Pro Tip: Convert an iMessage to an Apple Notes checklist

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checklist shopping cart
Checklists can make your shopping trip a lot easier.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bugDoes your husband/wife/boss/presumptuous, spoiled teenage kid send you lists via iMessage or SMS? Do you then spend the whole day flipping to the Messages app and scanning it to see which tasks you’ve done (or groceries you’ve dropped in your cart), and trying to work out what’s still left to do? Then you need to get that list out of the Messages app, and into the Notes app, turning it onto a checklist along the way. And don’t worry. This is so quick and easy, you can do it in a few seconds.

Convert an iMessage to a Notes checklist

imessage to checklist
Quickly turn shopping iMessage lists into actionable checklists.
Photo: Cult of Mac

If you use a todo app, then it’s possible you can just share a paragraph from iMessage, and the text will be turned into a nice checkable to-do list for you. If not, the quickest, and easiest, way is to use the built-in Notes app. Here’s how to do it.

  1. Copy the text of the iMessage by long-pressing and tapping “Copy.”
  2. Launch Notes app and create a new note.
  3. Paste the copied text.
  4. Select all the pasted text, and tap the Checklist button.

And that’s it. You now have a checklist in the Notes app, ready to be used. If you find yourself doing this more often than you like, then you should take the time to train whoever keeps sending you lists via iMessage to use Shared Reminders instead.

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