Type on a full page

If movable text boxes don't suit you well as an intensive typist, you can enter text on the full page to create typed documents, quickly and conveniently! This is especially handy if you want to quickly type up some notes in a long paragraph, create bullet points, or paste textual content from the Internet.

Get Typing!

1. Add a new page or create a new document.
2. Tap the Typing icon on the Nav Bar to bring up the Typing Toolbar.
3. Tap on the page to begin typing.

Style and Format a block of text

1. Position the cursor anywhere within a block of text or highlight the text you would like to make a change to. 
2. Choose the Style & Formatting menu, on either the toolbar or the virtual keyboard, and choose a pre-designed style.
   

Improve your typed notes

See AI Typing [Experimental Feature]

Create a list as you type

You can turn some lines into a list by selecting them and choosing a list style from the Style & Formatting popover. Alternatively, you can create a list as you type it:

• To create a bulleted list, type a hyphen, a space, then the first list item, e.g. "- List item". Your hyphen will automatically become a bullet point and each new line you type will continue to be bulleted. To end your list, press Enter/Return to start a new bullet line, then press it again to cancel. 
• To create a numbered list, type a number, a period and a space, then the first list item, e.g. "1. List item". Each new line you create will automatically be numbered. To end your list, press Enter/Return to start a new line as a numbered list, then press it again to cancel.

• To create an indented list:

  • While editing an item of a bulleted or numbered list, tap the Increase Indent icon on the virtual keyboard, or press the Tab key on the hardware keyboard, to create a nested list. You can create up to 7 nested lists:
    
    
    

  • To un-indent a list, tap the Decrease Indent icon next to the Increase Indent icon on the virtual keyboard, or press Shift-Tab on the hardware keyboard.

Align a block of text

1. Position the cursor anywhere within a block of text or highlight the text you would like to make a change to. 
2. Tap the Paragraph icon and choose an alignment direction:
   

Custom formatting options 

1. Select the text you want to make changes to by tapping to highlight. (Tip: Triple-tap to select an entire block.)
2. You can then do the following:
   • Change its color: Tap the Color icon and choose a color from either the Presets or Custom tab:
     
   • Change font weight or style: Select an option from the B I U menu items located in the Toolbar or virtual keyboard. You can also access these options through the pop-up menu when selecting text by choosing Format.
     
     
     
     

Pro Tip: You can select multiple blocks of text to style, justify, or format them all.

Questions & Answers

Why Full-page Typing?

Though Goodnotes is widely known the world over as a handwriting app, we also want to provide a good typing experience for those who prefer to type instead of writing notes.

With some of our predefined presets such as headings and paragraphs, you can instantly switch between different styles and create page-long content without disrupting your flow.

Which templates work best?

Some Templates will work better with typing as the Goodnotes will try to keep your sentences on the lines. With unruled templates that include other types of background patterns, your sentences may not sit neatly in line with the page background. We recommend using Templates from the Writing Papers section when creating a new document or adding a new page. 

How do I change the font or font size?

For full page typing, we do not support different font changes and font size is only changeable within the preset Style & Formatting options. Helvetica is the only font available, for cross-platform compatibility.

If you wish to be creative with your content, you can still use the Text tool which allows for selecting the font and font size in the Toolbar.

Can I export typed notes to Microsoft Word or Plain Text (.txt) format?

Unfortunately not. You can export them as PDF, GoodNotes or JPG format. Alternatively, you can copy the text and paste it into another app if needed. 

Can a document with pages of typed notes be shared for collaboration?

Absolutely. Changes to those pages will be visible to every participant. See also: Share a document for collaboration

What are some other limitations of this feature?

• When the current page is full, you'll be asked to manually add a new page and continue typing on it:
  

• Pages aren't linked to one another as in a word processor, which means if you add or remove text on one page, the text on other pages won't be reflowed to accommodate the change.
• Nested lists aren't supported.

We hope to make this feature more capable as we continue to improve it.