When OS X Mountain Lion was released earlier this month, Apple brought many of the useful applications and features from iOS to the Mac. One of these apps includes Notes, a simple note taking application that has been built into iOS since the original iPhone OS. And while this application may seem dead simple to some, it’s extremely useful for someone like me who needs to jot down random notes when doing research and planning for articles.
And since I use multiple iOS and Mac devices, I need an application that syncs my notes over iCloud, so I decided to stick with the standard Notes app instead of switching to another app like Enso Writer.
The user interface in Notes for Mac is pretty basic and essentially the same as Notes for iPad. It features the same yellow notepad where you can type your notes and a sidebar where you can view your past notes. To add a new note, click on the plus button which is located towards the bottom lefthand corner of the screen. You can also email or send your notes in an iMessage by clicking on the Export button which is located towards the center of the window.
Since your notes are synced automatically between devices, how fast is the syncing? Extremely fast. In my testing I’ve found notes to sync instantly between my iOS and Mac devices via iCloud. However, your milage may vary when using Google, Yahoo or another email service which integrates with iOS to sync notes. If you have multiple accounts on your Mac that sync notes, click on the expand button which is located under your list of notes to view a list of accounts.
And that concludes this Switching To Mac overview. Check back soon for more OS X Mountain Lion tips, tricks and more!
