Carol presented on Notes and Reminders today.
Perry White at the Daily Planet always advised reporters to not bury the lead. So here goes. What you really want is the link to the Interlinked YouTube Channel and the video on
How to get the most out of Apple’s Reminders: iOS 13 Edition or
How to Get the Most Out of Apple’s Reminders: iOS 12 Edition.
Opening Frustration & Solution
SacBee digital edition login/account problems were shared. Emailing customer service is waste of time. Call Customer Service instead but don't expect real help - “All accounts are experiencing log-in failures. Should be fixed tomorrow.” In disgust I deleted the SacBee app and all the data/account info along with it. Then downloaded the app again from the App Store. After opening it and using my Keychain login information the preview appeared. The button to see the “print” edition also worked - for the first time in three days! Lesson: When an app misbehaves, think about deleting it off your device and reinstalling it. If the app cost money, there is no charge to re-downloading. If the app stored any information then you will lose that info - game scores especially. I wonder what would happen to my Starbucks card with rewards and some prepaid cash?
Here is what was really discussed in class so you can compare to your notes:
Using iOS 13 with enhanced features today - if you are using an older iOS then please refer to your User Guide. Carol used her iPad for most demonstrations today, the iPhone has the same features but at a smaller size, there are more screens to navigate than when using an iPad.
The VIEWS of apps change from a top-level view with a way to navigate into a detailed view. For the Notes app, you see a list of Titles, tap to open the page view - the details. Tap “Back” to return to the top-level view of Titles.
iPad View or the iPhone View
I’m typing out this report on my iPad and using Notes and Reminders on my iPhone. So the details below might not match the iPad - just the opposite of what we usually show in class because the iPad screen projects a bigger image than the iPhone. These notes = retribution.
Notes is a great app that is like a scratch pad and pencil that is always with you. Take some time to open Notes and look around the screen to see symbols and icons and words that are buttons for the actions you will take. Also,
if you have an iPhone, place your devices side-by-side and compare the layout of Notes on the big screen and the small screen. Or if you have a Macintosh computer, you want to compare the screen layout there to the iOS devices available. Again, if you have all these Apple tools and you do not see the same Notes on them, then it is possible your Apple ID and iCloud settings are not in sync. Time to call the Apple Customer Support or visit the nearest Apple Store for help. Open the User Guide to read and re-read the chapter on Notes.
Since you might not have many Notes yet,
the place to start is where the controls for many apps begins, in the Settings app, the Gear.
- Settings > Notes > Siri & Search > ON
- Settings > Notes > Default account > iCloud
- Settings > Notes > Sort by Date Edited
- Settings > Notes > New Notes start with Title
Gestures are all over the place in the Notes app. Tap, Swipe left-to-right and Swipe right-to-left. Draw with the tip of your finger ...
Go back to a Home Screen and open the Notes app again. Look around. Touch all the buttons and text to see what happens. We had quite a discussion in class about creating
Folders vs
Searching for content. You want to find the Search field and the Folders button.
Start by creating a new Note page. There’s an icon for that! Tap the square+pencil icon to see the on-screen keyboard appear with a blinking cursor (vertical line). Before typing anything, see how the screen has changed. New icons appear above the keyboard. Do you see gold text, gray symbols and black symbols?
Keyboarding
Are you comfortable with typing on the glass? Do you have an external keyboard?
Text manipulation is a skill you will want to practice. Setting the cursor on a spot to add new text, touching a red underlined word to fix a typo, double-tapping a word to select it and type over to replace it. Triple tap on a paragraph to select an entire paragraph. Expand or contract the text selection using the “handles” on a selection. After making a selection there is a hidden menu to Cut, Copy, Paste, Replace, BIU, Look Up, Speak, Share..., Indentation, and Spell. There must be a YouTube video demonstration on that too. Of course, check the User Guide.
Tools: Table, Checklist, Camera or Draw
Look at the symbols/icons/tools available in Notes: Font and Size, Table, Checklist, Camera and Draw. These tools take practice. No, actually these tools take play! Experiment. Explore and have fun. Share what you discover with others. For example, the Camera > Scan Document is a powerful feature! Practice getting your passport or your eye glasses prescription or ... something critical to you. You want to move to where the lighting is even across the table or desk before scanning. Try to not cast a shadow on the page. Hold your iPhone or iPad parallel to the tabletop and take the picture. Now use the circles to square up the page and tap the Keep Scan button and tap the Save button. Scan additional pages as needed. WOW this is an incredible tool that has been hiding in your pocket all along. For a scanned page, you will want to add a first line to the Note, your Title will be the subject or form you just scanned. You might add additional text after the scanned page - maybe the date of the form or the date scanned or anything you might need for a SEARCH to find this reference.
Folders
After you have a couple Notes you must go look in the mirror and ask “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, do I need organize my Notes in Folders?” If the answer is “No,” then just let Search help you find the details at any time. If the answer is “Yes,” then you need to find the top level of Notes, find the “Back” button and then look for the “Folders” button. On this screen are two phrases in gold - “Edit” and “New Folder.” Explore! Before you even make any folders is an important one, “Recently Deleted” is where note pages go into limbo for 30 days before they are truly deleted. Experiment with making a folder or two, and type a meaningful name then tap Save.
Did you jump ahead and read the User Guide on how to move notes into a folder? Did you Google this question and find a YouTube source to demonstrate the two ways to move a note into a folder? Let me back track one step. If you have a folder, you can open it and then create a new note in place. But if you have created notes before creating folders or you refine your organization and add new folders, there are two ways to move a note into a folder. 1) Open the note and find the Share button (a box with an arrow pointing up). The SHARE SHEET appears and many choices confront you, organized with circles and text choices listed in boxes. On my iPhone (iOS 13) the second box is specific to Notes, the first and third box include choices I’ve seen in other apps that share information. Share Sheet Notes options: Add People, Pin Note, Lock Note, Find in Note, Move to Folder, Lines & Grids. Guess which choice ... naw, never mind, you get it. 2) Get back to the top view where you see the list of Topics (like a table of contents) and swipe from right-to-left to reveal three color-coded options: Lock/gray, Folder/purple and Delete/red. Did you swipe by mistake? Touch anywhere that is not a color block to dismiss the options. The swipe gesture works both ways, soon you’ll learn why to swipe left-to-right.
Old Dogs Learn New Tricks
I’m always learning new things in this class. Many times in my own work I barrel ahead at full steam to get the job done ASAP. But when working with Carol, Jennifer and Tom to present topics in this class I must slow down and see the details, listen to your questions and look for the details I ignored before. There is magic in using these devices as my daily life unfolds. On Friday during the Notes activity one member showed me how her shopping list that reordered itself — after unchecking an item it went to the bottom of the list! Yes, create a new checklist and a pop-up message will prompt you to make a self-sorting list! Cool. News to me.
Play Nicely with Others
Back at the Share sheet in Notes, options included Add People as collaborators. These are “Apple People,” people with iPhones, iPads and Macintosh computers. These will not be Windows people or Android folks. Pay attention to the devices your friends use.
Encourage them to switch ... naw. Not really. Maybe. Sorry, I digress. The Add People choice brings up the Share Sheet details with options for you to send an invitation to this note: Messages, Mail, and more. The Share Options gives your permission so that people
Can made changes or
View only.
Really? Yes, you want to let them edit/make changes. View only, naw, send an email instead!
Back at the note detail screen there is a gold icon with a person in silhouette with +. This Share Sheet will look familiar and is the shortcut to Add People - your ... Apple people!
Shared Note Scenario
Let’s think through a shared note scenario including a table for your Book Club. Create a new Note with “Book Club Votes” as the Title. Now add a sentence about how you will choose the three titles to read next semester. Each member votes for one title. List the seven books in a numbered list. Now add a table of two columns (the default) and in the first row add “Member” in the first column and “Vote” in the second column. Then list every member name down the first column. Share the Note with your Book Club Apple Device owners and let them type the number of their book vote to the right of their name. [This is not a perfect example, but it is the best I can do on an empty stomach. Dinner awaits and I’ll not return to revise this scenario.]
Other Apps can share to Notes
Carol demonstrated the Amazon app without a Sharrow icon but a button named Share. Remember, touch every button and explore every app.
Pin Note to top of the list
You can store many, no, let’s say lots of note pages in the Notes app. Carol had 165 notes and my devices have over 600. Don’t worry about keeping too many of your brainstorms. But if there are a few notes that you’d like to keep at the top of the list - then Pin is your goal. Find the note page on the list and swipe left-to-right to see a pushpin icon. Tap it. Now this note stays above all others in the global list and in your folder item list.
Lock It Down
You can also set a password on a note page. Swipe right-to-left to see a paddle lock icon. There is one password for any Notes pages you want to hide from casual eyes.
Do not be cavalier when setting a password. If you can't unlock the note, no one can hear you scream. No one can help recover the information.
Add Notes to Control Center and Lock Screen
Quick access to the Notes app can be by arrangement - place it on the first Home Screen or in the Dock. You can also add it to the Control Center so it is available from any Home Screen or when you are using any other app. Open Control Center and take stock of the current app icons in the bottom two rows. Open Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls > tap Notes if it has a + inside a green circle. Now open Control Center and see the new icon. Would you like to start your Note with lines or grids instead of blank paper? Open Settings > Notes > Lines & Grids > choose one. You can leave the default as no lines here and in Notes change the background of an individual note page with the Sharrow icon > Lines & Grids.
There is a feature to access the Notes app in Control Center from the Lock Screen. Settings > Notes > Access Notes from Lock Screen > ... many options. This might be a good screen to return to after you are fluent in Notes.
Notes to Email
My favorite way to use Notes is to draft an email message. The first line of the note becomes the Subject Line of the email and the body of the note becomes the body of the email message. I often want the the same subject line on all my seminar emails so this helps speed my communication.
REMINDERS in iOS 13
Carol found helpful demonstrations on the
Interlinked Channel on YouTube:
How to get the most out of Apple’s Reminders: iOS 13 Edition. Maybe your device has not been updated, Interlinked has you covered with
How to Get the Most Out of Apple’s Reminders: iOS 12 Edition. I watched other videos posted on this channel and learned new things. Thanks Carol for sharing this resource!
Lesson: Touch every button, touch and hold on buttons for hidden features.
The beauty of a video tutorial is you can watch it all the way through and then watch again. You can pause the video while you practice the touch screen activities. A video can be rewound 5 seconds or 10 seconds to see the details. On a computer, press the spacebar to pause or play a video.
When using Reminders you gather items into lists. Again, give the list a meaningful name, set a color, an icon and tap Done. Add several items quickly by type + Tab + type + Tab + Type. The Tab key end the item and starts a new one. Use the ( i ) to add details to an item. In iOS 13 you can set a repeat and delay interval for reminders. Very powerful.
Read the User Guide chapter on Reminders, watch the video links and then search for more how-to articles or videos on Reminders. It will be important to know which version of iOS you are running before reading/watching - Settings > General > About > Software Version ____.
Remember to use
Spotlight Search to find apps on any Home Screen and it will also find words and phrases in Notes pages and Reminder items!
Tom will lead us on
ApplePay and
Wallet apps on March 13th. Read about these services in the iPhone and Apple Watch User Guides. Melissa will lead on
Camera and
Photos apps on March 20th.
NEW info: See features posted on the Apple website
iPhone Can Do Whaat? AirDrop, Larger Text; Find a lost phone; Dictate: To type it, say it; Boarding Passes in Wallet; Read the Fine Print ... and more.
Battery Issues
After class one participant claimed his iPhone battery was not lasting very long after a charge. There is a report in Settings that tells the Battery Health and what apps are draining your battery! Here are some tips to save battery power:
- Use Control Center to lower the brightness of your device's screen
- Set the auto-lock to 5 minutes or less
- Use WiFi instead of cellular when you are at home
Settings > Battery > scroll up to see Battery Usage by App
Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock > 5 minutes
Charge your iOS devices overnight; buy a car charge adapter and charge while driving. Older devices will lose capacity to hold a day-long charge. You can look at buying a small rechargeable power source.
So much to learn. Time to play and discover new things!