8 Things About Apple Notes that Will Blow Your Mind
The world has gone digital. An email has replaced letters, typing has replaced writing, and video calls have replaced face-to-face meetings. Thanks to the thousands of different mobile apps, the ability to constantly communicate has never been more effortless. There is an app for everything, from messaging, note-taking, ideation, reminders, and To-dos.
There are over 1 billion iPhones globally, and not everyone has downloaded every application ever made. Apple Notes, the note app that comes standard on every iPhone, is more than just a note-taking app. Apple Notes has built-in features that improve team communication, messaging, creativity, ToDos, and note-taking. Here are eight things you might not know about Apple Notes that could change your workflow.
Collaboration and Brainstorming
Team collaboration is vital to projects getting done. Apple Notes has built-in note sharing capability, and now in iOS 15you can mention and tag things within the note. Each team member can add images, sketches, links, documents, and lists to the note and mention relevant team members. Each addition shows up in the activity feed with a date and time. Apple notes are the digital whiteboard that your team needs to stay collaborative and inspired—using Apple notes while on a Zoom call is super helpful to keep everyone on the same page. Once the meeting is over, a project manager can add actionable items via a checklist and mention individuals on each item.
"Apple notes are the digital whiteboard that your team needs to stay collaborative and inspired."
Security
Apple has doubled down on security and privacy over the last few years. The iPhones are now equipped with facial recognition to keep people out of the information stored on your phone. Apple Notes also has locked notes and is designed for keeping your most sensitive information like passwords and financial info safer even from people who have access to your phone. Think of a Christmas list that you want to keep from your kids who might use your phone. Not only is your iPhone secure, but within the notes app, there is an extra layer of privacy. All you have to do is tap the dots in the top right corner, choose the lock button, and enter a password to lock.
Organizing Scanned Documents
Scanning documents from books and reports is something that is becoming very important in today's digital world. Apple Notes has a built-in document scanner; not only can you take a picture and save it to a note, but you can also choose the scan option. The scan option automatically crops the paper down to size and saves it in a format like a PDF. Scanning into Notes is helpful because you can use all the collaboration features mentioned above, like mentions, markups, and tagging, to organize and discuss documents. Within each note, you can save just the scanned documents to another file on your computer simply by tapping and sharing to files app and choosing the folder you want.
Guides, Rulers, and Grids
Notes are the perfect place for the designer and artist to start a rough sketch using the Apple Pencil. The notes app has built-in guides like grids to make objects like User Interface mockups look clean and scale for even greater precision. There is also a lined note option for those who like to handwrite more uniform to keep their handwriting from becoming too messy and crooked. Again tap the three buttons at the top and choose 'Lines and Grids.'
Organize With Folders
Your notes and thoughts don't have to be everywhere. You can store messages in folders, use tags, or even use Smart Folders to automatically group notes with similar tags within the Notes app. The built-in search can search through all your notes and tags and retrieve anything you might be looking for; it can even search handwritten notes thanks to the new AI tools. You can now use the same application for home, work, kids, school, and whatever else you want and keep everything looking clean. Digital clutter can be just as bad as physical clutter, except for the ability to search quickly and easily if you can't find something.
Quick and Easy Reference
The organization is excellent, but if you have too many folders and need to keep notes for easy access. For starters, Apple Notes automatically reorders your notes based on the ones you last updated so that you can quickly and easily find items that you just worked with. Sometimes, you have things you don't actively use to but want to reference in a pinch when needed. For this, you use pinned notes. Just swipe right on the note to pin, and it stays at the top above your most recent notes.
More Ways to Capture Your Thoughts
From organizing and collaborating, Notes is just a perfect place to capture your thoughts. Whether that is a journal or just brainstorming, you can now do it from anywhere with seamless syncing across devices from iPads, iPhones, Macs, and via the web with iCloud. Even when driving, you can add notes via dictation and Siri, and it's available when you get to your destination.
Add A Note From any Application
Last but not least, the newest features of Apple Notes and one of my favorite is quick notes. Quick notes give you the ability to create a note outside of the notes application and it keeps it in a quick notes folder to be sorted out later. All you do is swipe up from any app's bottom corner of the screen to create a quick note. From there, you can type, handwrite, and tag something. This method is perfect for saving an idea from Pinterest or adding something to a wish list. Even better is that you can automatically add a link to that page embedded in the note. The fantastic thing about this is it's perfect for browsing the web and adding links to your favorite things, but it also works in the News app with articles you read and in Books to call out something you read. This feature is perfect for taking notes while reading for school or pleasure. You can pull out a quote quickly, reference the page number, and get back to reading without closing the book.
If you haven't fully used Apple Notes, now is the time to check it out with some of the new features rolled out in iOS 15. It is no longer just a notes app. It is a full-on ideation and collaboration workhorse that can revolutionize your individual and team workflow.