Customizing your note paper

Version 2.6 includes an optional feature that allows notes to be created on any type of paper: any background, any colour, any texture. Create notes on paper with your letterhead, or on paper that has your logo as a watermark, or on paper that’s actually a simple form.

In order to use this feature the feature must first be enabled in the Mental Note Paper settings: tap settings (the gear icon) from the list of notes screen, then Paper, and Customize.

Once the feature has been enabled, customizing the paper from settings will affect all notes (e.g. do this if you want a letterhead on all notes). Enabling the feature also adds a new toolbar button to the Note toolbar: Change Paper. Change Paper allows customizing the paper for each note (e.g. removing a letterhead for a specific note).

Paper customization involves selecting an image from your Photo Library and adjusting some basic settings. Any image may be used. (For advanced image creation settings, see here.)

To create all notes on the same type of paper (e.g. a letterhead on all notes):

- Tap the Settings toolbar button
- Tap Paper
- Tap Custom

To change the type of paper for a specific note:

- Open the note
- Tap the Note toolbar button
- Tap the Change Paper toolbar button

Letterheads, watermarks, paper colours/textures, and forms are just a few examples of how this feature can be used. We look forward to hearing ideas from you – please share with us how you use this feature. Want to share a custom paper type that you’ve created with all Mental Note users? Send us an email at support@zymbiotic.com.

Mental Note 2.6: zoom zoom

Our continuing goal with Mental Note is to make it your digital notepad. Using Mental Note should be like using a (digital) sheet of paper. Version 2.6 offers some important new features that provide both the function and the feel of interacting with a digital note page.

Zoom: With this release we’ve added pinch-zoom of the entire note page. This means sketching is more fun than ever because more sketches can fit on a single page. You can move around the zoomed page while sketching (using a pinch-push gesture), sketches can be very detailed, and the result just looks way smoother – you’ll see your own handwriting on your notes.

Mental Note 2.6
More Zoom: This version of Mental Note for iPad offers the ability to zoom and rotate photos. This means smaller notes and more space to handwrite in the margins. Off-centre rotations give the page a hand-made feel.

Efficiency & Customization: Get more done with Mental Note by using custom paper types, such as pre-made forms or letterheads. This optional feature allows any image to be embedded into the pages of your notebook. Type or handwrite purchase orders, sketch music compositions, create notes on custom letterheads or watermarks. This is an optional feature that not everyone may require. More information about this feature can be found here.

We’ve also added a couple new fonts, a way to link from one note to another, a handy Dropbox upload status indicator, and many other enhancements and fixes.

Mental Note 2.6 is available on the App Store.

Linking notes together

Use this feature to jump directly to another note – either from within a note, or from a different application. The feature is called “Copy note link“, and is supported in version 2.6 on both Mental Note and Mental Note for iPad.

Enable this feature in Settings, under Share Options. The Copy note link option then appears when you tap the Export / Share button on the Note toolbar (middle button to open Note toolbar, then left most button).

When Copy note link is selected, the currently open note’s special URL is copied to the clipboard.

How do you use this special URL? Simply paste it into almost any text field* on your device, and then tap it. (* – Not all text fields are “URL-clickable”; you may have to experiment!)


Here’s an example of creating a link from one application (the Contacts app) to a specific Mental Note:


Let’s say you’ve made a Mental Note about some points to discuss with a particular contact. When the person calls or emails you next, you’d like to be able to quickly jump to the notes you made for discussion. Essentially you’d like to associate the Mental Note with the contact. Here’s how you’d do it:

1. Create the note in Mental Note.
2. Copy note link (tap the Note toolbar button, then the Export / Share toolbar button).
3. Launch the Contacts app.
4. Edit your contact, tap in a new URL field (usually in the 4th group of contact settings after phone number, email, and ringtone), and Paste. Label this URL with a custom label, e.g. “Notes”. Save the changes by tapping Done.

Now you’ll see the special Mental Note link appear in your custom URL field labelled “Notes”.

Tap the “Notes” link, and Mental Note will immediately open to the linked note, (in this example, the User Guide):

Here’s another example. This example demonstrates creating a link from one Mental Note to another.

Let’s say you’d like to develop a set of interconnected notes, such as a set of field guide notes used to identify species of trees or insects. Create the note you want to link to, use Copy note link, then Paste into the other note.

Tapping the link immediately opens the linked note. Using this feature you can connect together a number of related notes.

We’d love to hear how you’re making use of note links, or any other feature of Mental Note. Send us an email at support@zymbiotic.com.

(Special thanks to one of our customers – Lee M. – for suggesting using note links as a way to create a field guide.)