The Notes app has evolved over the years into a very useful multimedia notepad. In many ways it is similar to something like OneNote, but locally. Although there is the possibility to sync notes created with other Apple devices.
Everyone takes notes on a regular basis. There is a good chance that this will be done on your iPhone or – during a meeting or lecture, for example – on the iPad is being done. In its most basic form, you simply type text via the virtual on-screen keyboard. Issue of launching the Notes app, and tapping the new note button at the top right.
You can create as many notebooks (or books, if you like) as you like. The moment you start tapping, text is first placed in a solid format. In fact, that first line is intended as a title for your note. Press Enter to move to the next line and continue typing your actual note in a much more modest font size.
Text formatting
by on ah By pressing the floating button bar at the bottom (with a physical keyboard connected) or at the top right of the on-screen keyboard, you can set all kinds of things related to text formatting. First, you can choose from a few headline text profiles. What’s very useful – especially for the ‘code knockers’ – is Non-proportional†This makes code look a lot neater, with everything aligning properly.
Furthermore, the standard text options such as bold, italic, underline and strikethrough are available. Via the well-known key combinations on a physical keyboard, or again via that floating menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Text color or changing fonts is lacking in terms of possibilities. Not entirely illogical, because usually you just want to start tapping quickly without fuss.
However, numbered or lists or point lists are available via the floating toolbar. By the way, tables can also be inserted via the same floating button bar, if desired, using the appropriate button.
Pencil or finger painting
Conveniently, if you copy a url from the browser and paste it into a note, it is automatically made active. This way you can keep a collection of related web links – from that meeting or lesson again, for example.
Your note does not have to remain completely colorless, far from it. The app supports the use of the Apple Pencil. No Pencil? Don’t worry, because ‘finger painting’ is also fine. Tap the button in the form of a circled pen in the top right corner of the screen.
Tap the button †in the open panel and turn the switch Draw with finger on if you don’t have a Pencil. Or turn it off if you do have a Pencil, to prevent unintentional drawing work with your fingers.
Then you can choose one of the available drawing tools and a color. Then you draw what you want on the screen. Or take the built-in ruler and draw clean lines at any desired angle.
Make to-do list
Are you someone who keeps putting off tasks? Or simply forget to do important things? Then the to-do list will certainly come in handy. To do this, tap the button in the toolbar at the top right, immediately to the left of the camera button (which we’ll get to in a moment). You can now make a list of things to do; each item gets a circle.
Once you have completed a task, tap the circle and it will receive a check mark. If you want, this completed task can be automatically moved down, so that the tasks still to be performed and those that have already been completed are neatly arranged. To do this, tap the option Enable sorting as soon as it is requested.
photo scanner
The Notes app also includes a built-in ‘photo scanner’. Ideal, for example, to insert a document that you received during a meeting. All too often you lose things like that, especially if there is a lot of ‘measurement’ in one day. By making a note per meeting and photo-scanning accompanying papers, you keep everything neatly together.
By this we mean that a photographed sheet of paper is neatly straightened and – if desired – converted to black and white, which will improve readability in the event of printing.
Tap the camera button and choose the option Scan documents†In principle (default setting) everything works fully automatically and the photo is taken as soon as the document is recognized and straightened. You can then immediately photograph any subsequent pages, which works nice and fast.
Also read: Scanning with your smartphone – tips and apps
text recognition
If you tap on the page thus inserted (and it contains text), you can select the text and copy it for further use. Also known as OCR, which by the way only works with newer supported devices. Scanning directly to text via the camera button is also possible: choose the option Scan text†This allows you to convert text from an on-screen sheet of paper into text that can be pasted into your note in real-time.
As soon as a yellow frame appears around the text, tap the button add and finished. Usually this trick works amazingly well, but make sure your text to be scanned is sufficiently exposed. Text recognition works on supported devices even if you tap the photo button and then Choose photo or video†visible text in an inserted photo is then selectable and can be copied. After which you can paste the whole thing again as plain text.
Regular photos (and videos!) can also be taken via the camera button or inserted from the camera roll. Finally, a tip: you can further organize notes and keep them together in smart folders; To do this, tap the button at the top left of the screen in the notes overview and do your thing.
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