How to use the Online Notepad
- Start typing in the text box. When you pause, the note is saved automatically within a second and a "Saved" indicator appears.
- Click + New note to create another note. The first line of each note is used as its title in the list.
- Click a note in the list to switch between notes and edit them. The most recently edited note moves to the top.
- Use Save as .txt to keep important notes as files, and Open .txt to load an existing text file as a new note.
Where does this auto-save notepad store my notes?
Tooljip's online notepad stores your text in your browser's local storage (localStorage), not on a server. That's why you can use it right away with no sign-up or login, and because your notes are never sent over the internet, it's fine to jot down personal things.
The trade-off is that notes live only in "this browser on this device." Notes written on your work computer won't show up on your home computer or your phone, and notes written in Chrome won't appear in Edge, Firefox or Safari. If you need to move to another device, save the note as .txt, send it to yourself by email or put it in cloud storage such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or iCloud, then use Open .txt on the other device.
When notes can disappear and how to prevent it
| Situation | Are notes kept? |
|---|---|
| Closing the tab or restarting your computer | Kept |
| Updating your browser | Kept |
| Writing in Incognito or a private window | Deleted when the window closes |
| Clearing "cookies and site data" in browser settings | Deleted |
| Opening the page in another browser or on another device | Not visible |
For anything you need to keep long term, the safest habit is to Save as .txt regularly. If you used a shared or public computer, such as at a library or office, delete your notes when you're done so the next person can't read them.
Tips for using an online notepad
- Scratch pad for pasting - Collect snippets copied from different places, or paste formatted text here to strip it down to plain text.
- Checking length - The character and line count is shown below the text box. If you need word counts or counts without spaces, use the Character Counter.
- To-do lists - For lists you want to check off, the To-Do List tool is more convenient.
- Fixing line breaks - Text copied from a PDF often has broken lines. Clean it up with the Line Break Remover, then paste it into the notepad.