Opening your planner in Goodnotes

Let’s get you going with your digital planner! :)

1

First, download the PDF files from Etsy. But I’m assuming you’ve already done that, since you’re here. :) Put that file in a place where you can easily access it from your iPad’s Files app, such as in your iCloud Drive account.

2

Open Goodnotes on your iPad. Tap the plus button at the top left of the home Documents screen to add a new notebook. From the dropdown, choose Import. From within the pop-up window that appears, navigate to where you put the planner PDF file, tap it to select it, and then tap Open at the top right corner of that pop-up window.

Getting around your planner

How to navigate like a pro!

FIRST THINGS FIRST:

To use the navigation links throughout the planner, you need to be in Read-Only mode in Goodnotes (or the equivalent in other apps). If you can see the pen, eraser, etc tools across the top, you are in editing mode and the navigation links won’t work.

To exit editing mode and enter Read-Only mode, tap the struck-out-pen icon in the top navy blue bar, just to the left of the three-dots icon in the top right corner.

To return to editing mode so you can write in your planner, tap the same icon (to the left of the three-dots icon in the top right corder of Goodnotes).

the index

When you first open your planner, you will be on the cover page, Swipe left, and you will see a page of basic information. Swipe left again, and you will be on the Index page. All items are linked on that page so you can access all areas of the planner.

Every other page of the planner (other than the cover, instructions, and index) has a navigation menu on the right-hand side with a small house icon in the top right corner; that house icon will bring you back to the index. 

Go to a specific month

From the index page, tap the month abbreviation to go to that month:

From the Year-at-a-glance page, each month is linked to the monthly page:

From any page, use the navigation on the right-side menu:

Go to a specific week

You can navigate to a specific week:

– From the month page: The weeks are listed on the left of the calendar grid
– From each daily page, use the “this week” quick link at the top of the page

To return to the month, tap the at-a-glance month on the weekly page or use the menu on the right-hand side.

Go to a specific Day

You can navigate to a specific day:

– From the month page: Each square in the month’s grid is linked to that day’s page
– From each weekly page, the entire day’s rectangle is linked to that day’s page

To return to the week or month, use the quick links at the top of the daily page.

Working with several days or weeks at a time

All of the daily pages are together in the PDF as are all of the weeks. This means that once you are on a day or week page, you can swipe left or right to keep working with daily or weekly pages without needing to jump back to a different month. 

How to use the extra pages / worksheets / templates / blank pages

Your planner comes with a bunch of extra pages – worksheets/templates & blank pages. You can leave them where they are & use them that way, or you can incorporate them into your planner to customize it to your liking.

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First, please note: The worksheets are made to be used over and over, so you want to be sure to DUPLICATE one BEFORE you use it (so you can use it more than once).

To duplicate any page:

  1. Tap the four-squares icon in the top left of Goodnotes, to show all the pages in your PDF.
  2. Scroll down until you find the page you want to duplicate.
  3. Tap the tiny down arrow to the right of that page’s page number, and choose “Duplicate” from the menu that pops up.

2

Once you duplicate a page, you could just leave it where it is & use it there. However…it will get cumbersome. to navigate to it when you want to use it! :) So here is how to put it in a spot you can more easily access.

  1. Tap the four-squares icon in Goodnotes to show all the pages of the PDF, and scroll to the page you duplicated.
  2. To move that page to another place in the PDF, tap and hold the page, then drag it to where you would like it to be.

Using each month’s “Extras” quick link: Each month’s calendar page has a linked button at the top of the month page that says, “Extras:” If you tap it, or if you simply swipe left from the month calendar through the month’s overview pages, you will see the “Extras” placeholder page (and the next month’s starting page) in a slightly darker color. This is to give you a visual aid when rearranging pages, when duplicating & organizing, etc. When you drag duplicated pages around, you can drag them to be after one of the darker Extras placeholder pages – that way you can then tap the Extras quick link on the month’s calendar page and go right to your chosen worksheets for that month. 

How to use Digital Stickers in your Planner

What are digital stickers? They’re transparent-background .png files that are used to decorate digital planners. I have some for sale in my shop (here & on Etsy), and there are millions of them for sale & for free all over.

I’m not saying they’re addicting, but I’m not not saying that, either… ;)

STEP 1: PUT THE STICKERS IN A HANDY SPOT & MAKE THEM EASY TO ACCESS

Decide where you’ll keep all your digital stickers for easy access: the two easy ones to use are either a Dropbox account or your iCloud account. Go ahead & put your digital stickers in there so they’re ready to use (you’ll see why I recommend this in a moment).

On your iPad, go to the main screen, find your Files app, and tap and hold the Files app icon and drag it down to your iPad’s bottom launcher bar.

STEP 2: OPEN GOODNOTES AND Your Planner

Navigate to the page you want to add stickers onto.

STEP 3: ADD STICKERS (3 methods)

ADD STICKERS METHOD 1: Click the image icon at the top of the screen, and when the add image window opens, navigate to where you have your stickers waiting (either in your Dropbox account or your iCloud folder). Click a sticker to use, and GoodNotes will import it into the notebook.

ADD STICKERS METHOD 2: With your notebook open, take your finger and slightly drag up from the bottom of the screen to display the launcher bar…tap and hold the Files app icon, and drag it up and to the right (or left) of the screen to create the split-screen effect (I then resize that 2nd screen to be narrower). Navigate in the Files app to where you have your stickers…now all you need to do is tap, hold, and drag each sticker onto your notebook! :) This is my preferred method for bringing in many stickers at once…it’s just faster and easier than importing them one at a time via the button.

ADD STICKERS METHOD 3: Sticker books: If you purchase digital stickers that come with a Goodnotes sticker book, you can import that file into Goodnotes…and you have a new notebook with *all* the stickers already placed on the pages! Then all you have to do is use the lasso tool to select a sticker, copy it, then go back to your planner and paste it in. Sticker books are great because they let you see all the stickers you have in that set, and it’s easy to copy & paste them wherever you want them.

STEP 4: MOVE & RESIZE & PLAY!

Once you’ve got stickers on a page…they’re probably not the correct size. Tap each one one at a time to select it, then look for the little round icon in the bottom right of the sticker…use that to resize it and rotate it. You can then tap and hold the middle of the sticker to move it around the page. (Note: This is where using an Apple pencil really comes in handy!)

Some common questions

Feel free to reach out with any other questions you have, too!

Yes, via one of two methods:

If you deleted pages and they are still in your Trash Bin of Goodnotes, you can recover them.

If you cleared the Trash Bin, you will need to go through a few extra steps.

To recover pages from the Trash:

  1. Check in the Trash Bin of Goodnotes (tap the gear icon in the top right of the main Goodnotes screen, then choose Trash Bin). Are the pages showing there? If so, tap one and choose Recover. They will be returned to the document.

To recover deleted pages if they aren’t in the Trash:

  1. You will need to re-import the planner PDF file (just like you did when you first set up your planner), … select the page(s) and Move to…will add it at the very end of the planner, so then will need to move it to where you want it in the planner.

Yes! There are two ways:

  1. Add them in just like you would with digital stickers – think of them as Really Big Stickers. :) Caveat – Goodnotes positions items on a page according to which was added first, so if you want to write on your digital paper, or put stickers on top of it, it needs to be added “first” and then everything else added on top of it. If you have stuff on a page already that you want to keep, but want to add a digital paper behind it, use the lasso tool to select then “cut” all the items there, then add the digital paper, then paste the items back on top of it.
  2. You can also import digital papers as pages into your planner: When inside your planner, tap the four-squares icon in the top left to see all the pages of the planner; scroll to the bottom of the popped-up window and tap the “+” icon to add a page. Tap “Import” and pull in your digital paper .jpg file. Once it has imported, you can then tap and hold and drag it to wherever you want it to be in your planner. This method will insert it as a new page of the PDF.

Yes! From the main Goodnotes dashboard, tap the little arrow to the right of the planner’s title, and choose Export from the menu that appears. Choose the options you want – but choose PDF as the format – and export. You can then print that file however you like (and it will include all your writing, stickers, images, etc).

(The planner pages won’t be white, so they will definitely use up ink…see this post about Instant Ink if you plan to do a lot of printing.)