Apple Notes for iPhone: Beginner User Guide

Orientation

Although Apple Notes is a minimalist app, it has a homepage on the iPhone version of the app where you can see all your folders. Tapping a folder opens it so you can see all the notebooks it contains. The folder name appears above the search bar at the top of the screen, and the notebooks in that folder go below that. To open your notes, simply tap on them, and the app takes you to the app’s workspace, where you write and edit your notes in Apple Notes. The back icon (top left corner of the app) closes the notebook, taking you back to your folder and then to the homepage of the app, where all your folders are. 

Your folders are saved in your iCloud account by default. To save your folder on your device, go to iPhone Settings > Notes > and turn on “On My iPhone” Account. Adding all your folders (and their notebooks) in iCloud syncs across all your Apple devices using the same Apple ID. Notes under On My iPhone are local; they don’t sync across devices.

New folders

Before taking notes, you must create folders for your notebooks. Tap the new folder icon (bottom left corner of the app), and choose the location for your new folder: On My iPhone or iCloud. You can then name your new folder and tap Done to save it.

New notebooks

Choose the folder to which you want to add a new notebook, then tap the new notebook icon (bottom right corner), and you can start taking notes. To change the paper template for your notebook, go to the three-dots icon (top toolbar), then Lines & Grids, and choose the template you want. Apple Notes has three line-spacing options for your lined and squared paper.

Typing notes

On the iPhone, you will mostly type your notes as body text. It goes directly to the page and does not mix with other items in your notes. To structure your notes, go to the Aa icon on the keyboard toolbar to add a Title, Heading, or Subheading. Putting your cursor on your text can also convert it to a Title, Heading, or Subheading. You can also add a Body (which is a normal paragraph) or Monostyled text if you’re writing code. You can format your text (select it first) to make it bold, italic, underline, or strikeout.

Apple Notes supports numbered and unnumbered lists. You can convert a paragraph to a list (place your cursor on it and tap the list icon) or create a new list from scratch (place your cursor on an empty space). Levels in your list are easy to create using the indentation tools (icons after the numbered list icon). They are also easy to understand because bullet points change as you add levels to your list. Apple Notes uses eight bullet point types. Dashed lists don’t change when you add hierarchies. They are, therefore, ideal for taking basic notes. Numbered lists have one type of numbering that doesn’t change with levels.

You can add quotes using the quotation icon (bottom right corner). When you’re done formatting your notes, tap the X icon to bring back the keyboard, which has a toolbar with more features for your text. Tap the checklist icon to create a simple to-do list in your notes. Like your numbered lists, levels don’t change the checkbox type. You can check them off as you complete them. They can automatically move to the bottom of the list. To turn on this animation, go to your iPhone Settings > Notes > Sort Checked Items > and choose to do it Automatically.

Adding tables

You can add tables to your notes in Apple Notes. Go to the table icon on the keyboard toolbar to add a 2×2 table. That is the default table Apple Notes creates each time you create a new table. You can also select some text you want included in your table, then tap the table icon to create a new table with the text in it. You can add more rows and columns by going to the three-dots icons to select a row or column. Tapping on the three-dots icon again for your column brings up a popup menu with options to Delete Column or Add Column. You can do the same to add new rows to your table.

Once you have added some information to your table, you format all the text in a row or column at once by going to the three-dots icon to select the row/column first. Then tap it again to bring up the popup menu, and go to Format to make your text Bold, Italic, Underline, or Strikethrough. To format words in a single cell, double-tap or long-press the cursor to bring up a popup menu, Select All and go to Format. You can also Copy or Cut the text to paste it anywhere.

Manually selecting all the text in a cell automatically selects multiple rows and columns. Drag the dots on the selection to adjust what you want to select. To edit your whole table, place a cursor anywhere on the table, then to the table icon on the keyboard toolbar. You can then Delete Table or Convert to Text to remove the table but keep the text. You can Share Table out of the app or Copy Table to paste it anywhere. Not all apps support tables, though. Bear that in mind when you’re pasting the table.

Handwriting notes

Apple Notes has a toolbar with handwriting tools that lets you write notes with your finger or a stylus. Tap the pen icon on the keyboard toolbar to bring it up. In reading mode (when you’re not typing), it is on the bottom toolbar. However, because of the screen size of your iPhone, these writing tools are more useful on the iPad using the Apple Pencil. It, therefore, makes more sense to handwrite notes on the iPad and sync them to your iPhone.

Pages in Apple Notes are vertically infinite but have a fixed width. They continue extending downward as you type without you needing to add any new pages. If you choose to handwrite your notes, you have page template options under the three-dots icon (top left corner). Go to Lines & Grids, and choose a page template like you would on the iPad. This handwriting section of your page is the only part of your notebook that can mix text with other items on the page. The body text section can’t do that.

Adding items to your notes (intermediate)

Shapes

On your iPhone, you can draw shapes with your finger using the writing tools in Apple Notes or add them with the shapes tool. In both cases, you must bring up your writing tools (tap the pen icon on the keyboard toolbar). For hand-drawn shapes, draw a shape and keep your finger pressed on the screen until it transforms. To use the shapes tool, go to the plus icon (far right side of the writing toolbar) and Add Shape. You can add your shapes from the available options. Shapes do not mix with typed notes, though. They can only be added to the handwriting sections of your notebook.

When you select a shape in your notes (tap on it), the yellow dots let you resize, stretch, or shrink it. A green dot also appears on some shapes, which changes the number of sides in your shape or the appearance of the shape, depending on the shape in question. It can also change the curvature of arrows. A shape can even have two green dots to adjust both (e.g. the star). The three-dots icon (top right corner of a selected shape) lets you Cut, Copy, Duplicate, or Delete the shape. You can also move the shape around the page.

To modify your shape, tap on it and bring up its customisation options under the writing toolbar (pen icon) at the bottom of the screen. Starting from left to right, you can change the border colour using the Grid, Spectrum, Sliders, hex code, or colour picker (top right corner). You can also adjust the opacity of your colour. Apple Notes also has some presets you can use quickly for your colours. You can adjust them by selecting a colour and personalising it. Tapping the plus icon adds your custom colour to the presets, and long-pressing prompts you to Delete colours.

Next, in your customisation options, you can change the border thickness, which ranges from 1pt to 30pt. You can change or remove the fill colour (circle with a forward slash). Apple Notes can also remove the border for your shapes the same way it removes fill colour (under the shape border colour options). The last customisation option changes the opacity of the whole shape.

For arrows, you can modify their line thickness and colour. You can also remove arrowheads and add them to one or both ends of the line. When you have finished, tap Done (top right corner) to close the customisation options for your shapes tool.

Text boxes

You can add typed notes next to your shapes in text boxes if you want to mix the two. To get started, bring up the handwriting tools (tap the pen icon), and go to the plus icon to Add Text. Drag the yellow dots on the text box to rearrange its text. You can also move the text box around the page (tap anywhere on it).

To edit the text, tap the text box to bring up the customisation toolbar at the bottom of the screen. From left to right: you can change the font of your text (Aa icon). The font size ranges from 5 to 300 points. You can align your text left, centre, right, or justify. Formatting makes the text bold, italic, underlined, or strikeout. You can also change the colour of your text.

To format some of your text in the textbox but not all of it, select it to bring up a popup menu, go to the forward arrow and Format. You can make your text Bold, Italic, and Underline. The three-dots icon on the text box lets you Cut, Copy, Duplicate, or Delete it.

Photos and videos to body text

You can add photos to body text and handwriting sections in Apple Notes on the iPhone. For body text, go to the camera icon (bottom toolbar) and Choose Photo or Video. Select the photos you want and Add (top right corner of the app). You can also take photos with your iPhone camera. Under the camera icon, go to Take Photo or Video. You can Retake a photo when you’re not happy with it or Use Photo to add it to your notes.

Body text images go above or below your text in a block of their own that does not mix with the text. Long-pressing the image gives you options to Copy, Share, View As to display the image as Small or Large. Tapping an image opens it in a separate window. The three-bar icon (top left of the app) shows all the images you have in your notebook. The share icon (bottom left) lets you share the photo out of the app. By using the pen icon, you can markup the image with handwriting tools. You can also add Add Sticker (under the plus icon on the toolbar), Description, Add Text, Add Signature, and Add Shape. Tap Done to save the changes and exit the window.

You can also add videos in the same way you add photos, either from your Photos library or shooting one yourself from within Apple Notes. Go to the camera icon and Choose Photo or Video. Select your videos and Add. You can also shoot videos with your iPhone camera; under the camera icon, go to Take Photo or Video and choose VIDEO. You can Retake the video when you’re not happy with, or Use Video to save it to your notes. Like your photos, videos are also blocked and don’t mix with anything else.

You can play the video with the option to rewind or fast-forward 10 seconds. Apple Notes can adjust the Playback Speed (under the three-dots icon in the bottom right corner). To watch in full-screen mode, go to the two arrows icon (at the top left corner of the video). When in full-screen mode, you can stop your video to extract any text or handwriting from the screen using Live Text. Simply tap the Show Text (under the three-dots icon) for the app to highlight all the text in your video. You can then Copy All and paste it into your notes. Videos in Apple Notes support Picture in Picture (icon at the top of the video). To watch your video on another Apple device, tap the AirPlay icon and choose the device you want to watch it on. Long-pressing a video brings up a popup menu to Copy, or Share it out of the app. It also has an option to Delete the video, which you can also do for your Photos.

Photos to handwriting sections

If you have handwritten sections in your notes, you can add photos to them, too. The first way you can do that is by dragging them to body text. So these are photos you have already added to body text. Long-press a photo until it lifts off the screen, then drag it to your handwriting section. Another way to do it is from the Photos app, long-press a photo, and without letting it go, use another finger to exit the Photos app, open Apple Notes and the notebook you want, and then drop your photo.

You can resize the photo using the yellow dots. With two fingers, you can rotate your image and tapping the three-dots icon (top right corner) brings up options to Cut, Copy, Duplicate, or Delete. You can not add videos to handwriting sections of your notes, though.

Signatures

You can add signatures to your notes in Apple Notes. To get started, bring up your handwriting tools, and go to the plus icon, then Add Signature. If this is your first time using the features, you can add a signature and tap Done to add it to your notes. When you already have some signatures in the app, you can select one or create a new one by going to Add or Remove Signature. Tap the plus icon (top left corner), write another signature. You can Clear (below the signature) to rewrite it if you’re unhappy or tap Done to save and add it to your notes.

You can resize the signature using the yellow dots. A popup menu appears at the bottom of the screen with options to change the pen thickness and colour of your signature. The three-dots icon lets you Cut, Copy, Duplicate, or Delete the signature. When you have saved signatures, you can quickly add them to your notes. Under the plus icon, go to Add Signature and pick the one you want. Apple Notes doesn’t let you edit a signature you’ve already saved; you can only delete it. So, under Add or Remove Signature, tap the minus icon and Delete.

Stickers

You can add stickers to your notes in Apple Notes. Go to the pen icon on the bottom toolbar. Under the plus icon, go to Add Stickers. Tap a sticker to add it to your notes. Your stickers behave like images, so you get the same options as images when you tap on them.

Collaboration

Collaboration lets you work on notes with your colleagues in real time. To get started, go to the share icon (top right corner) on your top toolbar. Collaborate is the default option for sharing notes out of Apple Notes, so you might not need to change it. You can choose permissions for your notebook to determine who can access your document: Only invited people or Anyone with the link. You can also control who can edit the document: Can make changes allows everyone you invite to make changes to your document. View only will let them view the notes without making any changes to them. Lastly, you can Allow others to invite people to the collaboration. But if you want to control who is invited, then we suggest you turn this off. This option is only available if you’re only sharing with specific people, and they can make changes to your documents.

The best way to share a collaboration document is via Messages. It is the only way to share documents you’re working on with invited people. Once you start collaborating, Apple Notes displays a cursor showing who is typing and where. By default, Participant Cursors is turned on, but you can turn it off, by going to the collaboration icon (or the participant’s profile picture when collaborating with one person) to manage the collaboration. Look for Participant Cursors and turn it off.

The collaboration icon houses some options for your collaboration. Tapping message, brings up people you’re collaborating with to start a conversation with them. Messages then automatically creates a thread under the document. You can also start a FaceTime video or audio call with people you’re collaborating with. On the iPhone, you can only do this with one person at a time, though. Below your communication options, the app displays a summary of the Latest Updates made to the notes in your absence. You can tap Show Updates, to expand the summary and see all the activity on the document. You will get a list of all the changes that have been made. You can also access it by going to Show All Activity a bit further down. Apple Notes tells you who did what and when they did it. Tapping on the changes highlights them. This, however, only works on typed notes, not on handwritten ones. Show Highlights displays who made what changes on the left side of the screen. You can bring this up by swiping to the right and hide it by swiping to the left from anywhere on your screen.

Manage Shared Note (at the bottom of the popup window under the collaboration icon) opens a popup window that lists everyone collaborating on your document. Tapping on a person’s name gives you options to control each participant’s permissions. You can choose if they Can make changes or not (View only). You can also decide if they Can add people to the collaboration. When you no longer want to work with them, you can Remove Access to block them from the notes. Back (top left corner) on the main window, you can Share With More People to invite more people to collaborate on your notes. Highlight All Changes if you want any changes to be highlighted. It makes them easier to spot. Turning this off removes the permanent highlighter that tracks all the changes in the document. When you turn off Hide Alerts, you will not receive any notifications when someone makes changes. Alerts come to Messages and Notification Centre when you’re collaborating. Share Options controls all the permissions for everyone, exactly like you get when you’re first sharing the notes. You can Copy Link to share it with more people or Stop Sharing with everyone to stop collaborating on your notes.

When someone invites you to collaborate on a document via Messages, tap on the notebook to retrieve its contents, then go to Open to start collaborating on it. When you don’t have permission to make changes, you will only view the document. Tapping on the screen won’t bring up the keyboard, so you can’t type anything. Your options under the collaboration icon remain the same, regardless of whether or not you can make changes to the notes. As a participant, under Manage Shared Note, you will be able to turn on or off Highlight All Changes and Hide Alerts. You also have the option to Copy Link.

Search tool

Apple Notes searches all your notes in the app. You can access the search bar from the notebooks column. The app has options for you to search through All Accounts or only the Current Account (where your currently selected folder is located). Accounts in Apple Notes are simply where your notes are located. They can either be in iCloud or On My iPhone. The app displays your results in three sections: Top Hits, Notes, and Attachments. Tapping on a notebook opens the notes. The results are highlighted in the notebook if they are text, but for some reason the app is not highlighting handwritten notes. You also get Suggested searches that you can use. The app can also search through PDFs, scans, and images. It’s also not highlighting any text in all of those.

You can fine-tune your search to focus only on Shared Notes, Locked Notes, Notes with Checklists, Notes with Tags, Notes with Drawing, Notes with Scanned Documents, or Notes with Attachments.

You can also choose to search a single notebook by going to the three-dots icon, then Find in Note. This gives better search results for handwritten notes. The app tells you how many terms have been found, and you can navigate through them. The term you’re on is yellow, while all the other terms are white. To fine-tune what you’re searching, tap the search icon on the search bar to focus on Whole Words (which searches complete words only and not part of them). You can also choose to Match Case. You can also Find & Replace text (under the search icon), and you have the option to Replace one word at a time. To only search without replacing, switch to Find.

iOS support

Apple Notes supports all the features in iOS that are essential for boosting your productivity in the app. These include dark mode, scanning documents, data detection, multitasking, and widgets.

Organisation

Folders

We have already created new folders in Apple Notes. What we haven’t done is organising all our notes in different folders. To create levels for your folders, drag and drop one folder into a parent one. Another way to do it, is long-pressing the folder, and then Move it where you want it. You can also open the folder, add a new folder to it by going to the three-dots icon (top right corner of the folder name in the notebooks column), and then Add Folder. The three-dots icon also has an option to Move This Folder. Apple Notes supports five levels of folders within folders. The app warns you when you try to create a sixth level.

The Notes folder is the default folder where Apple Notes keeps all the notes you haven’t organised into folders. It is available for both your local and iCloud folders, but it does not support any levels, so you can’t add any subfolders to it. You can also move subfolders between parent folders by dragging them from one folder and dropping them into another.

Under the three-dots icon, you can Rename the folder (long-pressing it also works). Select Notes lets you select multiple notebooks so you can Move them to other folders, tag (Tags), or Delete them. All these options appear at the bottom of the notebooks column. You can also sort your notebooks (go to Sort By) by Date Edited, Date Created, or Title; starting with Newest First or Oldest First. You can also Group By Date if you want your notes to be grouped according to dates in the folder. It makes it easier to find what you’re looking for, so we recommend leaving it on. View Attachments shows you all the attachments in the app, not just the ones in the open folder. To delete a folder, long-press it to bring up the popup menu and Delete. This deletes all the notes and subfolders in that folder.

You can pin a notebook (Pin Note) to the top of the folder, so it’s readily accessible when you open the folder. You can also Lock Note if it does not have any attachments or tags and if you’re not collaborating on it. You can either Use iPhone Passcode, which is less secure but also easier to remember. Or Create Password for more security, but there is no way to recover a password if you forget. With both, the app gives you the option to Enable Face ID or Touch ID. We recommend you enable it to make it easier to unlock your notes. To lock your notebook, tap the lock icon on the toolbar. Tap it again or go to View Note (middle of the note page) to unlock it. The option you choose for locking your notebook applies to all the notebooks in the app. To remove the lock from within the notebook, go to the three-dots icon and Remove. You can also go to the folder, long-press your notebook and Remove Lock. Lastly, Move lets you select a different folder for your notebook.

Tags

Another way to organise your notes, in Apple Notes, is with tags. Typing # gives you recommendations for tags you can use. To create a new tag, or when you have no tag in the app, simply type the full tag. Tap the space or return keys to save the tag. On the iPhone, handwriting a tag is not very practical, but if you do use it, the app underlines it allowing you to interact with it. Simply tap on the tag and Convert to tag.

Your tags are universal, meaning the same tags work in all the notebooks in your app. Apple Notes groups them (under Tags) below your folders in the app. Tapping on a tag will display the notebooks using it. You can view notebooks with two or more tags. Next to the Tags title, you can choose to see notebooks that match all or any of your selected tags. Any selected will display all the notebooks with at least one of the selected tags. Long-pressing a tag gives you the option to Rename Tag and the app updates all the tags in the app. You can also Delete Tag. If you don’t like folders, universal tags are a great alternative for organising your notes.

Smart folders

Smart folders automatically organise your notes according to a criteria you set. You can create them from scratch when creating new folders by tapping Make Into Smart Folder, or you can convert an already existing folder into a smart one. To do that, open the folder and go to the three-dots icon and then Convert to Smart Folder and confirm (Convert). Make sure your folder doesn’t contain subfolders because you won’t be able to turn it into a smart folder.

A smart folder can include notes matching all or any of the filters you add. You have eleven (11) filters for your smart folders. A smart folder can group notes with specific tags. It can contain Any Tag or Any Selected Tag in which case you must pick the specific tags you want. All Selected Tags will be grouped into only the notebooks containing all the tags you pick. Your smart folder can also not have tags (No Tags).

You can also group notes that were Created or Edited during a certain period of time. The app has a few presets for the time period, but you can customise this by going to Custom, where you have more options to fine-tune the notes you’re grouping in your smart folder. Relative Range can be In The Past Hour(s), Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s). Specified Range lets you set a fixed period of time with fixed dates. On a Date groups notes for that one date. You can also group notes you Created or Edited Before/After a Date you set.

Apple Notes also lets you group Shared notebooks that you have shared With Anyone, With Specific People or with no one (Not Shared). Mentions groups notebooks where Anyone, you (labelled Me), or Specific People have been mentioned in a notebook you’re collaborating on. Checklists adds notes to your smart folder according to the criteria you set. You can choose to group Any checklists, or specific ones (Unchecked or Checked). You can also add notes with Any Attachments, or specific ones (Photos & Videos, Scans, Drawings, Maps, Websites, Audio, or Documents). When you want to group two or three different attachments, the only setting for that is to use Any, which will also include other attachments you don’t want. So, the best way is to use other criteria in addition to your Attachments option.

For the Folders criteria, you can Include/Exclude Selected and the app will give you a list of folders in your iCloud account. It does not support folders On My iPhone account. You can also Include or Exclude Quick Notes, Pinned Notes, Locked folders, and notes in your smart folder. Your smart folders can have any number of filters you want. When you’re happy with the filters you have chosen, tap Done to save your smart folder. Apple Notes has three default smart folders in the app: Quick Notes, Maths Notes, and Shared. Lastly, to edit these options for an already-existing smart folder, go to three-dots icon, Edit Smart Folder and then Manage Smart Folder.

Links

You can link your notebooks in Apple Notes. To add a link to a blank space, long-press to bring up the popup menu, go to the forward arrow, and Add Link. You can then typing to search for your notes in the app. Turn on Use Note Title as Name if you don’t want to change the title name. When you turn it off, you can write your own name for it, then tap Done to save your link.

You can also add links to already-existing body text in your notes. Select the text you want to add a link to, go to the forward arrow, and Add Link. The option to use the notebook title is automatically switched off, and the selected text added to the name, tap Done to save. With the URL option, you can link to notes outside of Apple Notes or websites. For example, you can link to notes from Goodnotes or LiquidText by simply copying the link for the notes and pasting it into Apple Notes.

To open the links, simply tap on them to go to your other notes in Apple Notes. With notes from other apps, you’re taken to them directly. For web links, you go to the website you’re linking to. Long-pressing links brings up a popup menu to Open, Copy, or Share… the link. You can also Edit Link, or remove it (Remove Link). URL have a slightly different popup menu with options to Open Link, Add to Reading List, Copy Link, Share…, Edit Link, and Remove Link.

Settings

The settings for Apple Notes are in the system settings for your device. Go to your iPhone settings and look for Notes on the left sidebar. Go to Language to choose your default language. If you don’t set this, the app will just use the first language listed under Language & Region in your General settings.

Accounts

Accounts lists all the accounts on your iPhone that have access to Apple Notes. Not all accounts support Apple Notes. To see if an account supports Apple Notes, tap on it and turn on Notes. The notes you create under your Gmail account in Apple Notes are sent to your email as a thread.

You can then choose your Default Account from the ones you have signed in. In the event you don’t pick a folder, the notebook you create goes into the default account you choose in the Notes folder. Under Password, you can lock the notes in your iCloud and On My iPhone accounts. You can turn on “On My iPhone” Account if you want to keep some notes on your device without syncing them.

Viewing

Turn on Mention Notifications if you want to receive notifications when you’re mentioned in a document you’re collaborating on. Under the VIEWING section, you can Sort Notes By Date Edited, Date Created or Title. We recommend sorting them by Date Edited to make it easier to find the notes you’re currently working on. You can turn on Group Notes By Date if you want them grouped according to the date you are sorting them by. New Notes Start With either a Title, Heading, Subheading or Body. For your checklists in the app, you can Sort Ticked Items Manually or Automatically. We recommend choosing automatically if you want the ticked items to be moved to the bottom of the list when you mark them as complete. Lines & Grids lets you set the default page template for your new notebooks and quick notes.

App links and the rest

For the best experience with links in quick notes, we suggest turning on both Suggest App Link when Composing Quick Note and Suggest Notes with App Links. This will help you get relevant link popups when you’re taking quick notes. You can also turn on Auto Convert to Tag to avoid the extra step of converting your tags in Apple Notes. When turned on, all you have to do is type # to create a new tag. Turn on Save to Photos if you want to save photos you take in Apple Notes to the Photos Library. If you only want to use the photos in the Apple Notes app, then you can turn this off. Lastly, turn on Access Notes from Lock Screen if you want to create quick notes on the locked iPhone screen.