New notes, scans, photos and sharing
A phone is where things turn up: a receipt, a price on a shelf, a page someone sent you. This page covers every way into Varlig on iPhone and iPad, from a new note to a scanned letter, and the text Varlig reads from pictures so you can find them again.
Start a new note
Tap New Note, the square-and-pencil button in a note list, or on iPhone in the library’s home. The note opens with a title field and room to write, and above the keyboard a row of keys for sums: Calc block starts a calculation block, and the operator keys save a trip to the symbols. Number keypad switches the keyboard to numbers. Tap Save when you’re done.
Touch and hold New Note for New from Template…, Today’s Note, This Week’s Note or Clip Web Page…. To clip a page, enter its address, tap Preview, review the text and images, then Save. The new note keeps its source link and joins the Clippings Inbox. Refresh from Source… in a clipped note’s menu previews an update before you apply it.
Add photos, scans, sketches and files
While editing, Add Photo or Sketch in the toolbar, or the paperclip, Attach, on the formatting bar, adds something to the note where the cursor is:
| Command | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Choose Photo | A picture from your photo library. Varlig sees only the photos you pick. |
| Take Photo | A picture from the camera. |
| Scan Document | Pages from the document camera, as one PDF. |
| Sketch | A drawing, made with Apple Pencil or a finger. |
| Record Audio… | A recording, with markers, up to 100 MB. See Recordings. |
| Attach File… | Any file from the Files app, up to 100 MB. |
Pictures show where the note links them, and every attachment is listed under the note with its size. Attachments sync with the note, so a photo taken on your phone is in the note on your Mac.
Touch and hold an attachment or use its full-screen viewer’s menu for Rename…, Replace, Remove… or Share…. Changes apply to the note and sync to your other devices. Removing an attachment asks first; annotating a PDF or picture still needs the Mac.
Scan a document
Scan Document opens the document camera. Photograph each page, and Varlig saves them as one PDF, made small enough to sync quickly, and adds it to the note. It then reads the words on the pages and offers them in a sheet: Insert puts them below the scan as plain text, and Cancel keeps just the PDF.
New Note has Scan Document too. The scan waits in the form while Varlig reads it: turn on Insert Text Below the Scan to put its words in the note, or Preview Text to see them first. A scan saved without a title names the note after itself.
Scanning needs a camera, so Scan Document is dimmed on a device without one. If you haven’t allowed Varlig to use the camera, it offers Open Settings.
Sketch
Sketch opens a canvas with the drawing tools of Notes, pressure and palm rejection included. The sketch is saved in the Mac’s own sketch format, so you can go on editing it on your Mac, and a sketch made on the Mac can be edited here: open it full screen and tap Edit.
Search the words in pictures and PDFs
Pictures, scans and PDFs you add on iPhone or iPad are read in the background, and their words become searchable, on this device and, once they sync, on your Mac. A search for receipt finds the photo of the receipt, and the @ocr filter finds notes whose attachments have text. See Find text in pictures and PDFs.
The files of password-protected notes are never read for search on iPhone or iPad.
Extract text from a picture or PDF
To put an attachment’s words into the note itself, touch and hold the picture or the attachment’s row, or open it full screen and use its menu, and choose Extract Text…. Varlig reads the text — a PDF’s own text where it has some, the picture elsewhere — and shows it before anything changes. Lines it wasn’t sure about are highlighted and end in (?). Insert adds the text below the attachment; Copy Text copies it instead. See Put the text in the note.
Share into Varlig from other apps
Varlig is in the share sheet of every app. Share a web page from Safari, a link, some text, or up to 20 pictures and files, and Varlig’s sheet shows what’s coming in — a picture of each attachment, its name and size — with a field for a comment.
Save To chooses New Note or a recently edited note. A web page shared to a new note first keeps its title, source link, selected text, your comment and #webclips. When Varlig opens, the phone downloads the page into that note; if the download fails, the link stays and you can retry. The note waits in the Clippings Inbox until marked processed. Refresh from Source… works on the phone too. See Web clips and highlights.
Varlig files what you shared the next time it opens, or straight away if it’s open beside the app you shared from. If the note you chose is locked, in the Trash or read-only, the item waits and Varlig asks what to do: Show Note, Save as New Note or Later.
The list of recent notes shows titles only, never those of protected notes, and nothing while Varlig is locked. It’s on to begin with; turn it off with Offer Recent Notes When Sharing in Settings › Privacy.