A Step by Step Guide On Everything Teachers Need to Know about Google Keep

November 6, 2015
Google Keep is an excellent note taking and task management tool for teachers. It lets you record your notes in different formats (text, pictures and audio) and access them across different devices. Since its release awhile ago, several powerful features have been added to Google Keep making it a potent rival to Evernote. The purpose of our post today is to provide you with a step by step guide to walk you through the different features, tips and things you can do with Google Keep. More specifically, you will get to learn how to:

Create a text, photo and audio note
Create a list and add items to it
Customize the settings of your notes and lists
Share and unshare your notes
Organize your notes with labels
Copy your notes to Google Docs
Archive or remove your notes and lists
Set reminders for your notes

Please note that this guide is for using Google Keep on the web, the Android and iOS version of Keep has slightly different settings and more extra functionalities (e.g audio notes and drawings) which you can you can learn more about from this page.

1- Create a text note

To create a text note on Google Keep click on the ‘Add note’ bar and type in your text. Give your note a title and click ‘Done’ to save it.

2- Create a photo note

To create a photo note on Google Keep use the ‘Add note’ bar and click on the Add Image icon. Select an image from your computer and give your note a title and add some text if you want then click ‘Done' to save it. Similarly, you can add photos to existing notes by using the Image Icon.To remove a photo click on the trash icon in the bottom right corner of the photo.

3- Create an audio note

This option is only available for Keep on Android and iOS. The web version does’t support it. Here is how to create an audio note on your iPad:

'Open the Keep app .
At the bottom right, touch the new recording icon .
Speak your note.
When you're done, stop speaking. You'll see your note and the audio file attached below it.
To add a title, touch Title.
To edit the spoken text, touch the text above the audio file.
To save your note, touch the back arrow at the top left .
To remove the recording, touch the Remove icon .'

4- Create a list

To create a list, head over to ‘Add note’ bar and click on ’New list’ icon. Type in your list item. If you want to add more items to the list click on ‘List item’. Click Done to save your list.

5- Change colour of a note or a list

To change the colour of your notes and lists, open a note or list or just hover your mouse over it and click on Change color icon. Choose from the colours there and click Done to save it.

6- Create Google Docs from Keep notes

Google Keep allows you to easily copy your notes to your Doc account where you can expand, edit and polish them the way you want. To copy a note into a Google Doc,

'Hover over the note you want to add and click the More icon .
Select Copy to Google Doc.

To copy multiple notes into a Google Doc:

'Hover over each note you want to add.
For each note, click the check mark .
In the gray action bar at the top, click the More icon .
Select Copy to Google Doc.
To the bottom, a prompt will appear when the Google Doc is ready. To open the Doc, click Open Doc.'

7- Organize notes with labels
labels are an easy way for you to organize your notes and to quickly find them later on. You can aggregate multiple notes under the same label and have them all accessible from one single place. To add a label to a note, hover over your note, click on the More icon and select ‘Add label’.

8- Archive notes and lists
Archiving allows you to move your notes and lists from the main screen of your Keep into archive where you can find them later. To archive a note, select it then click on the Archive icon. To see archived notes, click on the menu icon archive.

9- Delete notes and lists
You can temporarily delete a note or list but still access it in Trash section. From there you can either retrieve it back or delete it permanently by selecting ‘Delete forever’. To delete a note or list, click or hover over it and click on the More icon and select Delete note.

10- Search for notes and lists
Google Keep has a sophisticated search functionality that allows you to easily search for notes and lists and filter your results using criteria such as list, audio, image, reminder, share or color. You can even search for printed text in photos and images by simply typing the words in the image. To search for a note or list, click on the search bar at the top of the screen and type in your query.

To filter your search results click on the ’Search options’ button.

11- Share a note or list
You can share notes and lists with your friends via email and collaborate in real time. People you share your notes with will be able to edit your notes. Alternatively, you can revoke access to your notes at anytime by changing the sharing setting. To share a note, click or hover over it and click on the share icon as shown below. Type in the email addresses and click Save. To unshare a note:

'Open a note.
Select the icons of any people you want to unshare with, or select the Share icon .
Select the Remove icon .
Select Save.'

12- Set reminders for your notes
Google Keep allows you to add both time and place reminders to your notes so you can easily remember important dates and locations. To add reminders to your notes, click or hover over a note and select ‘Remind me’ icon . Choose from the options available there.