Marty Edwards
With Notes for iOS 9, Apple packs in a slew of powerful new features like deeper share sheet integration and drawing tools, but one of the most useful additions is the ability to create interactive checklists on the fly.
To create a new checklist from scratch, open Notes and click the pencil and pad icon at the lower right of the screen. On the new note screen, just above the soft keyboard (or at the bottom-right of the note boundary) is an action menu button represented as a gray circle with a plus sign. This small icon is the hub from which you can create checklists, format text, and insert pictures and drawings.
First, tap the action button, then select the checklist button represented by an encircled checkmark. An empty circle should appear in the note, after which your first item can be entered. This circle is interactive; tapping it will enter in a tick mark, offering visual confirmation that a task has been completed.
Alternatively, empty checklist buttons can be inserted after the fact by placing the cursor over a line of text and clicking on the checklist button in the action menu. Similarly, highlighting multiple lines of text and tapping the checklist button will create a multi-item list.
Checklists work perfectly for shopping. Lists can be imported by performing a copy and paste operation on text from emails, messages and other apps, then turned into an interactive checklist using the methods above. While shopping, simply tap the circle next to an item to tick it off the list.
Even though Notes is not yet a collaborative app, you can easily share formatted checklists with friends via email, Messages and more by tapping on the share button in the top-right corner of the screen. Further, activating iCloud syncing in Settings > iCloud > Notes automatically sends notes and real time changes to all your iOS and Mac devices.
Andrew Orr
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
18 Comments
The checklist seems like a cool addition, and perfect for shopping lists %u2014 exactly what I use Notes for. Except that checking off an item doesn't actually REMOVE an item from the list; which is strangely different from the behavior in Reminders... kind of kills the whole reason for including that function.
I agree with Zap dude, reminders already has it, just another way doing same thing!
[SIZE=4]Next up—how to read the news app.[/SIZE]
I just discovered yeaterday, a minor issue with either the new notes app, the mail app or the widget that connects them. I haven't tested this with checkmarks or drawings, but I had created a "note" that consisted of a link to a web-page, then I typed a paragraph of text, added a link to another web-page and finished it off with another paragraph of text. It looked great and was completely functional - until I decided I wanted to share it with a friend. I used the normal "Share" icon, selected "Mail" (cc'd it to myself) and hit send. It appeared to send fine but when the mail arrived, the web-pages had been stripped completely. I kind of expected that the formatted rectangular box would have been replaced with a plain text, clickable link, but there was nothing. It was completely gone... All I got in the email was the 2 paragraphs of descriptive text... So....? Bug? Oversight? Known issue? Or intentionally omitted? PS: If you're going to reply and claim it was intentional - please expand on your claim with a reason more substantial than "Apple doesn't make mistakes so if it's not there it's intentional" or "Its not there because Apple doesn't want it to be there"
[quote name="tenly" url="/t/189116/how-to-create-interactive-checklists-in-notes-for-ios-9#post_2789750"]I just discovered yeaterday, a minor issue with either the new notes app, the mail app or the widget that connects them. I haven't tested this with checkmarks or drawings, but I had created a "note" that consisted of a link to a web-page, then I typed a paragraph of text, added a link to another web-page and finished it off with another paragraph of text. It looked great and was completely functional - until I decided I wanted to share it with a friend. I used the normal "Share" icon, selected "Mail" (cc'd it to myself) and hit send. It appeared to send fine but when the mail arrived, the web-pages had been stripped completely. I kind of expected that the formatted rectangular box would have been replaced with a plain text, clickable link, but there was nothing. It was completely gone... All I got in the email was the 2 paragraphs of descriptive text... So....? Bug? Oversight? Known issue? Or intentionally omitted? PS: If you're going to reply and claim it was intentional - please expand on your claim with a reason more substantial than "Apple doesn't make mistakes so if it's not there it's intentional" or "Its not there because Apple doesn't want it to be there"[/quote] It's working fine for me: I just emailed and texted a note to myself and it arrived intact w/ functioning web links. Maybe your provider or mail client is filtering out the web links from your transcripts; I'm using Apple's Mail and Messages via ATT.