How to use Smart Annotations in Pages on iPhone and iPad

Use Smart Annotations Pages iPhone

Annotating documents in a digital form can be tricky. In many cases, when you make edits to the page, your markups become orphaned and you have to move them back. To eliminate this problem, Apple introduced Smart Annotations for Pages in iOS 11.3.

What’s great about Smart Annotations is that your markups stay with your text. And you can use either your Apple Pencil or your finger to mark up documents on your iPhone or iPad.

If you haven’t tried out this feature yet, our tutorial shows you how to use Smart Annotations in Pages on iOS.

Show Smart Annotations on iOS

In order to work with your Smart Annotations in Pages, you need to make sure they aren’t hidden.

1) Open a document in Pages on your iPhone or iPad.

2) Tap the More button (three-dot icon) at the top.

3) Select Smart Annotation and pick Show Smart Annotations.

4) Tap Done.

Smart Annotations Pages iPhone

Remember, you can head back to this area later if you want to hide, edit, or erase your markups.

Add annotations

Using the Smart Annotations is just like the Markup tool you’ve probably used or seen, like for attachments in the Mail app.

1) Tap the More button and pick Smart Annotations.

2) You’ll then be on the markup screen with tools at the bottom including a highlighter, pen, pencil, marker, and eraser. You can also use the lasso tool to select multiple items at once.

3) Tap Done when you finish annotating your document.

Mark Up Pages iPhone

If you decide to add more annotations or change those you have, tap the More button > Smart Annotations > Edit Smart Annotations.

Edit Annotations Pages iPhone

Viewing Smart Annotations on Mac

If you open a document in Pages on your Mac that you marked up on your iPhone or iPad, you can see those Smart Annotations.

Click View > Show Smart Annotations from the menu bar or View > Hide Smart Annotations to tuck them away.

Hide Smart Annotations Pages Mac

You can also delete a markup on Mac by selecting one and hitting your Delete key. And if you add more text to the page, those annotations will move with the original text, just like on iOS.

Wrapping it up

Smart Annotations make marking up your Pages documents on iOS easy. You don’t have to worry about abandoned markups as you edit your document.

Have you checked out the Smart Annotations feature on your iPhone or iPad yet? If so, do you have any tips to share for using it? You can comment below or hit us up on Twitter.