A few weeks ago, we published a Mac Power Users episode comparing the current status of notetaking applications. During the show, I went on at some length about the good and bad points with Apple’s notes application. One of my issues was the inability to nest folders. I was wrong about that. You can nest folders in Apple Notes on the Mac and then it will propagate down to iOS. It’s kind of weird that you have to do it on the Mac first but that’s where things stand at this point. (Thanks Ken Haynes for pointing this out.)

Once you know of the existence of this feature, it’s not difficult to implement. Open Apple Notes on your Mac and simply drag an existing folder on top of another. That adds a disclosure triangle to the folder and placed the moved folder inside the destination folder. Then open up the Apple Notes application on your iPhone or iPad and give it a second to synchronize and you’re good to go.

This does expose a further issue with Apple Notes. Despite the fact that the app was rebuilt just last year, the are still a lot of subtle differences between the Mac and iOS versions. I hope with the next iteration of the Mac OS and iOS 10, the applications get closer and add a few of the features I mentioned in the show, like the ability to sort alphabetically and, for the love of all that is holy, a better way to set the font size on the Mac.

Apple Notes on Mac After Nesting Folders

Apple Notes on iPhone with Nested Folders