Notes

The Notes app is a convenient tool for everything from planning projects to writing down random thoughts to explore later. What I like about the Notes app is the ability group related notes by putting them in folders. Sometimes I'll make a note and later realize it's in the wrong folder. Other times I won't put the note in a folder and it will end up in the general Notes folder by default. The Notes app has a simple way to move a note from one folder into another, or to start a new folder entirely. 

Need iPad and iPhone help? Sign up for iPhone Life Insider and Sarah will help you with all your iPhone troubleshooting and iOS-related issues. To learn more go to iPhoneLife.com/Insider. In this Hey Sarah column, one Insider wants to know how to change the default greeting on their iPhone's voicemail. Other questions include how to view more than the current month on Apple Watch and how to sort notes in the Notes app alphabetically.

Here's a time-saving feature to boost your productivity; you can open the Notes app directly from the Lock Screen of your iPhone. Lock Screen Notes are helpful for quickly marking down all the notes, checklists, links, and sketches that you want to have close at hand, without having to unlock your device. Let's get started learning how to add Lock-Screen notes to your iPhone so you can master this new feature. 

When drawing notes or images by hand in the Notes app on iPhone, you can choose the paper style to draw upon. When you want lines to draw within or a grid to help you stay on track, you can choose a one-time paper style to use or even set up a default paper style to automatically appear in your Notes. When you type, the paper style disappears in that part of the tip; but for drawing by hand in the Notes app, choosing the paper style can make a big difference. Here’s how to change the paper style in Notes with iOS 11 on iPhone.

Before iOS 11, the only way to lock a note in the Notes app was to tap the Share icon and select Lock Note. Now you can quickly and easily lock any note by just swiping on it. This shortcut means you don’t even need to open a note to lock it, and it makes the whole process a lot smoother. Here’s how to quickly lock a note on iPhone.

Not too long ago, drawings you created in the Notes app attached to a note as though they were photos. A new window would pop up, allowing you to create the drawing. Once you were finished, the drawing would be inserted into the post. Starting with iOS 11 and continuing into iOS 12, you can simply draw right on the note as though it were the paper. Here’s how to add inline drawings to Notes on iPhone.

In Apple's native Notes app for iPhone and iPad, you can designate a note to always appear at the top of your list. This is helpful if there’s a note you consistently refer to, such as the one you use for grocery shopping every week. You can also pin multiple notes to the top of your list. Here’s how to pin a note to the top of your Notes list on iPhone.

If you enjoy handwriting notes on your device, it’s essential to be able to find what you’re looking for within those notes later on. Previous iterations of the Notes app only allowed you to search for words that were typed. But with iOS 11, the Notes app is capable of searching through your handwritten notes as well. Here’s how to search handwritten words in Notes with iOS 11 on iPhone or iPad.

With each new iOS, Apple improves the once barely adequate Notes app. Now, it’s a bona fide note-taking app with lots of features. With iOS 11, the list of features grows with the ability to add tables to a note now possible. Making a table in the Notes app can be helpful for creating various items. For example, you could use one to keep an easy tally of your expenses. Here’s how to add a table to Notes with iOS 11 on iPhone.

So you want to know how to hide photos on your iPhone, eh? Well, the iPhone doesn't really allow you to create a private photo album even though your photos are technically hidden, but we have some great workarounds to share with you. Hiding picture on your iPhone within the Photos app has some big loopholes that make it easy for someone to find the photos you mean to keep private. Which is why we’ll not only go over how to hide photos with the built-in 'private' photo album, but also how to lock photos away on iPhone so that they are hidden behind a passcode. We consider this the way to really, truly hide photos on your iPhone. But for even more security, you can also use an app to hide photos and videos in a secret photo album on your iPhone. Here’s how to hide photos on your iPhone by creating a locked photo album or using a "private photo vault" type app.

We’ve covered how to lock notes in the Notes app on iPhone. But what if you want to remove a lock? Perhaps you locked a note for a period of time but no longer need to keep it hidden. How do you get rid of the lock on that note? Luckily, it’s just as easy to remove a lock from a note as it was to add a lock. Here’s how to remove a lock from notes on the iPhone.

Once you get the hang of editing text on iPhone, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is. Furthermore, adding italics, bold text, or an underline on the iPhone is also easily doable. You can also indent right, select, copy, and paste text on the iPhone. It all starts with highlighting the text you want to edit. Let’s jump in; here’s how to edit and format text on the iPhone.

If you’re concerned about Notes disappearing on your iPhone, creating all your Notes in your iCloud Notes folder is the best way to go. But if you have a note with sensitive material that you want to keep super private, you can store those notes locally on your iPhone. To do this, you simply turn the On My iPhone account on for Notes. We’ll go over how to do that. Here’s how to keep your sensitive notes out of the iCloud.

Apple's native Notes app on your iPhone is one of the most convenient ways to take a note, but there are a few problems people encounter with the app. If you’ve lost notes or noticed notes disappearing on your iPhone, this article is your guide to getting them back. iPhone notes disappearing, or the entire Notes app being lost are common issues. Beginning with iOS 10, the Notes app on the iPhone is able to be deleted entirely, so we’ll cover how to reinstall the Notes app on your iPhone. If you’re wondering where specific notes disappeared to, don’t worry—we’ll go over how to recover your lost notes using iCloud. We’ll also show you how to recover notes you accidentally deleted. Whether you need to find lost notes, redownload the Notes app, or undelete notes, we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you need to get them (and the iPhone Notes app) back.

iPhones with 3D Touch are able to jump directly into specific places within apps by 3D Touching an app’s icon. Most Apple stock apps have Quick Actions, such as the Notes app. When you 3D Touch the Note app icon, it will show your most recent note and give you four options for Quick Actions: New Note, New Checklist, New Photo, and New Sketch. We’ll go over how to use 3D Touch to quickly create a new checklist in Notes on iPhone.

When Apple released iOS 9, Notes added a lot of features including the ability to create folders, share websites, add images to Notes, and more. Those features are still present in Notes on iOS 10 as well. One of the things you can do in Notes is draw a sketch and add it to the note. If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch (iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus), you have the ability to sketch dark or light lines, depending on how firmly you press when drawing. Here’s how to make more nuanced sketches in Notes with 3D Touch on iPhone.

Our iPhones and iPads are powerful productivity tools. These 10 iPhone 7 productivity tips will help you learn how to use the iPhone Calendar, iOS Mail, Notes, and Reminders apps to get the most out of your iPhone or iPad.

If you're looking for a particular note, you can search within individual folders in the Notes app. But what if you want to search through all the notes in the app all at once? It's easy to do. Just use Spotlight Search and its data-scouring capabilities. Spotlight Search is accessed by swiping down from the center of any Home screen. By searching your Notes with Spotlight Search, you can find any note you've created by searching for terms from a note. Here's how to search the Notes app on iPhone. 

iOS 10 is, arguably, the biggest update to come to iPhone. Not since the total redesign of iOS 7 have we seen changes this big to the iPhone’s operating system. From voicemail transcription (aka visual voicemail) to Siri with third-party integration, there’s a lot of new features to learn how to use. We’re still writing tips to cover all of the iOS 10 updates, but this roundup will feature my favorite top ten iOS 10 tips that we’ve published so far. We’ll include how to search for a destination that’s on your way in Maps, how to find your parked car with iOS 10, how to register as an organ donor in the Health app, and much more. Here’s the ten best iOS 10 tips every iPhone user should know.