Hands-On Apple 212 transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:00]:
Coming up on Hands on Apple and continuing our practical series, we're taking a look at a feature that I see people talk about regarding IPADOs and swiping from the corners of your screen. Stay tuned for this episode of Hands on Apple podcasts you love from people you trust. This is twit. Welcome back to Hands on Apple. I am Micah Sargent. And today, as I mentioned, we're continuing to look at things that I, you know, I'm actually seeing people talking about or asking me about or asking others about. And there's a feature that made its way to ipados some time ago that many of us found to be helpful, but some of us continue to find to be annoying and confusing. And that is the Quick notes feature on iPadOS.
Mikah Sargent [00:01:05]:
So I want to talk a little bit about what it is, how it works, what you can do, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So let's head over to ipados and take a look. All right, here we are on the iPad. And first and foremost, the question that I was seeing was why is it when I'm swiping around on my iPad, sometimes a note will pop up? Well, that is actually a feature that is part of Quick Notes and it happens when you swipe up from the bottom right corner of your iPad. Doing so will bring up the Quick Notes feature that has some simple options. First and foremost, you can use in the bottom right hand corner, you'll see the little markup icon that lets you use your hand or an Apple pencil to be able to write little notes. In the top left corner is the done button. As you might imagine, that will let you finish writing your quick note.
Mikah Sargent [00:01:57]:
On the top right corner, there is a set of four squares that will take you to multiple notes. You've got my favorite icon, the three dots tapping on that will let you add a screenshot to the current note, share the current note, or delete the current note. And then the last option in the top right corner is the ability to create a new Quick Note. So the way that Quick Notes is supposed to work is you are doing something else on your iPad. You know, you're browsing the web, you're looking at photos, you're researching something. And while you're doing that, you can then quickly pop up your quick notes from the bottom right corner of the screen. So there you could, for example, say, you know, Rocky mountains are, I don't know, very old as you are reading about the mountains, and then tap done and kind of move on. But then if you were to come back we swipe up and we get our Quick Notes again and we can continue with that Quick Note or we can create a new one.
Mikah Sargent [00:03:07]:
And you know what, let's go ahead and add a screenshot to this one. So it takes a screenshot of the page and then I can add some notes about this. So many different apps and we can see that that's done and I can move on. Now. Something to understand is that with Quick Notes, these notes show up in a different section within the Notes app. They show up as Quick Notes, so they are considered something different, which means that your typical icloud notes are going to show up below and then your Quick Notes are going to be categorized in that special folder. Now, Quick Notes, if you'll note in the top left corner of the screen, we can see that in and in fact, let's just do a screenshot here so I can show you that that icon for Quick Notes is. It's got a scribble on it.
Mikah Sargent [00:04:04]:
When Apple kind of came up with this idea and showed it off in the first place, it really did show it as a way to quickly write notes. And it was more of Apple Pencil feature than anything else. You would swipe with your Apple pencil from the bottom right hand corner of the screen and be able to kind of go in and scribble down some notes really quickly. But it is not exclusive to Quick Notes. If you like what you heard and you want more of this week's top stories in tech, well, subscribe to Tech News Weekly. Every Thursday, I talk with the journalists making and breaking the tech news. Let's say you're not a big fan of this feature. You don't want, and this is kind of the thing that I saw from people.
Mikah Sargent [00:04:45]:
You don't want to have to activate your notes by, you know, when you're really just trying to swipe around. Ugh, how annoying that I have to swipe up and have that happen. Well, it's very easy to turn this off. You tap on the Settings app and you will scroll down until you get to multitasking and gestures. And from this page down at the bottom, you will see an option that says swipe finger from corner. Now, turning swipe finger from corner off means that you will not have that gesture. Now, if I swipe up from the top right, it's not bringing up Quick Notes. Instead it's bringing up the multitasking pane.
Mikah Sargent [00:05:29]:
But if I tap on swipe finger from corner to toggle it on, now I have choices. And here's the cool thing. It's not just a Quick Notes feature. You can actually set it to bring up screenshots. Now note that it's only the bottom left corner and the bottom right corner. Swiping from the top left or top right is not an option here, mostly because we have Control center on the top right. So if we tap on bottom left corner, we can either have that corner do nothing, we can have it open up Quick Notes, or we can have it take a screenshot and then the same thing for the bottom right corner. Same three options off Quick Note or Screenshot.
Mikah Sargent [00:06:09]:
So now let's go back to that main homepage and I'm going to take my finger and on the bottom left corner I'm going to swipe and it immediately takes a screenshot. So I quite like having the screenshot shortcut on my iPad. Even if I don't use the Quick Notes feature on my iPad. I'm not a Big Apple Pencil user and so therefore I don't really need that. But if I go into settings, I can set it so that both options will actually take a screenshot. So swiping from the bottom right corner also takes a screenshot. And importantly, this works in whatever app you happen to be in. It's not just a feature that is exclusive to that home screen.
Mikah Sargent [00:06:50]:
But wherever you are, anytime you want to take a screenshot, bottom right hand corner and it's good to go. So if you or someone you know has complained, I'm swiping around and for some reason it keeps bringing up this stupid note. Well, that is what is making that happen. It's the Quick Notes feature for iPad OS. Folks. This is the final episode of 2025. I'll be back in the new year with new episodes of Hands on Apple. But until then, I of course want to say thank you so much for your support.
Mikah Sargent [00:07:21]:
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Mikah Sargent [00:08:08]:
If all of that sounds good to you, as good as it does to me, well, head to Twitter TV Club Twit to check it out. Thank you so much. And again, I'll see you in the new year. I hope that you have a lovely rest of your year. Goodbye, everybody. Sam.
