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Change preferences in Notes on Mac
In the Notes app on your Mac, use Notes preferences to set default options for using Notes and to set, change, or reset the password for locked notes.
To change these preferences, choose Notes > Preferences.
Option | Description | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sort notes by | Choose the default sort order for your notes. Important: Pinned notes always appear at the top of the notes list. See Sort and pin notes. | ||||||||||
New notes start with | Choose the default paragraph style used at the beginning of new notes. See Write and format notes. | ||||||||||
Default account | Choose the account used when you ask Siri to create a new note. Usually, this is your iCloud account. See Add or remove accounts in Notes. | ||||||||||
Automatically sort checked items | Select to automatically move checklist items to the bottom of the list as they’re checked (and subsequently move unchecked items to the top of the list). See Add or change a checklist. | ||||||||||
Enable the On My Mac account | Select to store notes on your computer using the On My Mac account. | ||||||||||
Default text size | Use the slider to set the preferred text size in notes. | ||||||||||
Use dark backgrounds for note content | Select to keep the background of notes dark when you’re using Dark Mode. (Appears only when you’ve selected the dark appearance in the General pane of System Preferences.) See Use a light or dark appearance on your Mac. | ||||||||||
Locked notes | Select the account (if you have more than one), then click Set Password to create a password to lock or unlock any note. If you already set a password, click Change Password or Reset Password. See Lock your notes. Important: It’s highly recommended that you add a hint. If you forget your password and you can’t unlock your notes with Touch ID on your Magic Keyboard or with your Apple Watch, you won’t be able to view your locked notes. Apple can’t help you regain access to those locked notes. You can create a new password that lets you password protect any notes that you want to lock going forward. See the Apple Support article Lock notes on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. | ||||||||||
Use Touch ID | If your Mac or Magic Keyboard has Touch ID, select the account (if you have more than one), then select this option to be able to use your fingerprint to unlock your notes. |