Apple Notes always has been and always will be a great simple note-taking application available on iOS and all for free. Apple Notes is always updating what you can do inside Apple Notes, and surprisingly, you can do a lot more than you think.
We just published some of our own productivity tips for Apple Notes on YouTube.
Here's our Apple Notes top tips to help get you started, or learn how to improve your current note-taking with the application that Apple continues to evolve each year.
Apple Notes is an app that comes along with your iPhone, iPad and Mac device.
It's of course only for Apple users and it's actually a great free note-taking app that comes with your device. Apple Notes is very simple and plain, it's a good space for writing notes, ideas, to-dos and even sending to family and friends for shopping lists and party information. Millions maybe even billions of people use Apple Notes everyday.
But you can actually do a whole lot more now, Apple Notes has evolved over the years and now all kinds of people are using the app for all kinds of use cases. Students enjoy using the app for studying, creatives use the app for saving ideas and inspiration and much more.
Best Features inside Apple Notes
Let's take a look at the key features of Apple Notes, the classic iOS note-taking app:
- Writing notes with formatting such as headers, bold, italics, bullet points and more.
- Pin important notes to the top of your list.
- Add photos, videos and documents to Apple Notes.
- Write and draw with the Apple Pencil.
- Add attachments like locations and websites from external apps.
- Create folders and subfolders, and further organise with tags.
- Use the Gallery View to see all notes in a visual format, you can also sort notes from here.
Our Top 10 Apple Notes Tips & Tricks
Now let's dive into Apple Notes' top tips, things you didn't know and cool features. The next 6 tips on this list come from Paul Minors, a productivity expert who focuses mainly on Pipedrive & Asana, you can see his Youtube video here about how to use Apple Notes.
1. Folders
You can use folders to organise your notes, making it easier to access and find specific things. Folders are better for organising wider categories like sections of your life. For example, you can have a folder for work, personal, cooking, gym and so on.
Apple Notes can replace the use of physical notebooks in this way since there's no need to write anything down in separate books, you can just use your different folders instead to manage your notes, ideas and information you want to save.
2. Syncing Notes
Use iCloud to sync your notes across your Apple devices to always have access to your notes.
This will show in its own iCloud folder. You cannot change the name of this or delete it. It's just there to move your notes across.
You can also sync your Apple Notes with other internet accounts like Google, you just have to head into the settings and choose the toggles for what you want to sync.
3. Tags
Organise and manage your notes using hashtags. This is a simple way to connect notes together when you search for a certain tag. For example, you might use the tag #scripts when brainstorming scripts for content creation. You can then search for this hashtag to bring up all the scripts you have written.
Use the £ key on your Mac to quickly bring up the hashtag, you'll then see a ton of suggested tags you have recently used. Tags can be found in the sidebar for quick access too.
4. Smart Folders
Smart Folders are another way to deepen the organisation of your notes.
Think of smart folders like filters, inside a folder. When creating a smart folder you set criteria such as tags and when the note was created.
This brings all notes filling the criteria into its own folder, whilst still keeping it organised in existing folders you have already created.
5. Sorting Folders
Once you have a load of notes inside your Apple Notes, you're going to want to figure out the best way to sort them so the system is more efficient for you and your needs. You can choose to sort notes inside a folder from its title, date created, date last edited and so on. This can help with finding notes quicker and creating an organisation that makes sense.
An example would be to organise all notes for your journal in order of the date, or the title if you include the date in there. So you can see all entries in chronological order.
6. Pin Notes
Finally, from Paul Minor, you can pin notes to the top of your folder, or pin a folder to the top of your app. This is best for important notes you want to quickly access or things you need to remember.
Pinning notes makes sure nothing important gets lost. For example, you might want to pin holiday details to the top for whilst you're away, or key information for that job interview you're going for.
These next tips come from Peter Akkies, you can see his full YouTube video about Apple Notes here.
7. Scanning Text
A newer feature Apple Notes has is its text scanner. This feature is great for students, for scanning important documents, saving recipes and much more.
When you scan the text, it will automatically populate your notes page. To do this, have your text ready, open your Apple Notes and select scan text. Now hold the phone to scan the text and you'll see it appear on the page. You can change the format of the text before you do this to make it easier.
8. Share Notes
You can share notes with family, friends or maybe even colleagues depending on the context.
All you have to do is long tap a note and select share and choose from an option. You can send notes via iMessage to others using iCloud.
When inside the note in Apple Notes you can see who you have shared the note with, and manage what they can do with it. They can view and edit, or just view the note.
9. Lock Notes
If you have a note, an image or a document you want to keep safe and secure and make sure no one else can see it, you can lock your notes.
When you first lock a note you will have to set up a password, you can then use FaceID to unlock notes afterwards.
To lock multiple notes just scroll to the bottom of the notes page and select lock.
10. Checklists
To create a checklist or to-do list, either choose the checklist icon first at the bottom when writing a new note or select a series of texts then choose the checklist icon.
From here you can click the circles to check an item off the list, you can drag and drop items to reorganise and swipe left or right to indent sections.
Why Do People Use Apple Notes?
So why do people continue to use Apple Notes when there are thousands of other more advanced note-taking applications on the market?
There are so many note-taking applications available, that all seem rather pleasing with all their features and abilities. However, none of that comes without a steeper learning curve and maybe a price tag.
It's nice to try new things, test out the latest app and organise your notes in a new way, but Apple Notes will always be a great choice to serve its purpose.
Apple Notes is so simple and so effective with note-taking, people always find themselves using it, falling back onto it, and making use of the application.
Apple Notes Alternatives
Like the idea of Apple Notes but still want to try something new before you give in? Here are some other simplistic note-taking apps you could try:
Apple Notes Alternatives
Best For
Traditional Note-Taking
Availability
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Best For
Light Note-Taking
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Pricing
Type of Tool
Best For
Lightweight Notes
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Pricing
Type of Tool
If you're in the hunt for note-taking applications, we can help you find the best ones.
- Explaining Apple Notes
- Best Features inside Apple Notes
- Our Top 10 Apple Notes Tips & Tricks
- 1. Folders
- 2. Syncing Notes
- 3. Tags
- 4. Smart Folders
- 5. Sorting Folders
- 6. Pin Notes
- 7. Scanning Text
- 8. Share Notes
- 9. Lock Notes
- 10. Checklists
- Why Do People Use Apple Notes?
- Apple Notes Alternatives
- Apple Notes Alternatives
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Charlotte Dawson
Charlotte Dawson
Charlotte Dawson
Charlotte Dawson
Francesco D'Alessio
