Transcription
Okay, I used to think Apple Notes was way too basic until I found out it can do this, this, and even this across all your Apple devices. Yeah, even your watch. So, here are 52 surprising Apple Notes features going from just about noteworthy to downright notable.
I mean, what a lot of people miss is that notes isn't just about text anymore. It's a place where you can save basically anything. Like how we can share a video from the YouTube app right to the notes app. So, it pops up as a link with a mini player, meaning we can watch it right inside the note. This works on Mac, too, by just grabbing the address bar and dropping it into the note. But here's the thing, this works with any website. Whatever's open in your browser, you can pull straight into Apple Notes as a clean preview instead of a boring link. Oh yeah, and this fancy drag and drop move with the address bar works on iPhone and iPad, too.
But here's where it gets interesting. If we first highlight some text on the web page before sharing it to notes, it drops in the link together with the highlighted text attached as a quote. Plus, even better, if you tap the link, Safari automatically jumps to the highlighted text. Oh, and on iPad, we can just use the QuickNote feature. So, swiping up a note from either bottom corner, whichever you choose in settings, and it throws in the website we're on again as a link or quote preview.
Now, you'll be surprised by what's possible with the new notes app on your wrist. And we'll get to that in a sec. But while we're at it, let's blast through eight more surprising things you can drop into your notes. Like how you can drop an email into your note and it pops up as a hyperlink back to that exact message. Or how we can drag and drop a folder from Finder so we get a link to that specific folder. Drop in a video which is then saved to the note and we can play it back without ever switching apps. Same goes for audio. Just drop in a file and play it back right from here. We can also record audio straight into a note. Plus, if it's speech, Notes adds a transcript of what's said. The Maps app also ties in perfectly. So, just for instance, drag and drop any location or route into a note and you'll find it right next to your other holiday plans. Throw in a song, album, or playlist from Apple Music to hit play right from there. And this is super basic, but we can also just highlight text anywhere and then drag and drop it into a note, skipping that whole copy and paste. Oh, and I'm sure you know, but you can also drop PDF documents straight into notes. And this is way more powerful than it used to be. I show you why in a moment.
But first, let's check out the newest family member, Notes on Apple Watch. Because this one feels like straight out of a James Bond film. And I know what you might say. That display is way too small for notes. Why bother? I say that's where Notes really shines. Because sure, you can quickly glance at any note without needing to grab your iPhone, but look what happens with a checklist. We can tick off any items right from your wrist. It's perfect for grocery shopping, which yeah, isn't very Bond. But here's where the spy vibes come back. We can create notes, too. And you can use the tiny keyboard, but I usually go with dictation. So when an idea pops up, you can quickly jot it down from your wrist without your iPhone pulling you into distractions. And you can take this even further with the new watch face complications. And there's three options: a simple shortcut to the Notes app, your most recent note, or launching straight into dictating a new note. Plus, with Notes now on the watch, we can also just ask Siri to create a new note, which probably is how I use it most.
>> Sorry, I didn't quite catch that.
>> When Siri finally gets good.
Now, upgrading from 2.1 to 14. Remember that PDF we dropped in earlier? We can scroll through the pages in-line and show thumbnails to quickly jump through the document. On iPad, this gets even better because we can write and draw onto the pages without actually opening the PDF in a new window. And to make your handwriting look better than mine, you can add lines and grids to your notes. Or just go to the pencil menu and switch on the "Improve Handwriting" tool. You see, the iPad then studies your writing style and tidies it up to make every word look cleaner. On the same note, when you sketch a shape, hold the pencil down for a sec and it will snap into a straightened version. And here's where it gets magical. Write any equation and Notes automatically drops in the answer in your handwriting. This works on iPhone and Mac, too, just by typing it out. Oh, and it's not just these calculations. You can do conversions, too. Like, if I write €120 to pound, Notes automatically fills in the converted value. And this one's super hidden. But if your iPad is switched off and you tap the lock screen with your Apple Pencil, it automatically greets you with a new note, just like an always-ready notepad.
Okay, seven more tricks before we unlock ProLE. On Mac, the list view isn't the only way to view your notes. We can switch this to gallery for larger previews. This also works on iPad. Speaking of which, on iPad and iPhone, we can add a QuickNote and New Note toggle to the Control Center. This now works on Mac, too, with the new Control Center customization. The search bar up top looks through all your notes, but if you just want to search inside the one you're in, use the "Find in Note" options. Add headings and subheadings to collapse complete sections of your note and tidy it up. In the sidebar, you can also organize with subfolders. Just drag a folder onto another and then hide or show them. For your most important notes, swipe them to the right to pin them up top in any folder. And for your most secret notes, lock them up with either Touch or Face ID or a completely new password so even people that know your device passcode can't see their cheeky content.
Okay, here's where we step it up. And I admit plenty of the next features surprised me too while prepping this video. Like on iPhone where when you're in a call, you can tap this icon here to record the call. The other person will be notified.
>> This call will be recorded.
And you can then even take notes simultaneously while on the call. We can then find the recording in Notes and it will again automatically transcribe the whole conversation. You can search within the transcript or tap any part to start playback from there. Plus, you can summarize the conversation using Apple Intelligence.
And for what it's worth, Apple Intelligence is also deeply baked into Apple Notes. And it actually makes sense here in four ways. You see, Apple Notes has writing tools baked in. So you can rewrite any text in a different tone or summarize text into bullet points or even a table. But because these writing tools can tap into ChatGPT, you can use it to generate completely new text. So, just for instance, this could be useful for inserting a quick explanation for something you've learned in class. Or check this out, even stuff like an image to just make your notes look better. You can take this one step further on the iPad using the Image Wand tool. And this is quite fascinating. Just use your art skills to quickly pre-sketch what picture you'd like to have. Circle it with the Image Wand and Apple Intelligence will replace it with a hopefully better-looking drawing.
Now, speaking of new features, you can now import Markdown files into Notes and then also export a note as Markdown. The point being you can now select multiple notes and archive them as a secure backup copy that can be read and transferred by most note-taking apps.
Now, speaking of formatting, Notes might seem basic here. And on iPhone and iPad, it truly is, but on Mac, we have a lot more options than you might think. In the Format menu, we can choose "Show Fonts" or press Command+T to change the font of your note. Now, you probably already know that we can now also highlight text in different colors. But the Format menu is also where we can change the actual text color using the color palette. You can quickly change the text size of a note by pressing Command and Plus or Command and Minus. Oh, and if you always want your notes in a different text size, you can change the default in the Notes settings.
Moving on, you can link and reference your own notes either by inserting a link or much quicker by typing the greater than sign twice and choosing your notes. I've seen some people use this feature to create a master page with an index so they can find their most important notes quickly. And speaking of other people, you can easily share a note and collaborate so you see each other's edits live and get a notification when the other person edits the note. You can also tag any collaborators and they see that they are mentioned. And I only discovered this one by accident a few days ago, but we can click or on iPhone and iPad tap the date up top to switch back and forth between date edited and date created.
Now, if you want a free Mac app that adds formatting options to Notes right above your cursor, plus slash commands, you'll find it in this video here. All right, catch you there. Thanks for watching and have an amazing day.