How to Use iPad Split View to Read a PDF and Take Notes at the Same Time
Set up iPad Split View to read a PDF beside your notes, choose app pairs that work, avoid the two-windows-of-one-app trap, and highlight as you read.
Reading a PDF on one half of an iPad and writing notes on the other is one of the genuinely good things about the platform, and it takes about ten seconds to set up once you know the gesture.
Setting it up
On iPadOS with the multitasking menu — open your PDF, tap the three dots at the top of the screen, and choose Split View. The PDF slides aside and the Home Screen appears; tap your notes app and the two sit side by side.
With the Dock — open the PDF, swipe up slightly from the bottom edge to show the Dock, then drag your notes app out of the Dock to the left or right edge of the screen until it snaps into its own pane.
Adjusting the split — drag the divider. It settles at 50/50 or 70/30. For reading a dense PDF, giving the document the larger share and the notes the narrow one usually works better than an even split.
Swapping sides — drag the top handle of a pane across. Worth doing if you are left-handed and writing with a Pencil.
Note that Split View needs both apps to support it. Most do; a few full-screen apps do not.
Which combination to use
Files or Books + Notes — the zero-setup option. Fine for casual reading.
A dedicated PDF reader + Notes — better if you are annotating as well as reading, because the reader keeps your highlights in the file rather than in a screenshot.
PDF + a writing app — for drafting something based on the document, rather than note-taking.
If you are using an Apple Pencil, note that Scribble lets you handwrite directly into text fields in the notes pane, which removes the keyboard from the equation entirely.
The thing that trips people up: two windows of the same app
You can have two PDFs side by side — the Files app supports opening a second window of itself. But if you drag a second document out of the same app and it replaces the first instead of splitting, you have used Slide Over rather than Split View. Slide Over floats a narrow panel over the top; Split View gives each app a real share of the screen.
To convert Slide Over into Split View, drag the floating panel's top handle to the screen edge until the other app shrinks to make room.
Highlighting as you read
If your notes are quotations, highlight in the PDF as well as writing them down — that way the marks stay with the document.
Use the reader's Highlight tool, not a drawing tool, so the highlight is anchored to the text and can be listed later. Then tap Done, and be deliberate about how you save: in Markup, "Done" writes back to the file, while sharing "a copy" may not carry the annotation. Reopen the file once to confirm the highlights stuck.
If the PDF is a scan, highlighting will not anchor to anything because there is no text layer. You can still draw on it with a Pencil, which for handwritten study notes is often what you wanted anyway.
When you need to change the document itself
Split View is for reading and annotating. If what you actually need is to correct the PDF — fix a figure, change a name, update a date — that is an edit, not an annotation, and the iPad's built-in Markup will not do it.
This site's editor runs in the browser, including mobile Safari, so you can open the file, change the text in place with the layout preserved, and download the corrected version without installing anything. It takes files up to 10 MB and 100 pages, and it does not do OCR — a scanned document needs OCR elsewhere first.
Frequently asked questions
Why will an app not go into Split View? Not every app supports it. If it has no multitasking menu at the top, it is full-screen only.
Can I have two PDFs side by side? Yes — open a second window of the Files app and drag it to the edge. The same works in most dedicated PDF readers.
How do I get out of Split View? Drag the divider all the way to one edge. The app you drag over closes; the other goes full screen.
Does Split View work on every iPad? It needs a reasonably recent iPad and iPadOS. Older or entry-level models may not support it, or may be limited to Slide Over.
Can I take handwritten notes with a Pencil while reading? Yes — that is the strongest reason to use this layout. Notes and most reading apps accept Pencil input directly, and Scribble converts handwriting to text in fields.
