One size unfortunately does not fit all. You need one set of states, someone else might need another. also it is possible that different sets of states are needed for different types of notes. I think we shouldn't sacrifice flexibility here, as I envision CintaNotes to be smth like "Excel for notes", where anyone can mirror his/her own workflow :)

No problem. There's already something similar: http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/3386-add-simlpe-status-flag-icon/, and it already has 87 votes, so if it fits the bill it would be much better to re-use an existing idea.

Probably a duplicate, please review: http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/3386-add-simlpe-status-flag-icon/

Thomas is right - you can just use ESC

But we are talking about lines of text in a single note.. And I get the impression that you're talking about adding a new field to the note itself - do I understand correctly?