You’re in front of your Mac and need to write something down before you forget it. Instead of opening the Notes app and creating a new blank page, use Quick Note, which lets you instantly start a new note with a keyboard shortcut, mouse movement, or even a text selection on a web page in Safari. As with any page created with the Notes app, you can then format and customize the Quick Notes document as you see fit. Here's how it works.

Update Your Mac

First, make sure you’re running macOS Monterey 12.0 or higher. Click the Apple icon in the upper left and select About this Mac. If the window reveals an older version of macOS, click the Software Update button to download and install the latest update.

Open a Quick Note

You can trigger a blank Quick Note using the keyboard shortcut Function + Q (or Globe key + Q on newer Macs). The feature can also be triggered by setting up a hot corner that tells the app to appear when you move the mouse to a certain corner of the screen.

Open System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver, click the Screen Saver tab and then select the Hot Corners button. Click any of the four fields representing the four corners of the screen and change the entry to Quick Note, then click OK. The next time you move your mouse to the right corner, a square box should appear. Click the box to start the note.

You can also create a Quick Note by selecting text on a web page in Safari. Highlight the text you want to save, then click the Share icon and select New Quick Note or Add to Quick Note.

The selected text and a link to the web page are both included in a new note. If you then click the link in your note, it will take you back to the associated web page with the text highlighted.

Another way to create a Quick Note from text on a web page is to highlight the text, then right-click the selection and choose New Quick Note or Add to Quick Note from the pop-up menu.

A Quick Note appears with the text you selected and a link to the website. Again, click the link to return to the web page, and the text you selected is highlighted.

Format a Quick Note

You can format your Quick Note using the built-in formatting tools in the Notes app. To change the font or other attributes, select the text and click the Style icon at the top. Choose the attribute you want to apply or pick a specific style such as Title, Heading, or Subheading.

To create a checklist from existing text, select the lines you want to include and then click the Checklist icon at the top. Click the Photos icon to add an image to the Quick Note. Select Photos to choose an existing photo, or select one of the other options to take a new photo, scan a document, or add a sketch.

Click the Share Note icon or the regular Share icon at the top to send the note to other people. Choose how you want to share it and with whom.

Save a Quick Note

After creating a Quick Note, simply close it, and it’s automatically saved in the Notes app. Open the Notes app and click the category for Quick Notes to view the notes you added this way. If you don’t see the different folders for your Notes, click the View menu and select Show Folders.

A note that doesn’t contain a title is saved with the name of New Note. To give it a specific name, open the note and type a title at the top.

Change Resume Options

If you’ve already created one Quick Note and then try to create another one using the keyboard shortcut or hot corner, the previous Quick Note appears with the presumption that you wish to add the new note to the previous one.

If you would rather create a fresh note every time, open the Notes app and select Preferences from the top Notes menu. Uncheck the box for Resume last Quick Note.

Manage Quick Notes

You can manage Quick Notes just as you can a regular note. Open Notes and select the Quick Notes folder. To delete a note, right-click on it and select Delete. Move a note from the Quick Notes folder to a new location by right-clicking the note and going to the Move to option. You can then select the new folder.

From the right-click menu, you can also pin a note for quicker access, duplicate it to create and edit a copy of the note, and tag it with a specific hashtag or category.

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