Programs like Notion, OneNote, and Obsidian are full-fledged knowledge bases designed to structure tons of information. Using them to jot down ideas or store shopping lists quickly is impractical.
Google Keep is much better for the role of notes manager. Here’s a list of features an experienced essay writer makes from a cheap essay writing service.
1. Text recognition
Do you have text in your picture or photo? You can turn it into an editable snippet. This works well with images of documents and packages, screenshots – yes, anything.
Open the note with the image, click on it, and then click on the three-dot icon. Select the “Recognize text” option. You can then delete the picture if you don’t need it.
2. Copying notes to Google Docs
A very cool feature that allows you to efficiently collect ideas for articles, research papers, and other projects in Google Keep. It is available both in the web version of the service and in the mobile app.
Highlight a few entries, click the three-dot icon on the toolbar at the top and select “Copy to Google Docs. Click the “Open Document” button at the bottom, and you’ll see the file containing the contents of your notes.
The notes will be copied in the order in which they are highlighted in Google Keep from top to bottom. If this doesn’t suit you, shuffle them yourself by dragging and dropping them, and then mark the ones you want.
3. Working with notes in the sidebar of Google services
Keep allows you to work with notes in the sidebar of Google services
Google Keep is integrated with other Google services – Google Docs and Gmail. Press the yellow service icon on the sidebar, and you can take notes while working with your documents and reading your email.
And you can grab an entry from the sidebar and drag it right into the text you’re writing in Google Docs. In Gmail, however, for some reason, this feature is not available.
4. Quickly adding shortcuts.
You can add shortcuts when editing a note by using the corresponding icon. They are saved in the Google Keep sidebar, allowing you to sort your messages.
But another, faster way to tag notes is not so obvious. It only works on the mobile client. Start typing the word in the message with the # symbol, for example, #food #recipe #lifehacker, and Google Keep will offer to create the necessary shortcuts on the go.
5. Preview links
This feature is similar to the Preview in the same Telegram. When enabled, it turns a web link into a graphic block. If you have inserted an article URL into a post, it will show the title, a header image, and the beginning of the text. It makes it easy to figure out what information you’ll find by clicking the link.
Previews are helpful if you use Google Keep as an alternative to services like Pocket, saving articles there to read them later.
But it also clutters the list of entries with unnecessary captions and pictures. If you don’t like that the notes are rainbow-colored, click on the gear icon → “Settings” and uncheck the “Preview links” option.
6. Voice Recognition
Click the microphone icon in the mobile version of Google Keep and create a voice memo. You can speak the text, and it will be saved as an audio recording.
The best part is that the service transcribes your words, creating a hard copy of them. The recognition quality is very high.
It also makes Google Keep not a lousy tool for transcribing interviews. Play the audio recording with the microphone on, and the service saves you from having to transcribe the text by hand.
7. Drawing
Press the pen icon, and you can sketch a diagram or type handwritten text. And Google Keep can recognize your handwriting too and convert it to print characters.
If you click on a photo or a picture added to your note, you’ll be able to leave your letters and notes on it. Google Keep will even search for text in images.
8. Integration with Google Calendar
If you need a critical note, you’ve made to be reminded at the right time, click on the bell icon and specify the time and date of the reminder. Then it will appear in your Google Calendar.
And you can grab the note with your mouse in the web version or with your finger in the mobile calendar app and drag and drop it to a convenient day and time as needed.
To hide Google Keep notes from the schedule, in the “My calendars” section, uncheck the “Reminders” checkbox. There you can also choose what color to display such entries.
9. Creating reminders related to geolocation
A remarkable feature that is present in the mobile client Google Keep. It allows you, for example, to make a shopping list that will appear when you pass by a store.
Click on the bell icon and then “Where can I remind you? Type the name of the place you want in the search box and select it. The next time you’re near it, Google Keep will beep.
10. Creating nested lists
Making a list in Google Keep is easy – click on the check mark icon when creating a note. But if you wrote the text and then decided to turn it into a list – click on the three-dot icon on the toolbar and select “As a list.”
But creating nested lists is a little unobvious and is only available in the browser. You have to grab the item by the edge to the left of the checkbox and pull it to the right. This is how you can organize and make long shopping lists neater.
If you mark an item on such a list as done, the same thing will automatically happen to its sub-items.
