Google Keep: Organizing Notes

Lesson 3: Organizing Notes

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Organizing notes

With Google Keep's built-in features, you can organize your notes by color-coding, labeling, and pinning them. To add more details, you can also insert images and links. Each note can be customized and categorized the way you want.

Watch the video below to learn how to organize your notes.

For this lesson, we have some example notes already created. We are using an iPhone, so there may be some subtle differences if you are using an Android phone. If you want to learn how to create a note, checklist, or reminder, check out our Google Keep tutorial.

example notes in Google Keep

Adding an image

To make the note stand out, we'll add an image. First, tap the square plus icon.

square plus icon

Select Choose image from the menu. 

selecting Choose image

You may need to allow Google Keep to access your phone’s images. Next, select a photo.

selecting a photo

The photo will appear on the note.

photo added to the note

Changing the note color

To change the note color, tap the More icon.

More icon

Then, select the color that you want.

selecting a color

The note will immediately change to the color that you choose.

orange note

Pinning a note

Since this note is an important reminder, let’s pin this note to the top of the home screen. Tap the pushpin icon on the top toolbar.

pushpin icon

Tap the back arrow to return to the home screen.

back arrow button

Notice that the note has been pinned to the top.

pinned note

Recording voice to text

Instead of typing a note, you can use the voice-to-text function. First, tap the square plus icon.

square plus icon

Then, tap Recording. You may need to allow microphone access in your phone’s settings.

Recording

Now, what you say will show up on the screen, for example: chocolate chip cookies lemonade. Once you are done recording, it will take you back to the note.

Google's voice to text function

It’s important to note that what you say may not always be grammatically correct while using voice capture, but Google Keep also adds the voice recording to the note to help.

text and voice recording added to the note

If you don’t want the recording, tap the X followed by Delete.

option to delete the voice recording

The text from the recording will remain.

text remains

Labeling notes

To label a note:

Tap the More icon.

More icon

 Then, select Labels from the menu.

selecting Labels

Tap Enter label name.

entering a label name

In our example, we’ll type Groceries then the plus sign to create the label.

plus sign to create the label

Then, tap the back arrow. You’ll see the label show up at the bottom of the note.

returning to the note by tapping the back arrow

To label a note from the home screen:

Tap and hold the note for a second then let go.

tap and hold a note

The top toolbar appears. Tap the label icon.

label icon from the top toolbar

Since this note is a to-do list, let’s make a label called Important.

plus icon to create a label

When you are done, tap the back arrow to have the label added to the note.

back arrow to add the label

To see all of your labels:

From the home screen, tap the Main menu icon.

Main menu icon

You’ll see the labels listed in the menu pane. Simply, tap the label to see the notes in that category.

main menu pane labels

Adding a link

To add a link, you can copy the URL and simply paste it into the note.

paste the link

Whenever you need it, copy and paste it into your phone’s web browser.

copy and paste the link

Using the search feature

If you have many notes to look through on your screen, you can use the Search your notes feature.

Search your notes feature

The search provides some suggestions to help you find what you are looking for such as labels or colors.

labels and colors

You can also type some keywords. Once you’ve found the note, tap it to view it.

searching by keywords

The Google Keep app has many features to help you create and sort notes exactly the way you want.