Easy Way To Organize Notes App Mac

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Mar 18, 2020  Notes Gallery view Organize notes with folders. Just like the way you organize files on your Mac, you can do the same in the Notes app, using folders. Create a folder. In addition to the Internet Account folders in the sidebar, you can create folders within any of your accounts. Feb 26, 2018  Karen: “Super easy to use. You can quickly put in old handwritten recipes. Web recipes are easy to import, plus it saves the URL. Plus you can add your own notes, share with a friend.” 2. Evernote (Most powerful organizer!) Available on: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Microsoft OS.

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  5. Best Note Taking App For Mac

For the past few months I have been researching some research apps…

On our sister site, The Focus Course, I recently wrote an article detailing my process for how I build my own, alternate index of notes and ideas when reading a book.

You can get much more detail in the link above, but in a nut, an alternate index is no more than something you list out in the back of the book you’re reading that you create and update as you read through the book. It’s a list you create in real time that is comprised of the book’s themes and topics that most resonate with you, as well as the pages that have the best quotes and ideas around those topics.

Within that article, I dropped in a brief aside about my desire to begin organizing the notes, highlights, and takeaways from the books I read into a digital database of sorts. As such, I’ve been looking at different research apps to find just the right one.

I’ve been writing for a living since 2011, and despite my greatest fears, I’ve never had a shortage of ideas. For nearly a decade all of my ideas and notes have been kept in Simplenote, but for the past year or so I’ve been wanting a system that is just a little bit more complex than what I’m currently using.

In short, what I’m looking for is something to store all of the ideas, bits of inspiration, notes, quotes, takeaways from the books I read, and more. (Something akin to Ryan Holliday’s notecard system — but digital.)

Since I’m already creating an alternate index of ideas in the back of each book I read, what I’d like to do is create a digital and universally-searchable version of that index: a single repository to organize, sort, and search all my highlights and notes.

As you can imagine, there are a LOT of notes and research apps out there that do this. The issue wasn’t finding an app that was capable — it was finding an app that works for me and my workflows.

I want to do more than simply jot down my ideas and notes. I also want to have them compiled and structured (rather than a giant list sorted only by modification date), but not wholly cut off from one another.

And I also want some pretty fancy search capabilities. For instance, I’d love the ability to bring up all the highlights related to “focus” from all books I’ve read. Or, perhaps, to view my notes and highlights related to “time management,” but only from those books that are about entrepreneurship, and then compare those same notes and highlights against books that are only about creativity.

That said, here are a few of my initial thoughts on some of the different notes and research apps out there today.

  • Simplenote: This is the app I’ve been using for idea capture and other miscellaneous note taking since it shipped nearly a decade ago. I love how easy it is to use, how — ahem — simple it is, and how reliable the sync is. But for my current use-case, I’m looking for something that can handle images and has a more robust folder structure beyond just tags.

  • Bear: If you haven’t tried out Bear, you really should (Mac / iOS). It’s spectacular (and may even replace Simplenote for me). You can insert photos into notes in Bear, but otherwise it’s still pretty simple. That’s not a knock against the app — it is simple by design. But that means that, for my needs in this case, it’s too simple to be my go-to research app.

  • Day One: This app is one of my all-time favorites, but, as with the aforementioned apps, Day One is not built for what I need in this scenario.

  • Apple’s Notes App: There is a lot to love about the Notes app (and even more once iOS 11 ships). You can drop all sorts of cool things into a note, and even draw and sketch, and more. But the search and sort functionality within Notes is not quite what I’m looking for.

  • Evernote: I love the power of Evernote and its strong emphasis on making idea capture as easy as possible, but I don’t love the way it ruins the formatting of my text and the way all my content is a silo inside the app. There are many, many smart folks who use Evernote, but so far, for me, it still just doesn’t feel right.

  • Together: An alternative to Evernote, Together is a pretty classy app. But, at least so far in my experience, the process of getting information into the app is far too tedious, as is the process for properly tagging that information. I may just need to spend more time learning the app, but if something isn’t easy to use then I know from experience that I won’t use it.

  • Other Apps: There is also Microsoft OneNote, Scrivener, plain text files with nvALT, DEVONthink, Papers, and probably a few others. Some of these simply don’t appeal to me, and some of them I haven’t yet tried out.

Ulysses (My Pick)

Easy Way To Organize Notes App Mac Pro

I’ve been using Ulysses for quite a long time, but only as a writing app — not for collecting notes and other tidbits related to research.

Ulysses is a fantastic app, and it does a great job at simplifying it’s vast complexity. However, I didn’t initially consider it for my researching needs because I didn’t think it had a robust search engine. But, turns out, I was wrong.

Thanks to a new project we’re working on here at The Sweet Setup, I just discovered the Smart Filters in Ulysses, and whoa. These filters are basically smart folders. You can create all sorts of variables for how you want sheets to be filtered, and you can even move the filters around within different groups so as to bring up different results based on the group.

For example, here’s a filter I set up to search within all my book quotes for any notes that contain the keywords “business” and “creativity.”

And here’s a filter I set up that shows me any and all notes I’ve created or worked on within the past 48 hours.

Input and Organization Within Research Apps

The two things that matter most to in my use of notes and research apps are: (1) ease of input and (2) powerful search and categorization. It seems that many apps excel at one or the other, but not both.

It’s also critical that these research apps be full-featured on both Mac and iOS.

That’s why Ulysses smart filters are so exciting to me. You can get more complex than what I’ve shown above. You can include parameters that search the entire text of a note (not just the keywords/tags), and you can also include “negative” search parameters that exclude notes with certain words. And, these smart filters also sync between Mac and iOS versions.

My biggest quibble with Ulysses right now as a note-taking, researching tool is the way it handles inline images. If the image is inline with a note, you see an IMG markdown tag. Or, an image can be attached to a note, but otherwise not shown inline. It’d be great to be able to have images displayed inline.

Though, I do like how you can attach images to a note (if you want an image / screenshot nearby as reference material, but perhaps not as something you want to be in-line with your actual text).

So, all that said, I’m obviously now using Ulysses (Mac / iOS) as my writing and researching app of choice, and I’ve already begun transcribing all my book notes and highlights into the app.

Easy Way To Organize Notes App Mac Download

And, as I mentioned, we’ve got something brand new related to Ulysses in the works. Click here to find out more.

Stop losing your ideas and notes to multiple apps…

An online course to help you save time, organize your notes, and master the best writing app for Mac and iOS: Ulysses.

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  • Make sure that your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch has the latest version of iOS.
  • To use the latest features of Notes, make sure that you set up Notes with iCloud or have notes saved on your device. Many Notes features won't work with other email providers.
  • If you have drawings in Notes, make sure they have been updated so you can use the latest features.
Mac notes app

Create a new note

You can create a new note directly in the Notes app. Or you can ask Siri to start one for you.

Create a note manually

Open Notes. Tap to enter your note. When you're finished, tap Done. The first line of the note becomes its title.

Ask Siri to start a note

Need to take a quick note? Just ask Siri to 'Start a new note.' Then tell Siri what you want the note to say.

Delete or pin a note

To delete a note, tap or swipe left over the note in the Notes list, then tap Delete.

To recover a deleted note, go to the Folders list and tap Recently Deleted. Tap the note that you want to keep, tap in the note, then tap Recover.Learn what to do if you're missing notes.

To pin a note, swipe right over the note, then release. If it's the first note that you pinned, a pinned icon appears at the top of the Notes list. To unpin a note, swipe right over the note again.

Do more with Notes

With Notes, you can draw, create checklists, scan and sign documents, and add attachments — like photos, videos, or web links.

Create a checklist

Tap in a note, then tap . Enter your list, then tap the empty circle to complete a task. You can also automatically sort checked items to the bottom, swipe to indent, and more.Learn more about creating to-do lists with Notes.

Format a note

To add a table, title, heading, or bulleted list, tap in a note, then tap or . On an iPhone or iPod touch, tap Done when you're finished. You don't need to tap Done on an iPad.

Add an attachment

To add something from another app, like a location in Maps or a website in Safari, tap in the app that you want to share from. Tap the Notes app, then select the note that you want to add an attachment to, then tap Save. You can add the attachment to a new note or an existing one.

Add a photo or video

To add a photo or video, tap in a note, then tap . You can tap Photo Library to add an existing photo or video or you can tap Take Photo or Video to add a new one. Tap Done, or Use Photo or Use Video.

Create folders and organize your notes

You can create folders and subfolders to help keep your notes organized. Here's how:

  1. If you're in the Notes list, Tap to see your Folders list.
  2. In the Folders list, tap New Folder.
  3. Choose where to add the folder. To create a subfolder, drag the folder that you want to be a subfolder to the main folder. It will move below the main folder and be indented.
  4. Name your folder, then tap Save.

Move a note to a different folder:

  1. If you're in a note, tap to see your Notes list.
  2. In the Notes list, tap Edit , then tap Select Notes.
  3. Tap the notes that you want to move.
  4. Tap Move To, then select the folder you want to move them to.

See your notes in Gallery view

With iOS 13, Gallery view gives you a new way to see your notes — making it easier than ever to find the note you're looking for. Just tap to see your notes as visual thumbnails. Tap again to see your notes in a list.

To sort your notes inside of folders:

  1. Go to the folder that you want to sort.
  2. Swipe down on your screen, until you see the Search field.
  3. Tap the Sort by field, then choose how you want to sort your notes. You can sort each folder by date created, date edited, or title.

To sort all of your notes automatically, go to Settings > Notes, and tap Sort Notes By. Then choose how you want to sort your notes.

Search for a note or attachment

To search for a specific note, scroll to the top of the Notes list, tap the Search field, then enter what you’re looking for. You can search for typed and handwritten notes. And with iOS 13, search can even recognize what's in the images inside of your notes. For example, if you search for 'bike,' search will show you all images you have with a bike. Search can also find specific text inside scanned documents, like receipts or bills.

To search within a specific note, select the note that you want to search within, tap and scroll until you see Find in Note. Then enter what you're searching for.

You can also search for attachments. Tap in the top-right corner, then tap View Attachments. To go to the note with the attachment, touch and hold the thumbnail of the attachment, then tap Show in Note.

Create an instant note from the Lock Screen

You can use an Apple Pencil with a compatible iPad to create an instant note from the Lock screen or pick up where you left off on your last note. To change these settings, go to Settings > Notes, tap Access Notes from the Lock Screen, and choose an option.

Tap the Lock Screen with your Apple Pencil and create your note. Whatever you create is automatically saved in Notes.

Keep your notes secure

The Notes app lets you lock any note that you want to keep private from anyone else that might use your device. Depending on your device, you can use Face ID, Touch ID, or a password to lock and unlock your notes.

Easy Way To Organize Notes App Machine

Learn more about keeping your notes secure with password-protection.

Mac Notes App

Set up Notes with iCloud

You can use iCloud to update your notes across all of your devices. To set up Notes with iCloud, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then turn on Notes. You’ll see your notes on all of your Apple devices that you’re signed in to with the same Apple ID.

Best Note Taking App For Mac

Learn more about Notes

  • Learn how to draw with Notes on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  • Share your notes with friends and family, and invite others to collaborate on select notes.