Online Notepad

What this does

So you just need somewhere to jot something down, fast, without opening a whole word processor. This is a clean little notepad that lives in your browser. Type and it saves as you go. You can keep several notes on the go at once, each with its own tab and title, and switch between them with a click. No account, no clutter, just a place to write.

How to use it

1. Start typing in the note. Give it a title at the top if you like.
2. Watch for the "Saved..." note, that means your text is stored.
3. Use the new note button to start another, and the tabs to switch between them. The delete button removes the current note, with a confirm step so you do not lose one by accident.

There is nothing to press to save, it does that for you as you write.

Where your notes are saved

This is the bit worth understanding, because it is the difference between a note being safe and a note being gone. Your notes are saved in your browser's own local storage, right there on your device. That has a nice upside, nothing you type is uploaded to a server, so your notes stay private to you. It also has a catch. Because they live in this one browser, they will not appear if you open the site in a different browser, on another device, or in a private window. And if you clear your browsing data, they go with it.

So for quick, everyday notes it is perfect, and they will be waiting for you next time you visit. But for anything you would hate to lose, use the download button to save a copy as a file, and you are covered.

The editing tools

Along the bottom there is a small toolbar. The first group is the usual clipboard set, cut, copy, paste, and delete, for working with selected text. The second group lets you zoom the text in or out, handy if the default size is too small or too big for you, and download the current note as a file to keep on your device.

What people use it for

It is a scratchpad for the bits and pieces of a day. People use it to jot a phone number or address before it slips away, to draft a message or email before pasting it somewhere, to keep a quick to do list, to paste in some text and tidy it up, or just to think out loud in writing. The multiple notes make it easy to keep, say, a work list and a shopping list apart.

Questions people ask

References

1. MDN Web Docs. Web Storage API. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Storage_API