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Inside iOS 9: Notes Gains Checklists, Photos, Sketches and More

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Apple has made the Notes app a lot more useful on iOS 9 by integrating it with several other stock apps, including Photos, Mail, Maps and Safari. In addition to traditional note-taking, users can now create checklists, draw sketches and insert photos, videos, links, maps, Pages documents and other attachments into notes.

Checklists

You can now create a checklist in the Notes app by selecting lines of text and tapping on the checkmark button above the keyboard. Each list item will then have a circular bullet next to that can be marked as completed, which is convenient for grocery lists, wish lists, to-do lists and so forth.

ios-9-ipad-notes-list
Apple has also added formatting options in Notes for adjusting the size and weight of text, including Heading, Body, Checklist, Bulleted List and Dashed Line. Anyone that has ever used text formatting in Pages, Microsoft Word or virtually any other word processing program should be familiar with this feature.

Attachments

You can now insert photos, videos, links, maps, Pages documents and other attachments directly into the Notes app on iOS 9 by pulling up the iOS share sheet from other apps such as Photos, Mail, Maps and Safari.

Notes-Checklist-iOS-9
You can take a photo from within the Notes app, or tap to access your photo library and add an existing photo or video to a note. Items attached to your notes can be organized from the new Attachment Browser.

Sketches

You can now draw sketches in your notes using your finger or a stylus, with a selection of drawing tools available that have different brush styles, thicknesses and colors.

ipad-ios-9-notes-sketch
The available drawing tools include a pen, pencil, marker, eraser and a ruler for keeping your lines straight.

Tag: Notes
Related Forum: iOS 9

Top Rated Comments

charlituna Avatar
146 months ago
merge voice memos into Notes and ditch the separate app
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jessica Lares Avatar
146 months ago
I really love how easy it is to copy a sketch, paste it again and then add to it.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
146 months ago
I would love if they found a way to integrate "Notes" and "Reminders" into one app. I'd love to make a grocery list for my wife and be able to attach a photo to one of the things in the list that I specifically needed.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
146 months ago
Am I missing something or is the sketch feature not available on the iPad mini 1st gen? If so that's really unfortunate.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JonneyGee Avatar
146 months ago
Notes in iOS 9 is nice, but it needs Evernote's organizational features to really compete. Notebooks and tags, please!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
146 months ago
Checklist item #1: Fix watchOS 2 bug.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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