settled.
> Decision: what was settled.

## Action items

| Action | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|
| First action | First | MM/DD |
| Second action | First | MM/DD |

## Open points

- [ ] Question to settle at the next meeting
- [ ] Information to obtain

## Next meeting

- **Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
- **Planned agenda:** ...

Tables and checkboxes show up formatted in Marko and in most Markdown editors. A plain text editor shows the symbols as they are.

Share the notes as a PDF

To send them to people who do not have Marko, choose “Export as PDF…” in the File menu. The PDF is paginated, with the action table rendered as it appears on screen. Everything happens on your Mac, nothing is sent to produce the document.