Apple Bytes: The Complete Guide to Apple Notes, Part IV
In parts I, II, and III of this special series we learned how to create and improve your Apple Notes. Today we tackle a couple of important things about the finished product: how to sync your work across Apple devices and how to protect your notes from prying eyes.
Syncing Across Devices
This is the part where many people get confused. Everything in today’s world is synced across devices, but in most cases, doing so requires a lot of steps and tweaks to achieve this goal. Not so with Notes.
To sync notes between Apple devices, you simply need to be logged in to iCloud. Do this by entering your existing Apple ID or creating a new one (it only takes a minute) in the settings panel of your device. Once you are logged into iCloud, tap the iCloud option in the settings screen and switch on Notes syncing in the service list.
To sync your notes to Gmail or one of the other popular email services, go into the Mail, Contacts, Calendar section of the settings. Once there, choose the account you want to sync Notes to and enable Notes sync.
Even when you have sync enabled, you can choose to create or save only certain notes to your iPad or iPhone. Launch the Notes app, then tap the back button located at the top left corner. Now you will be able to see the notes you have synced and the notes that are saved only on the phone.
Tap on any of these sections to see more details or to create a new note in there.
Password Protection
There are two ways to password-protect your notes. You can either set up a password for the entire Notes app so that none of your notes are accessible to someone who does not know the password, or you can simply set a password for individual notes.
To do the former, go to Settings, tap on the Notes option, scroll down to the Password option, and set a new password for the Notes app. You can also choose to enable Touch ID for better security and faster access. The password you set will apply to all the notes that you created in the past as well as all new notes.
To password-protect a particular note, open it up and then tap on the Share button. Once there, tap on the Lock Note icon. Now when you want to view the note, you will either have to enter the password or use the Touch ID.
It has been a great time exploring a great app this month. And there is one more part left to our series. Next month we will have fun with sketching.