Apple Notes is a weird app.
I use it for everything—writing graduation speeches, tracking fitness milestones, and building an unrealistic bucket list (playing tennis on the moon might be a little tough).
Like me, most people use Apple Notes for random things. And that's fine.
But it has potential for so much more.
Here are 9 things you can do to unlock the secret powers of the Notes app:
Collect random thoughts
I'm in college now. That means I'm in charge of buying groceries.
Every once in a while (usually when I'm in the middle of my CS homework), I'll think of something I need to get on my next Target run.
Could be bananas. Could be protein bars. Could even be a new pillow (I might've forgotten to bring pillows to college).
Quick Notes make it super easy to keep track of these.
Here's how to use Quick Notes on your own iPad:
Find the bottom right corner of your screen (Hint: ↘️)
Swipe towards the middle of your screen (Hint: ↖️)
Write something
View your Quick Note in the Notes app (Hint: it's under "Quick Notes")
And boom. You've just figured out how to use my favorite Apple Notes feature.
Hire security
I know way too many people who store their important passwords in the Notes app.
That's where Locked Notes come in.
To lock a note, tap the button with 3 dots (...) and tap Lock.
After you mess around with the password settings, you should be good to go. Tap Lock Note Now, and your note will be hidden:
Now, you don't have to worry about that one friend who asks for your iPad.
Draw like a three-year-old
iPadOS 17 wasn't a big update.
That being said, one small feature they did add was in-line PDF markup.
I'll be totally honest—I had no idea what that meant at the time.
Here's how it works:
Pre-iPadOS 17, editing PDFs in the Notes app was weird
To markup your notes, you usually had to do some fancy file export stuff
Now, you can directly markup PDFs within the Notes app. No software loophole required.
It's not the biggest update...but it is nice to have.
Use another app
The Notes app might not be enough for you. That's where Pages comes in.
iPadOS 17 had another cool update—you can open Notes in the Pages app:
Click share
Tap "Open in Pages"
That's it
It's not perfect, but it kinda works:
Send notes to your friend
Collaboration is a big thing for Apple.
I'm thankful—I use shared notes to make plans with my friends, make fantasy F1 teams,
To share a note, tap the share button:
Choose where you want to share the note or who you want to share it with.
You can also edit the share settings:
You can also view edit history for your notes:
If there’s an orange dot to the left of the note's name, someone changed the note since the last time you looked at it
You can open the note and swipe right to see who made the changes and when.
For the full details of collaboration in Notes, you can check out this webpage from Apple Support.
If you need more power
Apple Notes is a pretty good app.
But if you need a little more power, you should check out Concepts.
Concepts is an "unlimited canvas" note-taking app I've used for years (if you don't believe me, check my post history). I've used it to take notes, brainstorm article ideas, and even design a science fair project.
It's one of the few apps I highly recommend for every iPad user out there. And I genuinely believe this (again, check my post history if you wanna verify this claim).
Concepts is offering a free 30-day trial for Overoptimize readers. And no, you don't need to enter your credit card info.
Don't be like my roommate
My roommate is incredibly disorganized (praying he doesn't see this 🤞).
Trust me, you don't want to be like him.
That's where Folders come in.
One thing that Apple Notes actually does better than a lot of other note-taking apps is organization. Just take a look at this:
If you're the type who's super organized, the Folders feature is pretty useful.
Don't be like my roommate (pt. 2)
Apple Notes also has another cool organization feature: tags.
If Folders aren't enough for you, tags take organization to the next level.
Here's how to use tags:
To add a tag, you can type (or write) # + whatever keyword you wanna use
You can click certain tags in the bottom left corner of your Notes app to find matching notes
You can also search for notes that match multiple tags
Please don't be like my roommate 🙏. Use folders and tags to make your notes 10x more organized.
Connect weird ideas
Here's another cool organization tip: use linked notes.
If you're running a big project on Notes and you want easy access to other notes, pay attention.
Here's how to use linked notes:
Long press on an empty space in a note
Click Add Link
Type the name of whatever note you want to link to
Click "Done"
This is probably one of my top 3 iPadOS 17 features so far.
Be stylish
I'm a year-round t-shirts and shorts type of guy (maybe a hoodie here and there).
Apple Notes is the complete opposite.
It genuinely has an endless amount of formatting: tables, block quotes, headings, italics, checklists, numbered lists, fountain pens, select tools, and so on.
Just take a look at this:
That's not even including all the attachments you can add, like linked notes, pdfs, images, and more.
Apple Notes has more than enough formatting for 98% of people out there.
Final Thoughts
"The technology you use impresses no one. The experience you create with it is everything"—Sean Gerety
Thanks for reading!
Adi