Keep

Overview

Keep is the notepad of the Google world. It is a centralized place to store miscellaneous items, reminders and lists and to have them synchronized across all devices. Keep is easy to use and learn. Keep notes can be integrated easily with Google Slides and Google Docs.

Keep can be accessed both through a web interface as well as through a mobile device using an app. This tutorial describes Keep accessed through the web interface.

Startup Page

The splash page for Keep has a few sections. On the left side of the screen is the Keep sidebar where all of the functions of Keep can be easily accessed. The Keep sidebar will be covered in greater detail below. The main part of the screen is where all of the saved notes are stored (unless they have been archived). Slightly above that is the note interface where users can create new notes. Finally, there is the standard Google Menu/Tool bar at the very top of the page. From left to right, the three horizontal lines shows/hides the sidebar. There is a search bar that is used to easily locate items based on a key word or phrase. Further along is the refresh icon that syncs new notes that may have been created in the same account but on a different device. The icon next to it toggles between list and grid view. Next to that is the Google waffle, an easy way to launch other Google apps. The bell icon shows notifications that may have been generated by alarms, emails, reminders, etc.

Create a Note

Create a new note, reminder, list, etc by typing into the white area at the top of the screen that says Take a note ... The three icons on the right side of the white bar are for creating a list, creating a note with an image and creating a note with a drawing. If you create a note in the wrong format, don't fret. It is very easy to convert from a note to a list, adding an image to a note, etc. To add items to a note, simply type in the item and hit return/enter. This is true for lists as well. To delete items, highlight them and click delete. To delete items on a list, click the 'X' to the right of the item. Items in lists can be easily reorganized by dragging the box to the left of the item up or down. When you are finished with the note, click the Done button on the bottom right hand corner of the note. Notes can be pinned by clicking the icon in the top right hand corner keeping the notes in the top of the screen.

Note Options

As basic as Keep is, there are a few enhancements/options that can be added. These lie on the bottom of the individual note and are as follows:

• Add reminder: set a reminder for a specific time and date. Notes with reminders can be found by clicking on Reminder in the sidebar.
• Add collaborator: share the note with one or more people so that they can add to the note
• Change colour of the note: distinguish between notes by giving each note a different colour
• Add image: upload a picture from your computer
• Archive the note: reduce the clutter on the home screen without deleting notes. Archived notes can be found by clicking on Archive in the sidebar
• More options: additional options such as deleting the note, adding a label, adding a drawing, make a copy of the note, showing checkboxes (turning the note into a list) or copying to Google Docs can be accessed by clicking the vertical ellipses. In a list note, there will be an option to delete checkboxes converting it to a regular note. Also, if items have already been checked off the list, there is an option to delete checked items.

Labels

Labels are additional ways to identify notes by category (in addition to colour coding). Create labels by selecting "+ Create new label" on the sidebar. Enter new labels or delete unwanted labels. Once labels have been created, individual notes can be tagged with those created labels.