hey everyone today I want to share my experience using various note-taking apps I've tried plenty like Evernote notability and goodnotes but Apple notes Remains the top dog it's the Simplicity and the fact that it's free that makes it perfect for daily use just like most note-taking apps Apple notes uses a folder system to keep things organized first off you have the regular folders you can use these to sort your notes however you like and can even move notes from one to another by simply dragging and dropping but then you've got smart folders which are one of the really cool features recently added to Apple notes if you use tags in your notes they'll automatically be sorted into the appropriate smart folder with iOS 16 you can also add filters to these tags which is pretty awesome you can create as many folders as you want and you can even Nest them up to five levels deep to keep everything tidy besides the folders you create notes actually already includes a set of default folders the note folder contains all unsorted notes while the all iCloud or all on my iPad folders let you access any note currently in any of these places quicknotes are saved in the quicknotes folder pretty straightforward right when you delete a note it goes into the recently deleted folder where you can restore it within 30 days before it's permanently deleted unless you change this setting Apple notes sorts your notes by the last edited and goes even further by grouping them by date like today past 7 Days Etc the app makes it super easy to find anything anytime thanks to features like optical character recognition which can spot Search terms and text on handwritten Pages or even in attachments like images or scan documents you also have access to other tools for instance you can pin an important note at the top of a folder so it's always the first thing you see when you enter that folder regarding the display Apple notes offers two viewing modes by default it uses a list view where notes are split into three navigation panes folders notes and content this view shifts depending on the device orientation list view is perfect if you need to keep track of multiple notes at once as it allows you to see more notes simultaneously the second mode is gallery view which displays a thumbnail for each note compared to list view it's a bit handier and offers more customization options for example you can increase or decrease the thumbnail size which is pretty cool no matter which view you choose you can get a closer look at any note simply by pressing and holding it the tool bar in Apple notes might look small compared to other note-taking apps but it packs more than enough features to get the job done typing out notes using either an onscreen or external keyboard is one of two ways to add entries here once you do you can use the context menu to change the text style and formatting if you're a fan of printed text Apple notes comes equipped with built-in handwriting to text conversion mostly using the scribble feature on your iPad to turn handwritten notes into typed text whether you're drawing or jotting down notes you've got plenty of options if you've upgraded to iOS 16 you now have four different types of pens a pencil and a marker to choose from each tool pretty much does what its name suggests and you can adjust their thickness color and opacity the pencil tool works great with the apple pencil for drawing and sketching it's pressure sensitive and has virtually no lag making it a joy to use when you make a mistake you'll need an eraser and Apple notes offers two types the pixel eraser which works like a real pencil eraser and the object eraser which lets you tap an object to erase large sections at once rather than having to move the Eraser tool over each part the highlighter tool is used for emphasizing specific parts of your notes and like the pen and pencil tools the highlighter has five preset thickness levels and an opacity slider it's nice that even at 100% opacity it won't obscure your note you'll also see some other tools on the toolbar including the lasso tool a color palette and a ruler additionally there's a text tool that lets you add text or a caption and a shapes tool Now to create a new note no matter where you are in the app all you need to do is hit this button right here and a blank note will automatically appear on your screen here you can tap the three dots to customize your workspace in the lines and grids menu you can select different background layouts or hit customize Toolbar to rearrange or remove items from the toolbar to create a quick note on your iPad just tap the lower right corner of the screen with your apple pencil a quick note will pop up start writing or drawing right away to save it press the done button the note will automatically save and be available in the notes app another way to make a quick note on an iPad is through the control center if you haven't enabled this feature yet you can do so in the settings under control center it's super easy to add quick note as an option now here's a slightly hidden feature every time you need to draw a shape using your finger or an apple pencil and if you're like me not an artist your circles might not be perfect circles and your squares might not be perfect squares the hidden trick to clean this up is that after you draw a shape keep holding it down until it highlights then you'll see the option snap to shape if you tap snap to shape your imperfect form will become perfect making your notes neat and organized you can import files via email or the files app but they'll be treated as attached documents to extract information from an attachment you need to open it select the text and copy it into the body of the note Apple notes packs some cool features you can create checklists and tables Apple notes allows you to make interactive checklists and tables using icons on the toolbar another handy feature is data recognition such as phone numbers email addresses or dates for instance if you input an email address Apple notes will let you either send an email or save it to your contacts excited to announce that the search for the best notetaking app is over Apple notes is your go to it's easy to use intuitive and free syncing across all your devices support us by hitting like and subscribing to our channel for more detailed info have a great day see you next time