You will want to select existing content on the page to edit or move it, among other things. There are two main ways to select objects.
Use the Lasso tool
The Lasso Tool is one of the most flexible and powerful tools in GoodNotes. It allows you to select objects created in GoodNotes and do all sorts of things on them, such as:
- moving
- Cut/Copy & Paste
- resizing & rotating
- converting handwriting to text
- taking a screenshot of anything on the page
- changing text color
- deleting
- dragging and dropping
- adding an Element
Select content
With the Lasso Tool, you can select or "lasso" an area on a page by circling it. To select objects created in GoodNotes (handwriting & highlighting, text boxes, images), draw a loop that encloses or simply touches them. (If the loop is larger than intended, it might select unintended objects nearby, too.)
Use the contextual menu
To perform more actions on the selection, tap on it to bring up the contextual menu.
| Action | Effect |
| Take Screenshot | Takes a rectangular screenshot of the selected area. This screenshot can then be shared. |
| Resize | Lets you resize or rotate the selection. |
| Color | Lets you change the color of handwriting, highlighting, or typed text. |
| Convert | Converts your handwriting to typed text, which can then be shared or copied to paste it back to the page as a text box. |
| Cut/Copy | Cuts/Copies the selection. You can then long-press on the page with your finger and choose Paste. |
| Delete |
Deletes the selection |
| Add Element |
Lets you save content for efficient reuse across Notebooks. See Elements Tool: Enrich and reuse your notes |
Select a particular type of objects
By default, the tool selects every kind of object that you created on the page, but in case you want to select a particular type, tap the tool twice and enable only the relevant option. For example, if you want to select handwriting on an image, excluding the image itself, make sure the "Handwriting" option is enabled and "Images" disabled.
Use Universal Object Selection (experimental)
You can conveniently select whole objects, namely images and text boxes, without using the Lasso tool to circle them. This allows seamlessly manipulating different types of content without constantly switching to the Lasso tool and back to an editing tool. For example, if you're handwriting some notes and an existing text box or image gets in the way, you can easily select the object with a single finger tap on it while the Pen tool is still active. Then you can reposition the selected object and resume writing your notes. In fact, this feature works when you're using any editing tool!
Turn off Universal Object Selection
While in the document view, open the More menu (...) in the top-right corner > Document Editing, then disable "Image and text box".