Become a Notes PRO with this FULL Tutorial (includes Mac OS Sonoma)

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If you’re someone who needs a solid, easy to use, no frills notes app, then I reckon that the Notes app that’s built into your Mac computer is most likely more than enough for you. In this video, I’m going to show you how to use it to get the most out of it. We’ve got a lot to cover so stick with me until the end of the video, if you’ve always wanted to get more from the notes app, but not really known where to start.
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Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:22 - Navigation
2:43 - Creating a note
6:57 - Creating a note - Safari
8:25 - Creating a note using Siri
9:10 - Collaborating on notes
11:21 - Data in notes
11:52 - Formatting notes
12:49 - Folders & Smart Folders
15:31 - Pinning notes
16:09 - Search
17:04 - Mac OS Sonoma Changes

[@ProperHonestTech]

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[@Mindtrash_]

Apple Notes, after "tasting" dozens, it's the best notes app, for me. Great video!

[@Leinsterbaby]

Same, other apps offer way to much crap we don’t need.

[@rflquim]

You recommend save file pdfs (I.e. textbooks) at Apple notes and not Google drive?. Thanks!

[@thebritishindian1]

Me too, I moved everything to Apple notes over the past 2 weeks. Over the years, I did OneNote > Evernote > memAI > Apple Notes. The killer features for me in Apple Notes are (1) Tags (2) Embedding PDFs (3) Small preview image in side panel (if you add an image at the top of the note) (4) Lightning fast search. Search saves so much time compared to using file-based storage in OneDrive.

[@joelslavis]

Very helpful and comprehensive I think Apple is on a good job and made this intuitive I'm 79 years old and I find Apple and Google and even Microsoft are making things very easy and intuitive and I'm very thankful for this and I think your work reinforces this again thank you very much

[@scottboettcher1344]

This one's a gem. I've always been frustrated with Notes, seems like it should be one of the simpler apps yet I could never make it do exactly what I wanted; you've filled in a lot of gaps for me (including something simple like 2- vs 3-column view), thank you! Now I need to dive back in and find that "Note floats on the top" function that was fantastic but I can't call it up anymore...

[@scottboettcher1344]

Nope, I'm still doing something wrong, I only get a SINGLE column (the note itself), and I see references to Quick Note... is that a separate app?

[@sickofmaga]

Thanks Tom.. this video answered a few of the questions i was having difficulty with.. really enjoy your tips and tricks across the spectrum of Apple devices

[@prider57]

Love the simple and clear way you explain things. Thanks!

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

You make some of the best apple flavored tutorials on youtube. Much thanks.

[@geoffreyagaskins302]

This is one of the best tutorials of any kind I’ve ever seen! Thank you.

[@gregmatthews6951]

Best tutorial on Notes I’ve seen. Very helpful. Thanks!

[@haralddoerr]

Super substance as usual. Thanks for all the work

[@PhilipYardley-xp7wv]

You Star ? Helped me so much on my new MacBook Pro M3. I'm so glad to have come across and found you. Thank You so much

[@petercostello181]

I use the Notes app on my ipad to create a diary with folders for each month . If I insert a photo into the first entry this becomes the “Theme” for that month The photo can then be reduced to a small icon. All my notes are stored on iCloud so I can view on my mac or iphone.

[@KarenSchuessler]

Excellent information! I just fully transferred all my Evernote notes to Note. Couldn’t stand all the synching issues on EN between updates of notes. Time waster checking them back and forth. Notes is sleek, simple and seamless. You also answered my burning question: How to toggle back and forth between two notes I’m working on at the same time. Answer? Open a note in a new window. Duh. I kept looking for a back arrow to click. Thank you!

[@Angela-tv8nx]

Goodbye pages!!! Thanks you so much!

[@TheINKspiredLife]

Thank you for your easily to follow and very informative videos.

[@DanjCx]

Thank you! Learned at lot! 😀

[@georgee3401]

Excellent tutorial. Very useful information. Many thanks!

[@mirandabaird8197]

Does anyone know what software does he use to make his tutorials? He is by far my favorite KZbinr for all things Apple!

[@ProperHonestTech]

Thanks for the kind words! I use Final Cut Pro, along with a few plugins to create the visual effects you see in the video. Nothing particularly fancy!

[@trentgilliam5192]

Changing the color of the text! I had no idea that was possible and the color change shows up on the iPad! NICE!

[@vikguitar2813]

Thanks, very clear, straightforward and makes you feel Notes is your friend. Interestingly, smart folders cannot have sub-folder structures which is very strange to me. The reason I organize my notes in subfolders is better availability, I don't know why making them smart is a show stopper. Has it always been like this?

[@speca]

Appreciate this tutorial ❤

[@artysanmobile]

Honestly, I can say this is Apple’s best work, and has been for some time. I started using Notes when it was Stickies and have migrated every note into a file cabinet that appears on every machine. Another point of brilliance is the instant, one-click delete; BOOM! That note is out of your face forever, so move on. But I keep 9 out of 10, minimum. Even with pruning, the iCloud account that I can immediately tap into anywhere in the world is approaching 500. They’re beautifully organized and the search process is the clearest I’ve seen. Notes is ✅🤯👏🏽.

[@sperl42]

For us Notes is great for shopping lists as it works on all Apple platforms (except the watch 😑) and updates very well. This way even if one person has already started shopping the person at home can add an item to the list which will appear in no time in the store. Perfect!

[@LuciferMorningstar-cb8dp]

Why not use reminders

[@sperl42]

@@LuciferMorningstar-cb8dp For a shopping list - naaah

[@KashifSethi]

Very well explained. Really appreciate your videos. Always share them with friends, family and colleagues. Keep up the great work!

[@fidoalca9]

Thanks!

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

GREAT video 👌 I started using CRAFT app as my main notes app since 6 months. But i still use apple notes for few other things and this video was very helpful to learn new things 🙏

[@banogadjo2601]

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. Apple note is my Note App for pro and personnal. It's as a second brain.

[@hans-gerdschievink5190]

Many thanks for this very informative video. I've been using GoodNotes up to now, but I guess I'll give this app a try

[@aslidavaz]

This is a brilliant video! Thank you very much for sharing it with us.

[@hettytravels]

Wow, this really helped.

[@edf2953]

Very good video, I learned a lot and thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with the group. Keep up the good work..

[@rogeriobrena]

Very well explained, thank you! Sorry for my English, I am using a translator... I would like to ask: We only have the option to delete notes when we no longer use them. Do you have any idea how we could "archive" them so we don't have to delete them?

[@7775Kevin]

Your videos are great and quite useful. Thanks

[@Jbiglin]

Finally there is something that can replace Evernote and my 12+ years of data/notes stored in it. Still hoping for things like the ability to zoom, page breaks, etc. but this is enough for me to start converting my 10K notes to Apple Notes. I much prefer Apple’s stance on privacy also. Thanks for another great video!

[@LuciferMorningstar-cb8dp]

Be careful. There is no page history option. So if by mistake you delete the note, there is no way to recover it. Also let’s say you select all and then hit a key by mistake which replaces the entire text with a random alphabet key which you hit. You have to undo right then. If you click on another note by mistake, there is absolutely no way to undo the change of the previous note. There was a guy who mentioned this happened to his huge note because his cat decided to walk on the keyboard and there was no way to recover it.

[@SimonTeevan]

Hi Tom, love the videos - very useful. Would you consider making one on how to merge multiple duplicate contacts in iPhone contacts? Thanks

[@empireofhouse87]

Nice and helpful video. How did you add that burger emoji next to your food list?

[@cheska9999]

what are quick notes? and how do you drop web content into a note as you can do in Evernote with a icon on the browser window top. Thanks for another very clear video and also for not burdening us with music while we're trying to follow you.

[@xXxXxCGPBxXxXx]

This is the BEST and most THOROUGH video Ive seen on the Notes app… actually got me re-thinking Notes. 💞

[@BlooStorm1]

Love this video, as my notes have notes!

[@ritagraham6703]

This video is perfect for me. I only have an iPad, iPhone but no Apple computer. Still, this was very helpful. I have tried using this app and not found it to me intuitive. One question, please. If you do not have access to WiFi at all times, is it best to save the folders and files on the device (iPad)? I assume, then, it will not appear on the phone. Correct? Many thanks.

[@ThomasEJohnson]

Very informative. Thank you.

[@holcotdw]

Great as always. One question - you get previews of links in your notes, but I just get the URL when I past the link. Am I doing something wrong??

[@jehangirlarry]

Wonderful content. Thank you. A question--Is it possible to bunch together Smart Folders under different heads? Thanks again

[@thewebstylist]

Fantastic vid bro! 🎉

[@TimothyHalkowski]

Excellent!

[@Quince828]

One of the things I find confusing is how the folders are divided up as iCloud folders as opposed to on the Mac, or iPad or phone. Sometimes when I write a new note on my iMac I want to be able to use it on my phone while I’m out, but I’m never certain that the note will appear on my other devices. Also why does the number of notes differ from the number shown as iCloud notes? Are some notes cloud only?

[@gerrybetz8629]

One thing I think might be helpful is how to “undelete” in notes. Example, if you mistakenly delete text in notes, how to retrieve the deleted text.

[@raygold1]

There is a folder labeled “recently deleted”

[@officialdarkcompass]

I have a bunch of shortcuts that use bash scripts to get directory listings, rcloning them into a cloud service, and dropping the list of files copied into a Note for later use. Copying a note to clipboard, then opening a facebook page to paste the content into a post. Not all completely automatic, but working on it.

[@papa.mike01]

Nice job sir!

[@dh9644]

Very good Video. How can I add or link emails to the notes app? With the Mac I use drag and drop. For the IPhone I doesn’t found a option up to now.

[@grantsmall_Ngenious]

Apple notes is great. The only frustration I have is lack of page breaks. This is a serious issue if you want to share notes or like I do have them filed for official business purposes. When exporting to pdf, it is very disrupting. I am now writing in Goodnotes and then exporting to Apple Notes. I wish we could have page breaks. It would make things so much easier. Is there a way to do templates with a logo?

[@GozoAya]

Hi! Thank you for a very detailed Notes tutorial. I am having difficulty with the Send Copy function. I want to send a copy of a note - complete with it's formatting - from my iMac to my wife's Mac Book. We are not using Airdrop. But the only option seems to be to select the Message app. However, when I do that, it populates the Message with unformatted text from the Note, not a link to a Note for her to import into her notes. Any thoughts?

[@tousphotographes]

Hello and thank you for this video. I think it's unfortunate that there is no word counter for a note-taking application. It's also very frustrating not being able to format text more easily, like with Markdown. Additionally, the paragraph width is too large, which makes reading unpleasant.

[@michaelperelman9218]

Can you cover notes from the perspective of having a windows PC, some of the functionality seems to be missing

[@VikingDiariesTV]

I'd appreciate this also. I'm a total Apple Fangurl in my personal devices ... but my employer forces me to work on a PC. If there was a Chrome web clipper and an easy way to get info into Apple Notes from my work machine, I'd ditch Evernote in a heartbeat.

[@FRANKWHITE1996]

Great video ❤

[@gustavovj]

Does anyone know how to create a shortcut for strikethrough?

[@garycovitt7975]

Is it possible to backup Notes? not just copy one note, but an entire folder or all notes at once.

[@pivot3india]

can you do a similar Video for iOS

[@snsokstan]

so good!

[@GeeWhizbang]

Love this…would like even more specific use case (productivity) examples when it comes to future Notes vids. Cataloging of receipts comes to mind.

[@cristiansuarez9458]

Do you know how can I unblock a note if I forgot the password that I use ? I can’t find an option to reset the password. Could you help me please?.. BTW I really like your channel!

[@Leinsterbaby]

If only it could predict duplicates in checklists. :))) That is why i still use google keep for shopping lists.

[@urvilshah2017]

how to download pdfs in notes in Mac & how to move them in desktop in Mac

[@user-md4jo6nc9l]

I have created a Shared Folder with Shared Folders inside of it for our team. They can all see the Folders & the Notes inside them & can edit/comment etc without any issue, so all that is working. Is there some way that when a Note is added to a shared folder by anyone in our team or when someone adds to or comments in an existing Note, that we can all receive a notification? At present, our folk have to check in Notes to see if a Note has been highlighted with a DOT to show that a change has taken place. They are not that active in Notes so don't check often but would respond if they received some kind of notification, like the notification of a new email in Mail. Is there something I am missing? Can this be done? Thanks for great videos.

[@nigelstockley7011]

Genuinely curious question.... you are a UK youtuber, based in the UK - why do you quote the subscription amount in Dollars not GBP?

[@ProperHonestTech]

The services I use quote it in dollars, and then convert that amount to the many other currencies my audience might use. 50% of my audience are US based. It would be an odd choice for me to quote in GBP, when my UK viewers make up less than 10% of my audience.

[@nigelstockley7011]

@@ProperHonestTech aaahhh mystery solved :-) thanks!

[@ProperHonestTech]

@@nigelstockley7011 my pleasure 👍🏻

[@pardeepchauhan5008]

Sir i don’t find snoozing option.

[@tomgirldouble3249]

Is this useful for the iPhone notes as well…they confuse me no end😢❤

[@ProperHonestTech]

Similar concept in general, but things do function quite differently on Mac. I've made quite a bit of content for Notes on the iPhone, and I'll be making a full tutorial for iPhone Notes when the new iOS17 launches very soon.

[@tomgirldouble3249]

Thank you 👍🏻💜

[@rjmcneely8545]

Frustrating that there is no reminder feature in notes. As there is in Google keep

[@delwoodbarker]

I like notes because you don't have to manually save them, or choose where to save them, until later, if ever.

[@martinasemeraro]

What is your computer wallpaper? 😍

[@kimbapslayer1995]

Idk why devs don’t just add basic things like markdown support, add note to calendar or reminders etc. would make it competitive. It’s like Apple holds back on and features intentionally to make room for profitable apps to hit the App Store.

[@robertashagam1599]

I wish I could choose a different font

[@ProperHonestTech]

You can, but only on Mac. Select the text, right-click on the selected text, choose Show Fonts. Select the font you'd like from in there.

[@robertashagam1599]

@@ProperHonestTech wow, thank you so much for answering. i love your explanations, as a non techie, they r quite easy to follow

[@christiandevos9468]

Once you created a note with a photo you can’t modify the size of the photo. That’s a no go for me

[@joshuaneal7552]

All these in-depth features, and then people claim that the reason you can't highlight text is because the Notes app is "basic". How can people claim that all the features Notes DOES offer is more "basic" than simply highlighting text. That explanation is arguably more frustrating than the lack of a highlighting option itself, no?

[@ibrahimhassan7894]

notion is much better but it will seem complex for the first time

[@petawongishere]

hey @ProperHonestTech, could you at least make your face a bit smaller on your upcoming videos? i'd like to see more of what you are doing on the screen rather than you talking through it cause it covers a quarter of the screen? thx!!

[@ProperHonestTech]

If a majority of people request it, then yes. That’s nowhere near the case right now, so as it stands, no. Also, the face mask is about 1/10 of the screen at most, nowhere near a quarter.

[@Cookefan59]

My “Like” = 1K 🎊 Congrats

[@BonaireHome]

Thanks!