Use Samsung Notes features and settings on your Galaxy phone

Last Update date : Dec 23. 2020
Use Samsung Notes features and settings on your Galaxy phone

Everyone relies on their phone and their personal notes. Well, you can get the best of both with the Samsung Notes app on your phone. It lets you take notes on your phone whenever you want, and it also has some important features and settings that you should know about.

Information provided applies to devices sold in Canada. Available screens and settings may vary for smartphones sold in other countries.

If you’ve taken tons of notes on your phone, Samsung Notes may have become a mess. Don't worry, it has features that will make organizing your notes much easier.

For example, you can place your notes into different categories for simpler navigation. Or, you can search for notes with specific titles or subjects instead of sifting through all of your notes.

Samsung Notes features and settings

Here are some of the most helpful features in Samsung Notes:

  • Quick highlight: You can quickly highlight a section of text and select an action. With your S Pen, press and hold a word, and then drag your pen to highlight more text. A list of actions will appear: Cut, Copy, Paste, Dictionary, Show clipboard, and Share.

Note: This feature is only available on the Note series.

  • Zoom in and out: Simply pinch the screen to zoom in or out.

Note: The amount of Zoom that is supported will vary by device.

  • The search function: Use this feature to search for and find the exact note you need. Tap the Search icon, and then enter the words you want to search for.
  • Organize your notes: You can use several different features to organize your notes. Tap the More options icon (the three vertical dots), and then tap Edit. Select your desired notes, and then choose your desired option. You can tap Move to place them in a different folder, tap Share to send them elsewhere, or tap Delete to remove them from your phone.
  • Lock your notes: If you want to keep some notes private (like your poetry collection), you can lock them. Open your desired note, tap the More options icon (the three vertical dots), and then tap Lock. Next, follow the on-screen prompts to create a password for your note.

Note: If you want to change the password, navigate to Samsung Notes' settings, tap Lock notes, and then tap Change password.

  • Sort your notes: You have so many notes, you don't know what's what. To help you figure it out, you can sort them. Tap the More options icon (the three vertical dots), and then tap Sort. Choose your desired option, such as Date created, and then tap Done. You can also change the overall layout of your notes. Tap the More options icon (the three vertical dots), and then tap View to change the layout of how the notes are displayed.
  • Action icons: This feature creates icons in your handwritten notes. Just tap the different icons to make calls, send emails, solve equations, and go to websites straight from icons. Tap the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines) located at top left, tap the Settings icon (it looks like a gear), and then tap the switch next to Action icons.

Note: This feature is only available on the Note series.

Maybe you've been writing a short story in Samsung Notes. You can back up your notes using your Samsung account or the different file options.

Tap the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines), and then tap the Settings icon (it looks like a gear). Tap Sync with Samsung account, and then allow the permissions.

Tap the switch at the top of the page to turn the feature on or off. You can also tap Sync using to choose whether syncing happens through Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi or mobile data.

Save your notes

If you want to save your note as a different type of file, you have plenty of choices. You can save it as a PDF, Microsoft word file, a PowerPoint file, an image, or a text file. Select the note that you want to back up, and then tap the More options icon (the three vertical dots). Next, tap Save files as, and then select your desired file format.

Maybe you have notes saved in Google Drive that aren't showing up in Samsung Notes. No worries, you can easily import them to your phone, so they show up in the app.

To import data to Samsung Notes, tap the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines), tap the Settings icon (it looks like a gear), and then tap Import data. Tap the source you want to import from, and then follow the on-screen prompts.

Import data in Samsung Notes

You can also import and export PDFs in the newer version of Samsung Notes! You won't be able to edit the PDFs, but you can draw on them or annotate them in the app.

You should always make sure to keep Samsung Notes updated, in case any new note-taking features are added.

Tap the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines), and then tap the Settings icon (it looks like a gear). Tap About Samsung Notes, and then tap Update if one is available.

Update Samsung Notes

You can enable automatic updates from the Galaxy Store and Google Play Store to keep Samsung Notes always up-to-date.

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