Notes that keep themselves as you type

The formatting bar

A web address you type is marked as a link. A checklist in a note is handy for a list you work through once; for jobs with dates and reminders, the to-do list fits better.

Typing shortcuts

Most of the bar can be reached without the mouse. At the start of a line, type:

Inside a list or a checklist, Tab moves an item under the one above it and Shift Tab moves it back out, so a packing list can have “Toiletries” with toothbrush, charger and plasters tucked under it.

Finding a note again

The list on the left shows pinned notes first, then the rest with the newest change on top. Each entry shows the title, the first words after it and when it was last edited: a time for today, a date for older notes. A colored edge marks the notes you tagged with one of eight colors, so Work can be blue and Home green without any folders.

The Find a note box searches titles and the full text as you type, upper or lower case alike, so “boiler” finds the note with the boiler's model number even if its title is “House”. A note with no title is named after its first line, in the list and in the search.

Example: one note, three ways to use it

Say you are planning a weekend away. One note can hold it all:

• A title, “Lisbon trip”, then a Heading for each part: Travel, Stay, Packing.
• Under Travel, a Bulleted list with the flight times, and the booking reference in Code so it is easy to read out and copy.
• Under Packing, a Checklist you tick in the days before, with a few items moved under others with Tab.

Press Pin to the top while the trip is close; afterwards, unpin it or move it to the bin.

The bin, and saving a copy

Move to the bin takes a note off the list but keeps it for 30 days. Open Bin at the bottom of the list to see what is there; open a note in it to see the day it will be deleted for good. Put back returns a note to the list; Delete for good removes it at once and cannot be undone.

Save as a text file opens Windows' save window with the note's title as the file name, and writes the title and the text as a .txt file. Notes are saved one at a time this way; there is no export of every note at once. To count the words of a draft or clean up pasted text, the word counter and the rest of Text Studio are a click away in Octoolo.

Kept on this PC

Notes are saved in Octoolo's data folder on your computer about half a second after you stop typing, and when you switch to another note or tool. There is no account and no cloud copy, so nothing you write is uploaded. The same choice has costs: there is no phone app, no sync between computers and no sharing a note with someone else. Notes hold text only, not pictures, tables or attachments. Each save replaces the note's file in one step, so a crash or a power cut leaves the last saved version rather than half of it.

Notes are not encrypted, so anyone using your Windows account can read them. Keep passwords and card numbers in the password manager, which locks them in an encrypted vault.