How Apple Notes is a silent game-changer for your productivity on Mac
In a world full of Notion, Evernote and Obsidian users, an app like Apple Notes might come off as too primary of a tool. Yet things have changed with this app over time and it’s about time we appreciate it.
I have lost count of how many trips I have made to the Mac App Store to find a new note-taking app that was better than the last one (read: Notion). The Mac App Store has in return never disappointed me and always suggested a bunch of great apps — apps that come with the same old promise: Your #1 Productivity and Note-Taking App!
But let us be honest for a moment — are we ever going to stop going to the App Store again in pursuit of another great app? Perhaps not. This was my answer too until I discovered the real power of Apple’s built-in productivity and note-taking app: the Notes app.
Real power? Doesn’t Apple update this app once a year? Is it better than Notion? To that, I would say: Yes. Yes and Maybe.
The day you lose power (like literally, electricity) and consequently also your internet connection at your home/office, and are stranded on your workspace with nothing other than some built-in apps because Notion refuses to sign you in without an active internet connection, is when you realise the real power of Apple Notes. Just like I did and I am finally here to change your mind about it too.
I shall go from beginner-level tips to advanced ones so please don’t be disheartened if you seem to know the first few features quite well. I have also made sure not to sound like an Apple apologist and have also mentioned some great features that the app lacks, towards the end of the story. So, make sure you reach the end and drop some of your thoughts.
Here are my reasons why the Apple Notes app is actually a silent game-changer for your productivity on Mac:
1. Changing Font type, colour, and baseline
2. Tags & Smart Folders for all your Quick Notes
3. Saving your code with Mono-styled Text
4. Using App Links and Back Links for referencing
5. Appending to a Note/Folder with Shortcuts
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1. Changing Font type, colour, and baseline
Yes, I heard you — Notion can do this too. But the Notes app on Mac does a slightly better job.
It offers you more font colours and font types. You can choose any of the 16 million colours from the colour wheel and whatever font you wish to have from the Font Book (including imported ones).
To change the font type, select the text you want and press CMD+T to open the Font Book window. And for choosing colors, press Shift+CMD+C to open the colour window.
If you are writing down mathematic equations on Notes, changing the baselines from default to superscript or subscript might help you here. Select the text you want to change the baseline off double tap on the keypad and go to Fonts > Baseline > Superscript/Subscript.
However, you might realise that using Notes for equations is a bit dubious since it lacks other LaTeX commands like square root and whatnot so I guess the baseline tools are meant for simpler things like meaning degrees (for location coordinates) or trademarks and copyright symbols.
PRO TIP: If choosing between font sizes like body, heading, and titles is too difficult, just select your text and press CMD and ‘+’ to increase text size or CMD and ‘-’ to decrease text size.
2. Tags & Smart Folders for all your Quick Notes
Tags were introduced in the recent software update and are meant to make it easier for you to classify your notes. It is like using a color label on a file before you store it in some cupboard.
As soon as you find something interesting on a site and feel like quickly highlighting it, just select the text, right-click and you shall see the ‘Add to Quick Note’ option. When you select that a new quick note with the highlighted text, linking you to the website will be made. This is where you can mention certain tags below the highlighted text in the quick note.
I have created tags for #Quotes, #Advice, and #ThingsToTryOut. This way whenever you read something nice you can quickly add it to a quick note and tag it. Within Notes, you can then find these tags along with all the relevant notes they were mentioned in.
But what if you want to classify some old notes? Manually tagging them once again would be counter-productive. And that is why we have: Smart Folders.
When you click on the option to create a new folder in Notes, the Smart Folder option is just a checkbox away. Once the checkbox is ticked, you get a bunch of filters for your notes. These filters range from the Date of Creation of the note to attachments with notes and even tags. With each of these, you get further filters for the range, inclusion, or exclusion:
Here above I created a smart folder for everything related to my education. I brought not just notes with certain tags in them but also entire folders created within the mentioned date range. The best thing about smart folders is that you can always edit the filters for the notes you want. Also, every future note falling within the scope of the filter is added to this smart folder without any manual tweaks.
PRO TIP: No matter how many apps and windows you have opened on your Desktop, by clicking fn+Q, you can bring up a quick note. Then simply click on Window in the Menubar (with Apple Notes active) and click ‘Keep on Top’ to turn it into a floating window. This way no matter how many apps you switch, the Notes app window always stays on top.
3. Saving your code with Mono-styled Text
If you have the habit of typing short snippets of code during lectures or work meetings or just random bursts of inspiration then maybe the Notes app can help you here.
This came out not so recently but Notes does allow you to write in mono-styled text. Basically code blocks. However, there is no formatting for different languages like Notion has. Shift+CMD+M will begin the mono-style block for your code on Notes:
But hey! Keep the random bursts of coder inspiration coming. And midway, if you do start quoting stuff, here’s a pro tip.
PRO TIP: CMD + ’ will start a quote block in your Notes where you can add your quotes or those of others.
4. Using App Links and Back Links for referencing
You have already seen some examples of app links before when I added some highlighted text from sites as quick notes.
However, you can also add a link directly within the Notes app. Tapping the App Link option on the toolbar of the Notes app shows you the most recent tab opened on your browser. This way you can quickly add your source to your note.
With the recent update, Notes also allows you to add backlinks to reference some of your previous notes. To create a backlink, just type >> and a drop-down menu of recent notes, and tags pop up. You can search for the note you want to backlink to or simply create a new one by the name you want.
Another way to create a backlink is by selecting text and hitting CMD+K. In the dialogue box that appears you can type out a URL or the name of the note you want to refer to. You can even change the name of the hypertext or simply choose to use the title of the note.
PRO TIP: Want to quickly browse through all the attachments in the Note App? Hit CMD + 3 to open the Attachments Browser. Here you can browse through Photos & Videos, Scans, Maps (links), Websites, Audio, and Documents and then quickly copy them, save them, open them in their corresponding note, or simply share the media.
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5. Appending to a Note/Folder with Shortcuts
We have finally arrived at the last feature and this is a bit advanced. Here we shall be using the power of not just one Apple app but, two. Notes along with Shortcuts.
After going through the Shortcuts Gallery and watching a few YouTube videos, I devised a new shortcut that could allow you to quickly append to a pre-existing note without ever opening the Notes app.
If you want to hear no more and simply use this shortcut, here is the iCloud Link to it:
Make sure you edit the shortcut to your use case. And if you don’t know how that’s what I am here for. Let’s understand this whole shortcut:
- First, we are trying to create a temporary file to start the current date. This is for keeping a log of when we append to our notes.
- Next, we ask the user for the input and then append it to the file. This file’s content is then appended to the note we choose.
- The temporary file is deleted at the end so that the next run of the shortcut doesn’t interfere with the appended contents.
If you do not wish to have date logs then you can remove all four Finder actions from parts 1, 2, and 3 of the Shortcut. In part 2, you will need to make the following changes:
The shortcut should work fine even without the Finder actions.
PRO TIP: Go hands-free with dictation and Siri. You can hit CMD + Spacebar to call Siri and ask it to run your Shortcut. Another way is to add the shortcut to your menubar and then when you use it, hit fn + D to start dictating the input it requires.
These were all the great features I noticed recently on the Notes app on Mac. But I don’t think the Notes app has reached its peak yet. It’s probably far from it. When you use it next to Notion, the Notes app feels furnished yet a bit primary. It seems to be lacking… something. Here is what I think it misses out on as a product from Apple.
What does the Notes app still miss out on?
Linking Notes, Reminders and Calendars
Apple has the biggest advantage among all its competitors. The advantage of the ecosystem. Usually, when we use the term Apple Ecosystem, we mean all its hardware devices. But it has to be beyond just hardware now, especially in 2024.
Apple needs to think of a way to link a precious suite of native scheduling apps like Notes, Reminders, and Calendars to achieve productive coherency. These apps need to talk to each other. The way Notion did with Notion Calendar.
The Reminders and Calendar app both have a tiny notes section whenever you create a new reminder or calendar event within them. When I create an event in my Calendar, I want to see the list of pre-requirements for that event on my Reminders app. At the same time, Calendar events could have their event notes opened in the Notes app. A Perfect Ecosystem Integration.
In fact, a few years ago, Apple made it possible for certain apps to talk to each other when they introduced the ‘Shared with You’ feature allowing you to see web links, photos, podcasts, and music shared by your contacts on iMessage on the respective host apps such as Safari, Photos, Podcasts, and Apple Music. So, this isn’t new to Apple and I hope they are taking note of this.
Highlighting text
I missed this feature from Notion where you could highlight the text you wanted. It is possible to highlight Notes when you are using it on your iPad along with an Apple Pencil for handwritten notes.
There are quite a lot of Apple Notes features that have become subsets on other devices. For example, even the Lines and Grid feature is exclusive to iPhone and iPad because the Mac does not touch-screen.
Custom Templates for Notes
Another thing I miss from the world of Notion. While it is possible to simply create a note just with the template and duplicate it for your purpose that’s not convenient for productophiles like us, is it?
Conclusion
I feel that, overall, Apple Notes is a very underrated app. It has been getting sleeper updates over the years by Apple just like Reminders and Calendars but once in a while, they do make you turn your head and make you consider them seriously. This year was that time. We had tags, smart folders, and backlinks make it to Apple Notes. For many these are life-changing.
If you are an avid Apple user like me with an iPhone, iPad, and Mac you might have used Apple Notes at least once or even by mistake just to write down something quickly and forget about it later. What I am hoping is that with the upcoming software update, Apple works on this suite of apps and links them like I said so that users finally consider Notes as a serious note-taking and productivity app.
But we are not done yet. In this 2000+ words story, we discussed Apple Notes on the Mac. In a future story, I want to show you how Apple Notes is even more amazing on the iPhone and iPad. Till then if you know a better way to use Apple Notes on the Mac or even the iPhone/iPad then do drop a comment below and educate us all. Maybe, you could be on the next story for sharing the best Notes feature ever.
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