macOS Sequoia 15

Get started with Notes on Mac

With Notes, capture quick thoughts or use longer notes to save checklists, images, web links and more. You can create, collaborate, stay organised and access your notes from all your Apple devices.

Open Notes for me

The same note in the Notes app on Mac, iPhone and iPad. On the left, the Notes app on Mac shows the Notes window with several notes folders in the the user’s iCloud account. In the Projects folder, there are four notes. The user is currently looking at a note titled Family Vacation. On the right, the same note is displayed on an iPhone and iPad. The note has two checklists and an image of a cyclist at sunset.

Use iCloud Notes

Use iCloud notes to see notes on all your devices, and get the most up-to-date features — including additional formatting, and the use of checklists, tables and media from your iPhone or iPad. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click your name at the top of the sidebar, then click iCloud. Click See All next to “Saved to iCloud”, click Notes, then turn on Sync this Mac.

A cropped Notes app window on Mac showing a note and the “Create a note” button in the Notes toolbar.

Create or edit a note

To get started with Notes, start writing your first note. Click in the Notes toolbar.

A Notes app window on Mac showing a close-up of the Notes toolbar — specifically the Format Text, Make a Checklist, Add a Table, Record Audio and Add Media buttons.

Use the toolbar to format and add content

Format text and add content using the buttons in the toolbar. Click to apply a paragraph style or format text, to add a checklist, to add a table, to record audio, and to add files, media and more.

Collaborate on a note

You can send an invitation to collaborate on a list in Messages or Mail, or share the link. Click in the toolbar, choose either Collaborate or Send Copy in the pop-up menu, then select Messages, Mail or Invite with Link. After you’ve invited others to join, you can track activity and manage collaboration.

A Notes app window on Mac. The user has clicked the Search button to start a search in Notes. The search field remains blank. Suggested Searches appear, including Shared Notes, Locked Notes, Notes with Checklists, Notes with Tags, Notes with Drawings, Notes with Scanned Documents and Notes with Attachments.

Search your notes

You can search for specific text or images to easily find the note you want when you need it. Click in the toolbar to show the search field, type what you’re looking for, then press Return.

Helpful?

Notes User Guide