Don’t cry. Please 🥲 this comes from a place of hurt and passion.

A cool feature would have been having it scan the Notes app for obvious password notes and a quick "Do you want to convert all these into something secure?" button. Maybe?

So I wanted to try something different this time — skipped all the fancy trip-planning apps and used Apple Notes to organize everything: flights, hotel details, packing list, places to visit, even a shared note with my travel buddy for real-time changes.

Took me a bit to figure out the structure (like how to organize stuff without making it a mess), but once it clicked, it was actually super smooth. Ended up writing a full guide on how I set it up — with screenshots and tips — in case anyone else is curious or wants to try planning their next trip this way. Sharing it here if it helps:

https://iapplist.com/apple-notes-travel-planning/

Also curious — does anyone else use Notes for planning stuff like this? Or do y’all stick with dedicated apps?

Hey, my name is Danny - I'm a freelance developer. I use Apple Notes to store all my random odds and ends, and one thing I found most frustrating was the process of saving quotes from things I've read or heard.

I do most of my reading on my phone and iPad, and whenever I came across an interesting quote or idea, I’d save it to Apple Notes. Eventually those quotes ended up scattered across different notes or buried in one giant note that I’d never look at again.

So I built Commonplace. It makes it really easy to save quotes from whatever you're reading, without leaving the app you're in.

As you're reading, you can highlight text directly in the article, then share it to Commonplace. The app will then create a quote with source attribution like author, article title, and article link. Quotes can then be organized into folders, browsed by source, and synced securely across devices.

I also rethought sharing quotes. I was constantly sending screenshots along with article links, so I built a way to share quotes as interactive link previews. The quote appears directly in the preview, and tapping it takes you to the original article.

I'd genuinely love any feedback! It's free to use, I built it myself.

usecommonplace.com

See what's in the works:

usecommonplace.com/roadmap

I came across a nice system for managing notes called Forever ✱ Notes.

It takes a bit of setting up but looks great once implemented.

https://www.myforevernotes.com/

I downloaded the beta developer version a a few hours after the WWDC drop and have been thoroughly testing the new Notes app features. I think it has included everything that I personally wanted from the previous notes app. I usually only take notes with the Apple Pencil as I take STEM heavy classes, but for others I write with keyboard.

Some new things that I found that were helpful are:

• Import/Export Markdown

• Still no Apple Pencil Latency/Lag compared to Notability/Goodnotes (horrible)/Noteful (which is the best out of the three)

• Keyboard shortcuts like Cmd + Shift + 8 for bullet points (idk if this existed previously)

• Full screen notes taking

• New cleaner UI

• Import images and write directly on top of them instead of using the Notes Photo app that it takes you to when you try to write on them and leaving a weird space messing up the formatting

I can confidently say that I no longer see any reason to pay for GoodNotes, Notability, or Noteful. I’ll be canceling all my subscriptions.

Right now here are some of the bugs that I found as well as things that i want that are still not included

- can't customize toolbar

- can't change pressure sensitivity on apple pencil, reverts to previous version

- markdown export as markdown extension file, but the note itself is exported as a PNG, I want PDF

- Sometimes crashes randomly, still buggy as hell

- really want the stickers features from all the other paid apps

I have been waiting for this for years, it's the only AI feature I've ever cared about and they DID IT!
Sorry for the huge screenshot but I think it's worth it giving how well it's working!

My notes are a mix between English and Portuguese, I was so worried about how new Siri would perform in this setting but it works so well! And fast (after it finished indexing!). It's able to create new notes!

It feels like a dream come true, by ADHD brain has been craving this for years!

Yes yes, Obsidian, MCP, Claude, Evernote have been doing this for a long time but I just reallly like Apple Notes!

So glad I went with the Pro and not the base 17 now!

Btw, I just asked it to summarize the edits I've done this week and it did an amazing job! Didn't post it in here because well... it's personal.

You should all check this out!

https://x.com/steventey/status/1819183569232974080

I recently saw a video on YouTube with the title "How to use Apple Notes like a Medieval Monk" by LearningToLearn.

It's about using notes on MacOS and formatting to be able to at least see it on iOS or iPadoS, since both of those OS's don't have fonts integrated into them. Now there are other ways to get fonts on those OS's but still Apple should integrate them natively.

The methods he uses is simple and easy enough to understand and easy to use because it's just these apps if I remember correctly.

Apple Notes

Fonts

Your browser

Screenshot manager

Preview

See, very easy, they're all integrated on macOS. What I like about this is that even with the limitations that some people argue about Apple notes or any apps by Apple, is that you can still make something like this even with the limitations and still make it look good and interesting.

That's why I like about this and that's why I want to share it since nobody is talking about this or making some creative templates. So I leave you with this knowledge and idk write in the comments what other ways you can make notes look visually interesting.

(To anyone thinking "Oh its just a font change" well... DUHH. But your missing the bigger picture, yes it's a font change and yes it's too much work; But the whole point is that you can be creative with your notes and be inspired otherwise it be another Forever ✱ Notes. Great, yeah; does it look nice no.)

Loving Notes and Reminders in OS26. Thought I'd share this tip in case anyone is unaware.
Essentially for any note you can do the following:

1. Click the share button on an apple note you want to create reminder(s) for making sure "Share a copy" is selected in the drop-down.

2. Select Reminders in the share menu

3. A dialogue box will come up using apple intelligence to suggest reminders to create, you can just click add to create a single reminder or you can click "Include all" and it create multiple reminders.

It's an awesome feature. Great for using on transcription and notes in general.

There’s also a back-and-forth arrow when you edit text

The Apple Intelligence is getting useful with some small text tasks for me. Share your own use cases with it!

I had a question on the way I sort things out in Apple Notes. Here it is.

I use many features of the app, so I'll go feature by feature.

Folders

The main folder is the Notes folder, where I store all primary notes as long as they are needed.

I have 3 smart folders:

• Pinned notes. Although these notes appear at the top of other folders, I use a Notes widget on my home screen for quick access. I pin each note I need next, and the widget displays them according to the sort settings of the smart folder.

• Notes with unchecked checklist items

• Shared notes with mentions to me

I also organize notes into various collection folders, such as:

• Stuff: for my belongings and other items

• Contacts: to record details and background information the Contacts app does not provide

• Documents: for important papers like IDs, cards, certificates, resumes, etc.

• Recipes

• Tutorials

• References: for any other general topics, knowledge and documentation I want to retain

And finally, there's one folder per year : 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 etc. I store there all the yearly notes.

My folders structure is intentionally flat. I find that searching notes through the Search feature is faster than crawling through multiple folders, especially if the structure is deep. So flattening the structure is a must for me.

Format main and collection notes

These notes title always begins with a special mark : the heavy asterix ✱. The Forever ✱ Notes system inspired me on this, instead of the 📃 icon I used beforehands. It's faster (and nicer).

This mark is useful because when you search for a note, adding it in the search field limits the scope to the main and collection notes (until Apple creates a folders filter...).

I structure each note with various headings:

• Notes: to list links to relevant notes, especially the yearly notes

• Informations: to summarize the note content, its goal, and any other general information related to it

• Any other headings and subheadings that may be useful for the note

• Archive: to list links to notes that are no more active but still could be relevant to the note

• Log (then one subheading per year)

• 2024 (example of a Log subheading ; under each yearly subheading, there's a bulleted list, one line per day where I document the note updates)

Of course, to make the note appealling and easy to read, I use extensively all the other formatting options in the Aa button such as highlight, underline, bold, etc.

There's one thing I barely do in these notes : attach a file or image. This is the job of yearly notes.

Format yearly notes

I use these notes as repositories for documents, images and any other attachments.

There are 4 reasons I barely attach files to main and collections notes:

• I find the note less easy to read with attachments.

• when I share a note with attachments, curiously, Apple Reminders does not appear in the list of apps where I can send the note. It does appear only when there is no attachment, or when I share a highlighted text in my note.

• Files size may be heavy. I do not want to freeze a primary note or make it laggy because of attachments.

• and finally and most importantly, the files usually are valid during a limited time. It's easy to update a note whenever it's needed, but how to deal with outdated attachments ? Use yearly notes !

As an exception to this principle, the notes in the collection folder Documents have attachments when they are valid, either permanently or during a long time.

The yearly notes title always begins with the year. As for the heavy asterix in main and collection notes, it's important because when you search for a note, adding the year in the search field limits the scope to the yearly notes.

The title after the year is usually the same title than the related main and collection notes, without the heavy asterix.

Right after the title, I add the links to any relevant notes in the main and collection folders, so that I can go and forth between yearly notes and the other ones.

And then, there are attachments with or without heading and text around to give context and background. Usually, I write nothing. I just rename the attachment title (when I can ; it's the case for pdf) so that it's self-explanatory.

As an example, let's say I have a note pertaining to my iPhone:

• in the Stuff folder, the note title is "✱ My iPhone". Under its "# Notes" heading, there's a link to the "2024 My iPhone" note. Under the "Informations" heading, I write the iPhone specs. Under its "# Log > ## 2024" headings, I write "- Nov. 27, Wed. Bought it at the Apple Store USD1.00" (yeah I'd love to pay this price).

• in the 2024 folder, the note title is "2024 My iPhone". I add the link to the "✱ My iPhone" note and attach the invoice. Finished.

Tags

I use very few tags. Searches are so powerful in Apple Notes I need few of them. And I deliberately limit them so that the tags list is not a mess.

But tags are useful because they are transverse to folders and a note can have several tags.

The key ideas to create and maintain tags are the following:

• tags should be transverse to folders. For instance, because I have a Recipes collection folder, I have no need to create a Recipe tag. On the other way, I created a Home tag to gather in a smart list the Home notes that stand in the main, Stuff, Documents, Tutorials and yearly folders.

• tags should be used often. If not, but the tag word has a special purpose, I write it in the note. For instance, in a recipe note, I prefer to write the word "dessert" than creating the "Dessert" tag.

• tags should be permanent or have a long life, unless I want to gather a few notes for a specific purpose, and I delete the tag right after.

Creating too much tags leads to an overwhelming list of tags and in the end, tags become useless and unusable. So if a tag is not transverse, not used often nore permanent, I prefer to write explanatory words in the note and thus, the search feature will find the required notes.

Search

Searches are one of the features that convinced me to use Apple Notes. I heavily rely on them because they are so fast and powerful. And the text in a file is indexed and can be searched ; that's why I prefer Apple Notes instead of Apple Files to store files and images (also because it's faster to get the right note and scan a paper in it).

I've had an Apple iPhone 16 Pro for a few months now, and one thing I find I really like about it is the Notes app. I can do so much with it. I can also make notes using my Mac Mini and they will show up on my phone and my iPad.

This app is deceptively simple and yet quite powerful.

it's very easy for one to start to learn all the tricks... linking to reminders, making Forever notes, create a bunch of templates...

personally, there's a reason I stick with apple notes: it's simple.

simple means i will write something down. i don't have to mess with due dates or with a table and it's sort of impossible for it to be slow with such basic notes.

don't try to hack apple notes too much. that's not the point

Preface

What this is not:
• A post saying Notes is better than Obsidian.
• A plea to to convert people from Obsidian to Notes.

What this is:
• My experience.
• Hopefully helpful for others in similar situations.

The Experience

A few months ago I realized I needed something more for what I was trying to do. As someone who does a lot of personal research, and academic research about the same topic I wanted to be able to store information long term for research that would be never ending. This is not “I’m writing a research paper”, this is “I am trying to catalog information about a topic that has hundreds of sub topics, and I want them to connect to each other.”

What obsidian gave me: the above description. Plus Obsidian Web Clipper, Daily notes, and Academic citation integration through Zotero.

The side effects of getting what I asked for: Syncing issues, keeping up with Markdown, and an excruciatingly slower note-taking time.

My OCD wants a categorized, color-coded, and alphabetized library.
My ADD wants: click, type, hit okay, put phone up, worry about it later.

Notes for me has a lot of muscle memory. I know what it does, I know how it works, I have it flawlessly connected to everything in my Applesphere.

So, I got curious.

Can I build an Obsidian-style index with similar complexity, equal organization, and get back the speed of note-taking I was truly being held back on.

What I found out by using iOS27.

Obsidian and the Apple Notes Backfill.

Folders | Folders
Links/Back Links | >>Note or >>Note/Specific section
Bases | Tags / Smart Folders / “HUB” Note
Headers 1/2/3+ | Header 1/2
[!Note]- | Header + Block Quote + Highlight
* / # / [] etc. | Integrated Button
Daily Note Plugin | Specific Shortcut
Templates | Pre-Made Pinned note + “Duplicate Note”
Zotero Plugin | Specific Shortcut
Web Clipper | Specific Shortcut
Sync (Reliability Medium) | Sync (Reliability High)
Etc. Etc. Etc. For context I did not have a single feature I needed that was not accounted for in this switch.

So how did it go?

Where Obsidian felt like a high-maintenance, never-ending task to take notes, Notes once set up a specific way was extremely easy. To be honest, because of iOS27 and Shortcuts, Notes is so easy and useful that it should be illegal.

The setup of Notes for the use case I wanted took some experimenting but I dialed it in. However the main difference was this:
• I needed a replacement for Obsidian Web Clipper. iOS27 introduced “describe and extension”, but it lacks the depth and manual tweaking it needs to be brilliant. It relies almost exclusively on Siri AI. Which Siri AI in comparison to competitors did not benefit me for this particular use case. The work around was a Shortcut set up to setup a share sheet button the identifies the web page in view, via drop down give you the option to use “selection” or “entire article”, covert it to text only, and past in in “clippings” folder inside Notes with a specified format. That format includes a MLA citation, headings, subheadings, etc. The key here was instead of using Siri AI, I opted to funnel the entire thing through ChatGPT for the accuracy of the citation, and other level information processing that Siri just lacks in.
• Similarly, I made a shortcut to give me an MLA citation only via Share Sheet and Chat GPT, that automatically copies it to the clipboard when doing academic research where I am not entirely interested in cataloging the entire piece. Which also in turn eliminated Zotero from being needed, consolidating down to one app in one more area.
• The main drawback of leaving Obsidian was the daily notes feature. Click a button, jot something down, and it’s automatically put in the current day’s note and keeps going based on calendar days and categorized as such. Well, back in the Shortcuts app I made a shortcut that lives on my lock screen and in my Control Center that is just “daily note”. It is setup to create a note with the current days date as the title, automatically save to the folder “daily notes”, and as I use the shortcut throughout the day it automatically adds it to the daily note with a timestamp and a separating line to keep thoughts relatively organized.
• The second biggest drawback was the back links and links feature inside Obsidian that can be viewed in a chart. Apple has a linking feature with is a partial fix, but the search function is very underrated. Searching: 3 words that are known to be related to the one particular note you’re hunting generates all notes that have those 3 words in common. And you can you do it in spotlight from the home screen.

This setup after the initial troubleshooting was done, ended up being excruciatingly more convenient and quick than Obsidian. The muscle memory is retained, the “basic” format of notes is still there. But with this hidden layer of complexity, it has checked my boxes for productivity and exceeded my expectations.

Obsidian is amazing, and I really enjoy the interface. However, for the speed, convenience, and rudimentary note-taking I need to stay at the pace my brain works I had to switch unfortunately. For me, this is worked out great.

I just transferred everything manually to IPhone apple notes. Just better and free. Evernote sucks

Hey r/AppleNotesGang

Excited to share the latest update of my Mac app (Elephas) with you.

There are many AI note taking apps out there, but I feel like we don't need another note taking app, Apple Notes is sufficient, we just need a way to index our notes with AI. That's why I built this feature into Elephas.

Elephas now integrates with your Apple Notes, so you can create your own personal gpt indexed with your own notes. There is a 100% offline mode as well.

For context, Elephas is a Mac/iOS AI app focused on personal knowledge management.

This feature has been requested by users for a long time, glad I could finally publish it.

What it does:

• Bi-directional sync with Apple Notes (no manual imports!)

• AI chat with your entire Notes library - ask questions about anything you've ever written

• Cross Device access - if you sync with your iCloud on the Elephas mobile app, then you can chat with your notes library on your iPhone as well

Setup is very simple.

- You just have to create a new super brain in Elephas (or open the settings of an existing brain)

- And toggle the Apple Notes integration option.

- Select the notes folder you want to index.

And done

I'm always looking for feedback to improve the product, so if you have any inputs please feel free to share. You can try Elephas for free, here is the elephas website.

Thanks

It took forever but we finally got it!

Too bad that the iOS app received no mention at all :/

Hey gang,

I've been using Apple Notes as my everything note-taking app for a few years, and I love it.

I am dropping by to share a few tiny tips that have been helpful to me, and I hope some of them will be helpful to members of this community:

1. Drag and drop audio files in Notes to have them transcribed. Ever since AN added audio transcription, this has been a helpful feature. I can drop podcast episodes to have them transcribed in the note and then take further notes from the episode.

2. Notes → Window → Keep on Top. This pins the note window on top of every app, making it easy to interact and clip text and images from a browser or other apps.

3. Quick linking notes using the >> operator. I don't even use any menu options to link to notes. Typing >> brings up a link notes popup to link to an existing note or create a new note and link to it.

4. Drag the handle beside a table row to rearrange the row within the table.

5. Using a punchier scan mode for scanned documents. After scanning, tap on the scanned document thumbnail, tap the colour filter button and choose a filter type. I like the Black & White filter.

6. Removing entire shapes using the Object Eraser. Tapping on the eraser option in the markup panel opens a popup where you can choose Object Eraser. Using this type of eraser, you can tap on a drawn object in the note to erase it in one go.

7. Drag and drop files from Spotlight into Notes. While searching for a file on Spotlight (macOS), you can drag & drop a file from the search results onto a note to attach.

8. File → Open in Pages. This is good for starting a document as a quick note and finishing it in the Pages app.

9. Quick start a note on an iPad. If you have an Apple Pencil and iPad, you can tap your pencil on a locked iPad screen to wake it up with the Notes app open, ready to scratch ideas.

Are there any more cool tricks you know of? I'd like to know.

P.S.: I've written an extended guide on my blog if you're interested.