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User guides
The little app has turned into a productivity powerhouse.
Michael Grothaus
15:43, 18 Jul 2016
For years the Notes app included in OS X, which also has an iOS counterpart, languished. Sure, it let you sync notes between devices, but these notes lacked support for rich text formatting, easy picture attachments, no rich web links, and did syncing via HTML—something that was both insecure and didn’t always sync correctly, many times resulting in duplicate notes. Apple fixed all that thanks to a major overhaul with the Notes app last autumn. Since then I’ve been using the Notes app religiously on both my Mac and iOS devices. Here are the best tips I’ve come up with to make you a Notes power user too.
Securely lock your notes to keep them safe from prying eyes
Without a doubt, hands down, the very best feature in the new Notes app is the ability to lock notes. When a note is locked you will not be able to see the contents of the note unless you enter in the password you have set for your locked notes. This feature is immensely useful for those who store personal information in their Notes app, such as financial account numbers or passwords. Even if someone gains access to your computer they won’t be able to read any locked notes without your password.
To lock a note, select the note and then click the Lock button in the toolbar. You’ll be asked to set a password specific to that note. Once you’ve entered it, the note will be locked. To unlock the note, select the note and enter the password in the field that appears.
One cool thing is locked notes are able to be unlocked on iOS devices by using the Touch ID. Since the next MacBook Pro is rumored to support Touch ID, it’s likely fingerprint-protected notes will be coming to the Mac too.
Organize your notes into folders
Another great feature is the ability to organize your notes into folders. The new Notes app features a sidebar that houses all the folders. To access this sidebar, click the Show Folders button in the toolbar. By default the sidebar includes the All iCloud folder. This contains all the notes you have saved and synced with iCloud. To create new additional folders, click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar. I like creating a folder for “personal” and “work” as well as more niche folders, such as “dinner menu ideas”.
Easily create checklists
Apple discovered than many people were using their old Notes app to create todo lists, so the company built in a new checklist feature into Notes. Now when you create a todo list in notes, after you’ve finished typing up the list highlight every item in the list and then click the Mac a Checklist button in the toolbar. Empty checklist circles will appear next to each item in the list. Click an empty cycle when you complete an item and a yellow checkmark will appear next to it.
Apple rich formatting to your notes
Apple has also added the ability to create rich text in Notes. Notes supports Title, Heading, and Body formatting (available via the Format menu in the menu bar) as well as support for multiple fonts, sizes, and colors. Bring up the font picker by pressing Command–T while in the Notes app.
Use notes to store images
A lot of times people like to save images in Notes. Apple has made this drag and drop easy with the new Notes app. Simply drag any image or images from your Mac or a web page onto a note and it will be embedded inline with any text already in the note. Add as many images as you want. Bonus: right click on the images and select “View as Small Images” to display the images as thumbnails in a note.
Save rich web links and directions to Notes
Another great new feature is the ability to save rich web links and directions in Notes. Unfortunately you can’t do this by drag or drop or simply typing a URL or address in a Notes. You must add web links to Notes right from Safari by clicking the Share menu in Safari and then choosing the Notes option. A window will pop up with a preview of the link. You can then add a textual note to the link. Choose to save the rich web link to a new note or an existing on and click Save.
The same goes for rich addresses. You need to use OS X’s Maps app to find an address. Once you have click the Share menu in Maps and then choosing the Notes option. A window will pop up with a preview of the address. You can then add a textual note to the address. Choose to save the rich address link to a new note or an existing on and click Save.
Master the Attachment Browser in Notes
Besides adding photos, rich web links, and rich addresses to Notes, you can also drag and drop audio, video, and documents into a note. But instead of having to find the exact note that contains all of these individually, you can simply browse all your Notes attachments in the Attachment Browser. Click the Browse Attachments button in the toolbar to view attachments by category. Right click on any attachment to be taken to the note that attachment appear in.
OS
Apple
Apple Notes App