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

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored Colors

What's Coming in September: New iPhones, Apple Watches and More

Thursday August 13, 2026 4:20 pm PDT by
Apple will introduce at least five new devices at its iPhone-centric event next month, and it's also possible we'll get devices waiting on Siri AI like the Apple TV. iPhone 18 Pro The iPhone 18 Pro is going to look like the iPhone 17 Pro, but with a smaller Dynamic Island. It's getting some internal updates, including a new Wide camera with a variable aperture for more control over lighting ...
iPhone 17 One Year Later Thumb 1

Should You Buy an iPhone 17 Now or Wait for iPhone 18?

Friday August 14, 2026 12:15 pm PDT by
For the first time since Apple started selling standard and "Pro" iPhones, we're not going to get an entry-level iPhone model this fall. Apple doesn't plan to release an iPhone 18 in September, and will only launch the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra. The lower-cost iPhone 18 won't come out until spring 2027. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Everything New Your iPhone Can Do on iOS 27 Feature 1

30 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 27

Friday August 14, 2026 6:24 am PDT by
Apple will release iOS 27 in September, and despite the company's focus this year on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, there are still many additional features on the way, not least of which is Apple's new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era. This year's major iPhone software update isn't all about AI, though, as the following feature list...