An adornment is seen only in Map views and is used to provide a means of adding visual elements to the background of the Map view. Created via the Create Adornment dialog accessible only from the Map pop-up menu. The Outline view has a rough equivalent in separator notes which are shown only in outlines and not other view types. As an adornment can't be listed in an Outline, an agent can't match or act on it.
Although adornments are not listed in the views like Outline, these objects do have attributes. To control details like the border width, select an adornment and either use the [Cmd]+[Opt]+[I] shortcut or select Get Info from its pop-up menu to open the Info dialog. Most attributes are irrelevant for an adornment except those in the Map section.
Note that adornments do get counted in the outline order numbering, even if not visible there; the are counted as the last sibling children of the note on whose Map view they appear. This ensures the adornment always sit behind any notes on the map. Using 'send to back' on a note in Map view will not place it behind any adornments. However, if the map has more than one adornment it is still possible to use the sent forward/back commands to re-arrange the stacking order of adornments alone.
As adornments (can) act as a form of container, they have support for Actions - just like agents and container notes. As with a container note, the action string is stored in the $OnAdd attribute, and is triggered when a note or agent is dragged onto the adornment. A note being 'on' an adornment occurs if all or part of the note lies within the adornment's boundaries.
Adornments show their locked/sticky states with lock and push-pin icons. The push-pin and lock icons are packaged separately in the application allowing custom icons to be added.
A prototype can hold adornments - at its sub (container) level.
Adornments are discussed further under discussion of the Map view.
Smart adornments add the ability for an adornment to be (selectable) as a prototype.