🧹 Clean Up Your Apple Notes: The Ultimate Organization Guide! 💡

[@jimgrant1776]

Dylan, many creative ideas, particularly in regard to "organizing". Here is my favorite Smart Folder: "Edited in the Last 2 Days". Throughout the day, I am frequently creating / updating a variety of notes. Apple Notes doesn't provide a "back" button, so I use this Smart Folder to quickly find notes I was working on earlier in the day. You may wish to include in a future video a discussion about possible generic folder structures. It seems that Apple Notes users, particularly beginners, seem to fall into the organization / structure of their folders by evolution, rather than by design. Here are some options for how a user might organize his/her folders: * Topics (Art, Equipment / Parts, Family, Food, Investing, Medical, Politics, etc.) * Life Roles (Business Owner, Employee, Son, Spouse, Father, Tutor, Chef, Volunteer, Etc.) * Tiago Forte’s PARA Method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive) * Days of the Week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) Note that each if the above folder structures should have these additional folders: * Templates * Generic Reference

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Great examples. I suggest a very simple standard file structure that generally includes: FAMILY, FRIENDS, WORK, PERSONAL, FINANCIAL, TRAVEL, TECH, HOMES and a few other basic categories that i recommend to all my clients!

[@peterc2248]

A very useful overview. I manage a burial ground here in the UK and I spent an entire year converting all the paper records for each grave to digital files. Every document, email or phone call record gets stored by date so I can always understand the history of the grave ownership going back several hundred years. I only hope Apple doesn't change Notes!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Notes have been around for a VERY, VERY long time (since the first iPhone)... so it feels pretty entrenched into their ecosystem at this point. I also hope they keep it around! Thanks for watching!

[@jasona.2044]

Yeah good and bad thing about notes is they don’t update it like crazy and their motto is kinda like KISS so you should be good for a long time.

[@DavidCruz-gw5dl]

This is extremely valuable information. All I would ask is that you switch back and forth from Mac to iPhone for those of us who don't have a Mac and work on a PC but love our iPhone and iPad. I would have loved to find out how to add an emoji to a folder or a pic to a note right from my iPhone. Still, you are amazing, and how you share and train makes learning simple and fun. Thank you for helping, you are appreciated.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Thanks for watching! I try to film some for the phone and some for the computer. Soon, I will add some for the iPad. But because of the way I make videos, it's difficult to do BOTH iPhone and Computer in one video... however, I do appreciate the suggestion and will do my best to accommodate you!!!!

[@DavidCruz-gw5dl]

@@TheMacWhisperer I truly need to get your page in front of my friends and family, as many as possible! Thank you for all you do and for being responsive! I did not expect a reply... you are truly a great individual and a professional. Thank you. I will do my part and highly recommend you.

[@Jbiglin]

Dylan - This was truly AWESOME! I consider myself knowledgeable about  Notes but I still learn more every time I watch one of your videos. Well done, Sir!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Awesome! Thanks for watching!!! Any specific tips that stood out for you?

[@robertweisberg5570]

Great video. I learned alot of tips here I didnt think of. Cleaning up the notes to consolidate like the restaurants was great. Suggestions on not having too many hashtags excellent. I had too many. Better use of Sub folders. Glad I found your channel via YT putting it on my front page. You shoed things that other videos didnt cover.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Welcome! Thanks for checking it out! I hope you find other tidbits in my other videos! Let me know if there are any lessons you would like me to cover!

[@robertweisberg5570]

@@TheMacWhisperer I will say right now that I seem not find performance slow when embedding PDFS in notes. Seems slow in M2 pro iPad and my iPhone 13 Pro.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

It depends on how many you embed. A handful is fine, but I have clients who imported hundreds and hundreds, and suddenly, things started crashing and not synching right. All things in moderation, I suppose.

[@lindalyn2490]

Thanks for the great knowledge you share I’m a slow learner I’ll have to repeats watch this video again and again It would be good if I could have you taken me through in one on one in person. like I used to go to Apple Shop with a list of things I like to learn but AppleShop don’t do that anymore. My files are really messy can’t find what I want I know I have but can’t find it when I needed very disappointed. Love your style of teaching ❤

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Glad it was helpful. FYI, I teach a small group course monthly if you want to check it out. You can find more info here: www.themacwhisperer.com/tmw I am also available for one-on-one classes. Email me at [e-mail] for more info.

[@get2riz]

Thank you!!! Now I'm happy and hopeful that I can organize my Note.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!

[@OtRatsaphong]

Great lesson, Dylan! Thank you! Now I can get my notes organised 😊

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Awesome!! Let me know how it goes!

[@marc31]

Great video ! All your tips will be very useful ! I subscribe.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Thanks for the sub! And please let me know if there’s any specific topics you’d like to learn about.

[@Jlexerama]

Awesome video. I never thought about decorating with emoji and pictures

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Thanks! It keeps it fun and easy to see...

[@xander2drax]

Thanks!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

You bet!

[@rajansomanathan7517]

Presentation is precise and easy to understand. Keep up the good work. Have subscribed and given thumbs up. Cheers.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Welcome aboard! Glad you got good value! Let me know if you have any topics you would like me to cover!

[@rajansomanathan7517]

@@TheMacWhisperer yes, can you make a video on tags in finders??

[@TheMacWhisperer]

I will add it to my list!

[@Butterflies.and.Tulips]

I thought the ones in the Notes folder weren’t on the cloud. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Happy to help!

[@wot-a-noob7257]

Awesome - much needed! Must watch!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Thank you so so much! I appreciate it. Thanks for watching!

[@vaidy2000]

Dear Dylan. Learnt few new things from your tutorial...like cleaning of large no of notes..Thanks a lot....one request- how to notes colourful-changing the color of the fonts etc...if you can do a short video on this it would be grateful.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

You can't do colors form the phone (YET), but on the computer cmd + T brings up the text box to change fonts, colors, formatting and more.

[@vaidy2000]

@@TheMacWhisperer Thank you

[@kaykhen9853]

Great video. Thank you for your great service.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Thanks for watching!

[@carolinebell6087]

Just came across your channel and loving your videos. I have not been able to link a Numbers sheet or Pages document to Notes. Is this possible? Love the Power Tips!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Technically, you can create a share link from Pages or Numbers and copy it into Notes, but I question why you would want that. Before we try to find some intricate way to do what you're looking to do, one of the principles that I teach is to start with the end in mind. What is the long-term purpose of linking numbers or pages to notes? For me I use notes for most of my word processing needs, and notes can easily be exported directly to Pages. But since I'm not using Pages or Numbers for anything important linking it to notes doesn't make a lot of sense to me… So let me know what you're trying to do and let's find the right solution to the problem, rather than linking stuff which may or may not be the smart way to do it.

[@carolinebell6087]

@@TheMacWhisperer Thanks for the response! I wrote this before watching your video on Freeform - I had completely underestimated its functionality and never really looked at it. I am now a convert given it allows me to do everything I was trying to do in Notes. Thanks again!

[@ArnaudFalchier]

Very useful!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@Marpiet13]

great content! Great Value

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Love it!!!! Thanks for watching!

[@micheljauvin3536]

very wel explained

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Thanks for watching!

[@robertweisberg5570]

The Emojis with folders! I have not seen another mention that.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

❤️👍🤫 I thought that was a fun way to do it! Thanks for noticing!

[@donbiagio1]

Hi Dylan. Your 👕😎friend here. Awesome as always. Excellent to the extreme. Stay safe Sincerely BIAGIO B👌❤️👕😎

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Hey B! Thanks as always for your support. Hope you got some good tidbits from this one! How's the weather? It was 100 degrees (F) yesterday... almost too hot for any shirt....

[@donbiagio1]

@@TheMacWhisperer hi Dylan. As a matter of fact I was just cleaning my notes right now. Your tips were spot on to taming of the notes all over the place. They were great. The weather has been off and on. Sunny mostly some rain at night. The temperature has been from 24 to 27 Celsius during the day dropping to 12, 14 and 16 at night. The real hot weather will not show up until July August. I will let you know as it develops. Thanks again Biagio Bisignano Take care 👕😎❤️👍

[@Whigu]

Is there way to make smart folder where you put all notes which doesn't have tag #example ?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Yes, you can click twice on a tag in the tag section at the bottom left, then right-click and create a smart folder. Or when you create a Smart Folder and select tags, if you click on the tag selected, you can choose "include" or "exclude." Great question. I learned something new by exploring the answer. So thank you! Never occurred to me to even try that before.

[@ynggues5827]

i have a macbook 2017 that doesnt come with tags and a smartfolder, what do you recommend?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Tags in notes were released as a part of MacOS 13 (Monterey). Which is available for computers as old as 2016. My guess is that you have not updated your computer to at least MacOS 12. I recommend updating it. Also, be aware that the 2017 computers can no longer be updated to the later operating systems. The current MacOs is Sonoma (MacOS 14), and MacOS 15 (Sequoia) will be released in September, so it may be time to consider upgrading your machine in the near future.

[@tomi0p]

(13:25) One question: how do you do to have all your new notes windows always appear above the main notes window?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Double-clicking on a note opens it into it's own window.

[@driatros]

I have a smart folder called "Archived". It will add any note tagged with, you guessed it, #Archived. All my other smart folders display any notes that have whatever tag, e.g. #Travel, AND *exclude* #Archived. That way, if I don't want to completely delete a note, I can just put it away,

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Super smart! That totally works. I don’t like having too many smart folders or too many tags, but this is a great suggestion.

[@statusticle1788]

Exporting Apple Notes to PDF cuts off handwritten notes (in Ipad):: Is there any solution for this?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Unfortunately not yet.... there are many changes coming in the new OS for the phone/iPad and computers... maybe they will resolve that issue.

[@statusticle1788]

@@TheMacWhisperer I hope

[@DorianGreer]

For a new smart folder I don't get the options (date edited, etc) only a box for the tag so I can't customize (except by tag). I've the latest version. Do the criteria filters not enable on iMac?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

As long as you are on Sonoma (MacOS 14) you should see the same options. Create a new smart folder from the file menu and then click on the tag criteria you can choose additional options.

[@DorianGreer]

@@TheMacWhisperer Monterey: I'll try it on my newer M3 (Sonoma 14.5), just figured it should work on all of them the same. Thanks.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

@@DorianGreer It won't work on Monterey.... it was a recently announced feature for Sonoma.

[@rayw187]

I must be doing something wrong...when I double clicik on note it opens in full screen and I cannot do the cmd x to copy another...is there a setting I need to change?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Yes, full screen mode is one of the banes of my existence because it eliminate so many tools. When you double click on a note and it opens into full screen mode, put your cursor, at the top left corner of your screen so that you see the red orange, orange and green buttons. Click the green button to exit full screen mode, and you will have the ability to resize that notes window. That will enable you to do what you’re trying to do. In the future, when things open into full screen (in any app) I recommend clicking the green button to resize them manually. Many people think the green button is necessary to to make a window larger, but it puts you into full screen mode, which doesn’t give you control. Instead, learn to manually resize windows by stretching them from the bottom left and bottom right corners to the size that you want If you want a window to fill the screen (without entering full screen mode) hold the option button down when you click the green button. Hopefully that helps… Full screen mode is one of the “features“ that I would fully disable if I had the ability… But I don’t.

[@rayw187]

@@TheMacWhisperer Thank you!

[@jeffreydimsdale6508]

Thank you.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@dstein111]

I just use search

[@TheMacWhisperer]

That's fine. It works until it doesn't. At some point, when I was over 2K notes, it took longer to search than go to the folder. The more I rely on search, the less it provides the quick results I need. I have a basic motto: Sort, don't search. It works for me.

[@dstein111]

@@TheMacWhisperer I hear ya. I’m just so far gone at this point with the amount of notes that I have. For me to organize them all would be nuts!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Understood. Maybe it's time to do a little cleanup of some of the oldest ones using my shared tips. For me, it has been worth the investment since I am super impatient when I NEED to find something quickly (especially on my phone), and I LIVE and DIE by my notes and the speed with which I can find what I need.

[@jeffreydimsdale6508]

6/22/24, 6 pm: is there a way to email a file into a new or existing note?

[@TheMacWhisperer]

I guess I’m a little confused as to why you would want to do that. It’s not really the way notes is set up, but you should be able to copy and paste (or drag) any file from your phone or computer directly into a note. I am curious why you would want to email it… I know that’s something that Evernote and other web-based apps used to do, but it’s not the fashion anymore. It’s so easy to just add anything directly to notes without hassling with email in the first place. Please let me know if you need more Clarity about how to add files.

[@jeffreydimsdale6508]

@@TheMacWhisperer I send an email with two files attached to several people. I want to automatically place hose files in Notrs. That would be the most efficient way store things appropriately.

[@jamesashby4334]

You can drag and drop an email into a note but this just creates a link to the email. To get copies of the attached files into a note you can open the email, press and hold the attached file, and either drag it to a note or use the share sheet to save a copy to a note

[@SirGenesis206]

Like the other comments said, it might be best to share to Notes or drag and drop those two files rather than email it to the note if you want to actually access the attachments later.

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Are the two people you are sending the info to on Apple? If so, you could avoid email altogether and just put the files natively (not as an attachment, if possible) into Notes and share the Notes folder with both of them, then everyone has it native in one place. I am holding my breath until the use of email finally dies. If I can avoid sending an email, I always do (text is my first line of defense, especially if people are on Apple products, but Notes works really well, too, for my team!)

[@JohnKaess]

I can't seem to put a smart folder under any other folder. I'd even be happy if i could make a main folder to put all smart folders inside that folder.

[@jamesashby4334]

Yeah. Smart folders reside only in the top level notes folder. You can reorder them but can’t move to a subfolder

[@TheMacWhisperer]

Unfortunately it wasn’t designed that way. Smart folders sit outside the other folders. Ideally you shouldn’t create too many of them. Usually you can get by with 3-5. More than that just tends to get cluttered. And don’t forget you can always edit a smart folder to change the search results on the fly. Plus, in my opinion since smart folders don’t actually move the notes they are a great way for temporary searches but not for long term sorting and organization.

[@jebaker2]

Great video though I don’t want to know what is in the “Masculinity” folder. 😂

[@TheMacWhisperer]

I have been a part of a Men's Support organization for 20 years, so that's where I keep many of the exercises, rituals, and planning sessions for those meetings. Thanks for asking!

[@jellenp]

Thanks!

[@TheMacWhisperer]

So glad you got value! Any specific lesson you would like to share?