Chapter 1: Transforming Apple Notes for Enhanced Productivity

Apple Notes has evolved significantly from its original design as a simple text editor. It now allows users to embed and annotate images, PDFs, and even handwritten notes, making it a versatile tool for many users. Notably, it's free and continually updated by Apple, compatible across iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.

However, if you find yourself with a collection of notes stored in text files, the lack of a bulk import feature can be frustrating. But fear not—Apple Shortcuts provides a solution.

There are ways to leverage Shortcuts that enable you to:

• Import a collection of text files seamlessly.
• Convert Markdown formatting into a rich text format that Apple Notes recognizes.
• Extract tags from your imported notes and others.
• Generate an index of the tags used.
• Select multiple tags from a menu for consistent usage.
• Create tags in bulk for better organization.

In this guide, I will walk you through creating these shortcuts, or you can opt to copy them directly from iCloud links. Even if you’re not looking to bulk load files, you may discover valuable tips for maximizing your use of Apple Notes.

Note: Before installing these shortcuts, make sure to enable third-party shortcuts on your device. Follow the provided instructions.

Section 1.1: Importing Files into Apple Notes

The iCloud Link

Shortcut to Import Text Files

What’s the advantage?

You can load a collection of text files into Apple Notes without the tedious process of copy-pasting.

How can you access it?

Run the shortcut from the Shortcuts app.

How does it function?

Using Shortcuts to import a collection of text files is quite straightforward. Choose an archive (or multiple archives) using a file selector, and apply the Extract action. New notes will appear in your Apple Notes.

I tested the shortcut with a zip file, but it supports various archive formats (e.g., zip, rar, tar). However, the current version of the Extract action doesn’t support archives with subfolders or non-text files.

Section 1.2: Reformatting Markdown to Rich Text

The iCloud Link

Reformat Markdown as Rich Text

What’s the advantage?

Many note-taking applications use Markdown for formatting, which Apple Notes does not support. This shortcut converts Markdown to rich text format, compatible with Apple Notes.

How can you access it?

Run it from the Shortcuts app.

How does it function?

Place the files you want to convert into a folder and run the shortcut on the contents. Shortcuts includes an action that converts Markdown into rich text.

Selecting multiple notes can become chaotic quickly. To simplify this, it’s best to organize files into a folder for processing. The shortcut can also be configured to search for notes with specific tags.

Chapter 2: Extracting and Managing Tags

This video covers how to bulk import files into Apple Notes using Apple Shortcuts. It's easier than you might think!

In this video, learn how to bulk export all your Apple Notes to Markdown, LaTeX, HTML, and RTF formats in 2024.

By employing these techniques, you can significantly enhance your efficiency with Apple Notes, making your organization and productivity soar.