Apple Notes: 14 Power User Tips & Hidden Features

Save a note as a PDF, link to an email, and add rich content—did you know you can do these things in Apple Notes? Here are 14 (more) power user tips and hidden features for this deceptively powerful app.

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00:00 Introduction
00:53 Use Gestures
01:53 See When You Created or Edited a Note
02:16 See Version History of Shared Notes
02:51 Mark Up Attachments
03:41 Link to an Email
04:58 Add Notes to Control Center
05:49 Search More Precisely
07:35 Insert Tables
08:44 Set Up Widgets
11:25 Add Rich Content
14:30 Browse Attachments on the Mac
15:34 Recover Deleted Notes
16:16 Change a Note’s Background
16:52 Duplicate Notes
17:23 What to Watch Next

[MamaSunflower]

There is actually an easier way to duplicate a note on iPhone & iPad rather than copying everything. When you’re in a note press the share button, press send a copy, then press copy, and then you can open a new note and press paste. Or from the notes menu, long press the note you want to duplicate and follow the same steps from sharing a copy. There’s the duplicated note. Hope this is useful!
Also, thank you for all of your amazing videos! All of them are so helpful/useful!

[lucasnam]

Excellent! I would love a video next on using Apple Pencil with notes in the iPad!

[sxgroups]

I use Notes a lot, and yet this taught me tricks that I never knew existed. Real treasure-house for Notes lovers. Thanks.

[tedjohnson]

Excellent content, but… I had to rewind a few times… to see where on the phone you actually clicked.

You may want to consider using the presentation format that the “Payette forward“ channel uses, where they show a hand hovering over the phone. That makes it a lot earlier to follow along.

[Lorax_Tribe]

Not a power user by any means, a former Pages user, I use Notes for everything, now! I use typewritten notes from my iPad pro, a handwritten journal on the mini, scanned my Covid-19 card, keeping recipes. I can access notes from any of my devices, sprinkling links throughout them. Thanks for your tutorials, Peter.

[AbbasAlMatawah]

@peter akkies Thanks 🙏 for the tips. * NOTE: additional technique to show changes (and who made them) in shared notes (TIP #3): Slide one finger from left side of the screen to the right.

[TJ-]

Great tip! I wish that feature existed in the Reminders app. I have several notes in the Reminders app, each of which has multiple attachments and images. I would like to copy and paste those to the Notes app. But I have yet to find a way to get the documents and images to transfer with the note.

[alfonsoramirez]

Thanks Peter!!! Really handy. Another way to duplicate notes on iPad/iPhone without having to select text is to share/copy and paste on a new note

[mjpt]

Thanks for the Notes review. My most disliked feature of Notes is that I cannot annotate over inserted images. There is a distinct line that stops you doing anything over the image.

That is the one feature which stops me from migrating over from Notability.

Most of my notes are handwritten using a stylus. So, this is an important feature for me.

Cheers
Martin

[zapruder]

love this tipe of content!!! plz do it more with apple notes. i can't live without this app!

[chinchorrero]

I love your instructional videos (very clean and easy to follow up). I am an Apple fan and follow key apple influencers; keep this up; you are good

[ash.mystic]

Wow, I thought I was an Apple Notes power user with 3000+ notes and a couple dozen folders, but there are so many new powerful features I’m learning from your videos. Thank you!
The animals thank you too 🙏🏻🐖🐓🐄🥗🥙👩‍🌾

[jimbell]

Peter, you're doing a great job giving us this much needed information. Question: to share a folder with my wife, does that folder need to be in the "iCloud" folder in Notes or can it be "On My Phone" and shared from there? We are leaving for Europe soon and I'm concerned about lack of wifi access but still want the folder of important info on both phones.

[JorgeSBurns]

Good job! A handy note for Notes, many thanks.

[Tundra]

Really enjoyed learning new things about Notes… pretty cool stuff. I’ve started playing around with some of these tips. I won’t be able to remember them all so I‘ll have to save this video to watch again later.

[dboser]

Can you add a video on Note issued?
Specifically, when editing a large note my entry goes to the top of the note for no reason . Apparently there is a slider that can be turnoff?

[paulcritchley]

Really helpful
Not everybody works in an office
If I’m running a building business and on the go or even on the tools. How does this fit together?
There is pricing. Ordering materials. Organising sub trades. As well as doing the physical work. I do believe this would work. Just need an idea to start. There is so much to learn
Well done
Cheers

[coltfeltes]

Hi Peter - could you make a video describing how to utilize Apple Notes "search" function more appropriately.

Come with the angle of "Building a 2nd Brain" x "No need for immense organizational structure in your notes app" x "Use the search function"

I find the Search function does return with a word or a phrase of words, but I find it returns way too many notes that have similar ideas, etc. I'd really love to be able to search "Peter Akkies" AND "Apple Notes" (along this idea) to be able to highlight 2-3 notes that I have from time I've invested previously in the note.

If Apple Notes can do/nail this, I see them being the superior note taking app down the line.

TLDR; Video highlighting how to use specificity in our Search capabilities of Apple Notes.

[TonyPadgett]

Great tips! Anyone know how to save a note as a text file WITH the photos in the text file? When I do this, Notes will save the text and the photos separately. I don’t want a PDF. I want something that is editable in Word. Thanks.

[RobofGabriola]

Just found your site, Peter. Terrific video! I watch the first half of a lot of Mac productivity videos. Yours was engaging, concise, practical and focused. Well done.