How to use Quick Note on a Mac
Quick Note is a feature of the Notes app. Press and hold the Fn or Globe key and press Q, or move the pointer to the bottom right corner of the screen and click the small note that appears. Either one opens a small note window over whatever you are doing, so you can type and get back to work.
Open a Quick Note
- Keyboard. Hold Fn or the Globe key, then press Q.
- Hot corner. Move the pointer to the bottom right corner, which is the default hot corner for Quick Note, then click the note thumbnail that appears.
Where the notes go
Quick Notes appear in the Quick Notes folder in the Notes app. Open Notes and look in the sidebar. See where Quick Notes are saved.
Start a new one each time
By default, the shortcut reopens your last Quick Note. To always start a new one, open Notes, choose Settings, and deselect Always resume to last Quick Note. In Apple’s page the path is Notes, then Settings.
Add from Safari
- A link. Open the webpage, click the Share button, choose Add to Quick Note. When you return to the page, a Quick Note thumbnail appears in the bottom right corner.
- Selected text. Select the text, Control click it and choose Add to Quick Note. A link appears in the note, and the text stays highlighted when you revisit the page. To remove the highlight, delete the Safari link from the note.
Limits
You cannot lock a Quick Note. Apple’s page also does not describe how to change the keyboard shortcut.
If it keeps popping up
The corner trigger catches people by accident. See turn off the Quick Note hot corner.
A different kind of quick note
If you only need a scrap of text, NotchStar’s Quick Notes is a single plain text scratchpad in the notch. It saves as you type, stays on your Mac, has no formatting and does not sync. It is a different tool from the Notes app feature above, and the Apple steps need no app.
