How do I get the bold, underline, italics editing option for Notes on iPhone 5 iOS 7.0.4? Option is not appearing when I select text.

You don't. The notes App does not have this feature. Its a basic note taking App. If you need text formatting, you will need to get a different Note taking App or Word Processing app from the App Store that supports those features.

I have the same problem with my iPhone 7, ios 10. Text formatting is available in Notes, and email, but never available within my texts. I have friends with older iPhones that have the option within their texts, but it is not available to me. Very frustrating! Wake up Apple!!

He has to be using a third party app. My 5S does not have any of those options in the included Notes app.

It has to be a 3rd party App. What does his Notes icon look like?

I remember the little arrow for more options being there before. I also had it on my iPod Touch (4th gen.) I'm hoping Apple will address the completely boring default notepad issue that seems to be getting worse and worse. :/

I just got the iPhone 5S a couple of months ago and I originally had the option to make text bold/italic/underlined in the Notes app. Now that feature is gone but half of my notes have bold text and I can't change it. Can someone please help? Am i going crazy?

you can edit using Notes in Mac which has bold, italic, font, font size, etc options. It will sync with your iphone/ipad through icloud automatically. don't know why Apple disabled this on our iphone/ipads!!!!!!!!!

I only have an iPod (but it does have the latest software) but I achieved bold text as follows:

1) touch and hold word to embolden;

2) touch Select;

3) touch the arrow head at the right;

4) touch BIU option section of the option bar;

5) touch the Bold section of the option bar.

Having selected the text, the selection can be narrowed or widened using the blue dot. Also, the Bold, Italics and Underline option bar does not disappear once a section has been made, thus bold and underline can be chosen - touch elsewhere on the screen to remove the option bar. When the selected option bar section background turns grey the software has accepted your request. Note that a first go at achieving this might not work if the software has not correctly picked up your touch and may not present you with the correct options - it is intuitively trying to help you and sometimes misunderstands your touch.

It's called Rich Text, and it doesnt always work 'as advertised'. Sometimes you can't get an individual word to show the B/U/I option. In those cases, it has helped me to activate it this way:

Go to the very bottom of the text,

Tap Return to make a new line,

Touch this white space to bring up an Option Bar.

Then press Select All.

The B/U/I option will appear.

Tap it, and choose one. I usually choose Bold, then tap it twice to Bold then unBold.

Now you can get individually Selected words or multiple lines of text to show the white left/right arrows.

Tap the right arrow, and the B/U/I option will appear. Tap it to use. Tap Done when you're finished.

I see over time there have been multiple suggestions of how to overcome the issue that b/i/u isn't always an option. The original question was regarding Notes, my issue involved Messages. I am certain what will work for Notes will also work for Messages, so this is relevant.

The thing is, once in maybe 20 or 30 selections (maybe even more) I see the B/U/I as an option. Unfortunately, those always come up when I have no need for them. However, when I need to bold/underline/italics, it's never there. And, I mean never with Messages and never with Notes. Formatting is simply not an option in any form. Also, when I turn my phone to the landscape position, at the left side there is a button for B/U, but it is always greyed out. I have never seen it available, so I wonder why it is even there.

And, I'm sorry, but I've tried all the "solutions" in the above replies, and none of them work for me in either Messages or Notes. I am on an iPhone 6+ with OS 8.4. I came here looking for the same solution as the original poster, and that was more than a year ago, but I hope Apple doesn't lock this conversation even though it is old, because it is a topic people are really curious about and based upon what is see thus far in the responses, this question clearly has no solution as yet.

I really need help here. Please someone, give us an answer! 😕

These "answers" are completely false, at least by the time I am writing this, post iOS 10. Italics, bold, etc. options are readily available in the Notes app and always have been, as far as I'm aware. Where they have disappeared from is in the text Message app. You used to be able to double-tap the highlighted word or phrase and see these options. Now, like so many other useful options that used to be user controllable, this has vanished and Apple seems to be unconcerned in the slightest about user's requests and complaints to return features that made Apple products preferred over less "user friendly" products and systems. And they wonder what is affecting their recent loss of market share?!? Steve Jobs, we hardly knew ye!

You are not alone. I have Notes (iOS 8). I am not jail-broken. And this is not a 3rd-party app. Nor is this something fabricated in Photoshop. You are not going crazy, my friend!

THe Bold, italic and underline option will only appear when the keyboard is on display. Ensure you display the keyboard To get this option. My ipad is not jailbroken.

The formatting feature is available in the Notes app on iOS 8.

Just make sure the keyboard pops up from bottom when selecting text.