8 New Notes App Features in iOS 11

By Ali Mahdi
4 Min Read
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One of the apps that received a major overhaul in iOS 11 is Apple's Notes app, which has become the go-to tool for taking notes on your iOS device. From a new document scanner and drawing tool, to better formatting options and notes management, iOS 11 takes the note-taking experience to a whole new level. Press the right arrow to learn about 8 new Notes features and how you can use them.

8 Scan Documents

Yes, you read it right. Gone are the days when you had to depend on third-party apps to scan documents. Apple has added a native document scanner to the Notes app that allows you to quickly scan documents from your iPhone and add it to a particular note.

  1. When you're in a note, tap on the + button at the bottom and choose Scan Document from the menu that opens.
  2. Now point your iPhone's camera at the document you want to scan.
  3. The app will automatically detect the document and scan it when ready.
  4. Once you're done scanning all the documents, tap on the Save button to add it to the note.

The scanner also provides a set of tools to edit the document, such as cropping, changing the color, and rotating it.

7 Pin Notes to the Top

If you have important notes that you access frequently on your iPhone, now you can pin them to the top of the list so that they don't get lost among all the other notes that you've created.

  1. Swipe a note to the right and press the orange pin button that appears.
  2. A new section is added to the top of the Notes app where all your pinned notes will be appear.

6 Better Text Formatting Option

In iOS 10 and earlier versions, the Notes app offers limited formatting options, such as Title, Heading, Body, and lists. If you highlight text, you can access additional options. Apple has organized the text formatting options in iOS 11 so that they are all accessible from a single place.

  1. When you're in a note, open the keyboard and tap on the + button to view the toolbar.
  2. Next, press the Aa button. A new view opens to display all the available formatting options, which are placed in a single, easy-to-access menu.

5 Convert Notes to PDF

If you want to share your notes with someone, iOS 11 allows you to convert it to a PDF document, annotate anything that you want, and share it with other apps.

  1. To convert a note to PDF, open the note in the Notes app.
  2. Then press the Share button in the top right corner.
  3. From the Share Sheet menu that appears, tap on the Create PDF option.
  4. You can now markup the PDF document as required and share it via AirDrop, save to Files, or open it in other apps.

4 Change the Drawing Background

By default, the drawings that you make in a note will not have any background. In iOS 11, you change the background style to grids, lines, boxes, and more.

  1. Open a note and tap on the share button in the top right corner.
  2. From the Share Sheet menu, choose Lines & Grids.
  3. Now select the type of background to use.

3 Tables

If you ever wanted to add a table to your note, you can now do it in iOS 11.

  1. Open the note where you want to add a table, then press the + icon above the keyboard to unhide the toolbar.
  2. You'll notice that there's a new icon for tables. Tap on it to add a table to your note.
  3. To add or remove a row, press the dots icon on the left side of the table.
  4. Similarly, pressing the dots icon above the keyboard will allow you to add or delete a column.
  5. If you tap and hold the dots, you can reposition a row or column.

2 Search Handwritten Notes

When you create a handwritten note using the drawing tool, the Notes app learns your handwriting over time and recognizes what you've written. This allows you to easily search your handwritten notes and find what you're looking for. Additionally, all your handwritten notes are indexed by Spotlight so you should be able to search for them directly from Spotlight without opening the Notes app.

1 New Swipe Options

If you swipe a note to the left, you'll view a number of new options that allow you to lock the note, move it to a folder, or delete it. This also means that you can now lock your notes more easily with a swipe gesture. Additionally, swiping to the right reveals the pin icon for pinning your note to the top of the notes list.

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