Using Samsung Notes right: A guide to all the important features

I am a big fan of handwritten notes and still use paper notebooks for many areas of my life. Sometimes, though, you want or need to reuse your notes: make them searchable, edit them, send them or share them. There are many note-taking apps for that, some of them expensive. With Samsung Notes, Samsung has preinstalled a free app on all Galaxy devices. I am showing it on the Galaxy Tab S11.

Which devices Samsung Notes runs on

The app is available on all Galaxy devices, in my case for example on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 too. It can also be installed on a Windows laptop and runs on the Galaxy Book. It only gets really interesting with the S Pen, though. An older Galaxy Book, the Galaxy S Ultra devices of the last few years and the tablets have it. A tablet also has the big screen with more room for notes.

First check your version. My Tab S11 runs One UI 8.5. Go to the Galaxy Store, open Samsung Notes and update the app so that you have all the features shown.

Creating folders and notes

You can create individual notes, basically loose collections of sheets, or folders and subfolders. You give them a name and a folder color. I often write my scripts in Samsung Notes and have sorted them this way.

What annoys me: the order of the folders cannot be changed. You can only move a folder into another one, but not in between. Samsung could do better here.

Creating a note with a template and importing PDFs

A tap on the icon at the bottom right creates an empty note page. If you hold the button down, you have two options:

1. Choose a template: There are lined and grid paper, plus categories like academic, planners with checklists or calendars, diary, pet care log, movie review and recipes. You can also create your own template. You can choose portrait and landscape. You change the template later via the three dots and “Note style”, for the current page or for all pages. I like the Oxford style with the two red lines, which feels like a notebook.
2. Import a PDF: Documents like a user manual can be marked up and annotated. I especially like PDFs with links. I use a yearly planner I bought. In reading mode, the tabs jump to the month, the week or the day, and there I enter tasks. That gives you a big digital calendar for the whole year.

Creating a notebook cover

Via the three dots and “Note style”, you give a notebook a cover. There are templates, and Galaxy AI can suggest a cover. You also change the name of the notebook there.

S Pen features

In the toolbar, you choose pens, highlighters, eraser and selection tool as well as color and stroke width. I like to use the pen that feels like a ballpoint pen as my favorite.

• Erasing with a button: Hold down the button on the S Pen, and the app switches to the eraser automatically. Release the button and keep writing.
• Toolbar with a click: If you hold the pen over the paper and click once, a toolbar opens with the pens, the favorites and the Galaxy AI Note Assist. You can drag the toolbar to the edge. Then it is not in the way, grows larger and offers colors and more pens.
• Toolbar on the smartphone: With a Galaxy smartphone, you tap the phone icon at the top, and the toolbar moves to the smartphone. There you switch pens and colors with your hand while writing on the tablet. I do not know that from any other ecosystem or any other note-taking app.

Writing features

With Handwriting assist as smart guidance, a line appears for you to write on. The letters are aligned and the shape is corrected. That is especially interesting without lined or grid paper.

Handwriting recognition

There is a function where the handwriting is converted directly into a text field as you write. That works more or less well. The text field can be enlarged, shrunk, rotated and moved. I do not use it because while writing I constantly check whether it was recognized correctly. That annoys me.

I find this route better: first take notes by hand, with or without Handwriting assist. Then align the handwriting afterward or convert it to text. You can copy the text or insert it at the end of the note. The AI learns my handwriting as it goes, and that despite the fact that my handwriting is really terrible.

Galaxy AI

Via the Galaxy AI button, notes can be formatted, summarized and translated automatically. That also works with handwritten notes, because the AI recognizes the content. You can also reuse them for Creative Studio.

Inserting and editing elements

Digital notes can be changed: with the selection tool, I circle what I have written, move it, shrink it, cut it out, delete it or change the font. You cannot do that on paper.

Via the three dots and “Insert”, there is more:

• Voice recording: for example in a meeting or a lecture. It is saved in the document and can be listened to later.
• Photos, audio files: can be inserted, and photos can also be taken directly with the tablet.
• Sticky notes: You write them for a document and hide them. They are practical, for example for memorizing with a question and a hidden answer, or for notes on a talk.
• Tables: You choose rows and columns. That is new.

Reusing notes

Via the three dots and “Share”, you export as a Samsung Notes file, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, image file, text file or in the DEX format. You can also work on a note together with other Samsung Notes users, invite others to join or add a note to a shared notebook.

My favorite feature: the connection with Samsung Reminder. I keep a running to-do list. When I jot down something in a meeting that I have to finish by next week, I do not need to switch between media and retype it in the calendar. Via the three dots and “Add to”, I create a reminder in Reminder, enter a time, say today at 3 p.m., and the note is linked. From the reminder, I can jump straight into the document. Reminder is also preinstalled for free on all Galaxy devices. For me, it is the best to-do and reminder app there is.

Locking notes

Content that not everyone should read, you lock: via the three dots, choose “Lock” and set a password. To open it, the password is then requested.

Verdict

For me, Samsung Notes is the best app for handwritten notes. It is free, offers lots of features and connects with Samsung Reminder and the Galaxy smartphone. It brings the most with the S Pen.