Note-taking apps have become very popular over the past few years. Although there are many excellent options available to choose on multiple devices, Apple’s Notes app takes the lead on Apple’s ecosystem. Most people use the app to quickly take note of important information, scan documents, make to-do lists, etc. However, you might be unaware that you can also collaborate with others on a shared note, as well as highlight all changes.
The feature is similar to what’s found in Google Docs, iCloud Pages, etc. It allows multiple users to collaborate and work together on a single Note. You can invite a friend or colleague to view and make changes in the Note, and the ability to highlight all these changes makes it easier to identify all the edits made in the Note.
Also read: 10 of the Best Apple Notes Features You Need to Start Using
Requirements
To highlight changes in Notes, you’ll first need to learn how to share a note from your device to another person. There are some basic requirements for this. You will need to make sure you have iCloud, since all shared notes are managed through iCloud. Similarly, you need to make sure your device is running iOS 10 or later or macOS 10.12 or later (on Macs). If these requirements are met, you will be able to share documents with other people.
Sharing a note is accomplished by sending an invite to the person(s) of your choice. Once the recipient receives the invite, he/she will be able to open the note and make changes to it.
Enable Collaboration in Notes
To invite others to collaborate on a note:
1. Open the Notes app on your device.
2. Make sure you’re in the “iCloud” notes section and not “Notes on my device.” If you can’t see the iCloud option, make sure Notes is enabled for your iCloud account on your device. To do this, navigate to the “Settings / System Preferences -> iCloud” and enable Notes.
3. Open up the note you want to share.
4. On the upper portion of the note, you should see a More icon (with three dots) next to it. Tap on it.
5. Choose “Share Note.”
6. Choose the method you want to use to share the Note with your recipient. You can share the invite using Messages, Mail, etc. Copy a link or select a different service that’s not listed but available by choosing the “More” button.
7. Send the note sharing invitation.
7. On the other end, the recipient will get the invite to open the shared note. Once he/she clicks on it, the note will open in the Notes app and will be added to the iCloud Notes section.
The advantage of this method is that it allows realtime cooperative editing of notes. You can choose this feature to easily share grocery or shopping lists, notes from a class, etc.
Also read: 5 Mind Map Apps to Capture and Share Your Ideas
How to Highlight Changes in Shared Notes
Once you have a shared note on your device, you can enable the highlight feature to instantly highlight changes made by any user that is collaborating on the Note.
1. Open the note that you want to enable highlight changes on. If you’ve already shared the note with other collaborators, you’ll see a tick sign next to the Person sign on the top of the app.
2. Click on this icon again. You’ll be able to see who you’ve enabled sharing with. Below this, you’ll see the option to “Highlight All Changes.” Enable this to keep track of all edits in a particular note that you’re sharing.
You can choose to stop sharing the note at any time by using the same menu. Similarly, you can choose to remove access for just a specific user.
When you stop sharing a note with someone, it automatically gets removed from their device. Deleting the note removes it from the devices of the people you’ve shared the Note with, too. However, the note will only be moved to the Recently Deleted folder on your device.
Did you know you can also scan documents directly to the Notes app on your iOS device? This can be helpful to share in a collaborative note. Do you have any other tips or thoughts for the Notes app? Let us know in the Comments section below.
Image credit: Close-up of hand with highlighter over document by DepositPhotos
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