How to Use Quick Notes in macOS - MacRumors
Skip to Content

How to Use Quick Notes in macOS

by

In macOS Monterey, Apple introduced a new productivity feature called Quick Notes that's designed to be a quicker way to jot down things on your Mac without having to go in and out of the main Notes app.

monterey quick note
Quick Notes that you create appear in a special Quick Notes folder in the Notes app, where you can edit them to add tables, tags, and more in the usual way. Here's how to create your first Quick Note.

How to Create a Quick Note

If you're working in another app on your Mac and want to write something down, it's easy to start a Quick Note: Press and hold the Fn (Globe) key on your keyboard, then press Q.

You can also use hot corners on your Mac to create a Quick Note: Move the pointer to the hot corner set for Quick Notes (by default, the lower-right corner of the screen), then click the note that appears.

macOS
After you start a Quick Note, you can open it again by repeating one of the above actions. If you want to always create a new Quick Note instead of opening the previous one, open the Notes app on your Mac, choose Notes -> Preferences, then uncheck Resume last Quick Note.

notes

How to Add URL Links to Quick Notes

If you're a Safari user, you can easily add webpage links to Quick Notes for later reference. In the Safari app, visit the website that you want to link to, then click the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing out) and choose New Quick Note or Add to Quick Note.

safari
When you return to the linked content on the website, a thumbnail preview of the Quick Note will appear in the corner of the screen to remind you of what you noted earlier.

How to Add Select Webpage Content to a Quick Note

You can keep track of content from websites by highlighting text in Safari and adding it to a Quick Note. Simply select the text you want to highlight on a webpage, then right-click (Ctrl-click) the text and select New Quick Note or Add to Quick Note.

safari
A link will appear in the Quick Note and the text in Safari will remain highlighted, even if you revisit the webpage at a later time. If you want to remove the highlights, just delete the Safari link from the Quick Note.

Related Forum: macOS Monterey

Popular Stories

All Screen iPhone 2030 Feature Sans Text

iPhone 18 Pro: Nine Reasons Not to Upgrade This Year

Monday September 7, 2026 5:01 am PDT by
Apple is set to unveil new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models on Wednesday, September 9, and the devices are expected to feature a design that's largely similar to the iPhone 17 Pro models, with a peppering of enhancements inside. Major changes are not expected until next year, when Apple is expected to introduce a radically redesigned 20th-anniversary iPhone. If you're thinking of...
iPhone 18 Pro Dark Cherry Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Reportedly Starts With 256GB of Storage

Thursday September 3, 2026 9:22 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro has double the base storage compared to the iPhone 16 Pro, there will apparently be no further increase this year. Taiwanese research firm TrendForce today again reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models will start with 256GB of storage, like the iPhone 17 Pro models. Minimum storage capacities by model:iPhone 16 Pro: 128GB iPhone 17 Pro: 256GB iPhone 18 Pro...
apple watch series 12

Leak Hints at Four New Features for Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4

Monday September 7, 2026 8:57 am PDT by
Ahead of the announcement of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 later this week, code in the watchOS 27 and iOS 27 betas points to a series of new features for the product line. The information comes from a new post from MacRumors forums member "pdfu." The findings include: New "Readiness" app: An all-new separate Watch app referred to in code as "Readiness," distinct from the...