How to make the most of Apple Notes

Apple Notes is one of those apps you can turn to on a daily basis without ever really making full use of all the different features and functions it’s got to offer. That’s where this particular guide comes in. The idea is to point you to some of the lesser known but very useful tricks that Apple Notes can do. 

I’m going to focus on the mobile app, but you’ll find most of these tips apply to the desktop version of Apple Notes on macOS as well.

Link notes together

Maybe you’ve got two notes that are separate but also related — one note for planning a trip, for example, and another listing various sights you want to see. Apple Notes lets you link them both together. 

Open one of the notes. At the point you want to insert the link:

Another way to insert a link is to type >> where you want to place the link. In that case, you’ll simply get a pop-up menu listing the available notes.

Now, you can tap on the note link to quickly jump to it. To delete it, tap and hold on the link, then choose Remove Link.

Embed PDFs inside notes

Notes can contain PDFs, which can be read and annotated if needed.

To add a PDF from another app (like Mail) to a note:

When you’ve got a PDF inside a note:

You can scribble on top of PDFs with the pen tool to annotate them and select and highlight text inside a PDF in the same way as normal note text.

Show lines or grids

You can bring some order to the chaos of your scribbled (but not typed) notes by dropping lines or a grid on top of everything.

Change the heading

By default, new notes will start with a title in a larger font at the top, but that layout might not be something you want to use. To change the way that new notes are formatted:

Create notes quickly

If you need to jot down something as fast as possible, you can quickly create new notes from the Control Center. 

Lock notes away

Your iPhone’s lock screen should keep notes well protected from prying eyes, but you can add some extra security for notes that are particularly sensitive. (Note that some notes — for example, those with video, audio, tags, PDF, or file attachments — can’t be locked.)

Inside a note, tap the three dots (top right), then Lock. By default, locked notes can be viewed using the same passcode or biometric authentication you use to get into your iPhone. If you’d rather set a different password for Notes, tap Create Password when the Lock Notes screen comes on.

Organize notes with tags

Folders are one way to organize your notes, but tags give you a lot more flexibility because each note can have multiple tags. To tag a note, just type a hashtag (#) symbol, followed by the tag you’d like to use.

On the main Folders screen inside Apple Notes, you’ll see tags listed at the bottom: tap on any tag to see matching notes or All Tags to see every note with a tag attached. Notes lets you search for specific tags or match notes with multiple tags.

Collaborate on notes

Notes can be shared — just make sure you pick the note with the shopping list on and not the one where you’ve journaled your innermost thoughts.

To collaborate on a note you’ve got open:

Changes in notes are tracked, so you can see which collaborator has made which changes. Tap the collaborate button (which looks like a person and a plus sign) at the top of a note to modify how much tracking information is shown or to stop sharing a note.

Build a table

Tables inside notes can be useful for keeping information organized. When you’ve got a note in edit mode, tap the table button above the keyboard to drop in a table. (It looks like a simple grid.) If the toolbar above the keyboard isn’t visible, tap the + (plus) icon just above it.

When you’re inside a table, you can tap the table button again to delete, share, or copy the table or convert it to plain text.