How to use it
- Click into the box and type or paste. The note saves itself after each pause; the check mark in the status bar confirms it.
- Open the notes list (the menu icon on phones, the left column on desktop) to start another note or switch between them. The first line of each note is its title.
- Download as .txt with Ctrl+S, or press Share to copy a link that carries the whole note.
Your notes stay on your device
This notepad has no server side. Every keystroke is written to your browser's localStorage about 300 ms after you pause, under this site's origin, as one small JSON record that holds all your notes. Reopen the page in the same browser and profile and everything is where you left it, including which note was open.
The flip side is worth knowing: notes are tied to that browser profile. They do not sync to your phone, they do not appear in a different browser on the same machine, and a private or incognito window throws them away when it closes. Clearing site data, or a browser reclaiming space when the disk is almost full, also removes them. Anything you would be upset to lose should be downloaded as a .txt file, which takes one shortcut.
Share a note without an account
Press Share and you get a link like onlinenote.app/#n=zXr3…. The part after the # is your note, compressed with deflate and encoded as base64url. Browsers never send the fragment to a server, so the text is not transmitted or stored anywhere; the link is the note. Whoever opens it is offered a button to copy the text into a new local note of their own.
Limits, honestly: the link is a snapshot, so later edits do not update it. Anyone who has the link can read the note, and chat apps and email keep links in their logs, so do not share secrets this way. Long notes make long links: a typical page of prose compresses to a link of two to three thousand characters, which every browser and most apps accept, but some messaging apps and older systems truncate links past roughly 8,000 characters, and browsers themselves stop somewhere between 64 KB and 2 MB. Above that, download the file instead.
Use it offline
On the first visit a small service worker stores the page, stylesheet and script in the browser cache. From then on the notepad opens without a connection, and since the notes are local anyway, nothing is missing. On a phone, "Add to Home Screen" (Safari) or "Install app" (Chrome) gives it an icon and a full-screen window. Updates to the site arrive quietly on the next online visit.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S / ⌘+S | Download the current note as .txt |
| Ctrl+N / ⌘+N | New note (if the current one is empty, it stays put) |
| Ctrl+Shift+F | Focus mode: hides everything except the editor |
| Esc | Leave focus mode; close the notes drawer |
| Tab | Insert two spaces at the cursor |
| Esc then Tab | Move keyboard focus out of the editor to the next control |
| Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z | Undo and redo (the browser's own history) |
Browsers reserve some combinations, so Ctrl+N may open a new window in a few of them instead; the toolbar button always works.
Online notepad vs Google Docs vs Notepad on Windows
| Feature | OnlineNote.app | Google Docs | Windows Notepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account needed | No | Google account | No |
| Where the text lives | This browser's storage | Google's servers (Drive) | A file you name on your disk |
| Works offline | Yes, after the first visit | Only with offline mode enabled per browser | Yes |
| Formatting | Plain text (Markdown mode is separate) | Full rich text, comments, images | Plain text; Markdown formatting in newer versions |
| Sharing | A link that contains the note | Permissions, real-time co-editing | Send the file |
If several people need to edit one document, use Docs. If you want to manage files directly on disk, Windows Notepad or another text editor is the right tool. Windows Notepad's formatting features depend on the installed version. This page is a place to paste, draft and think that opens in your browser and needs no account.
Questions people ask
Is my note saved?
Yes. Every change is written to your browser's storage about 300 milliseconds after you stop typing. The status bar shows a check mark and how long ago the last save happened. There is no save button to forget.
Where are my notes stored?
In localStorage inside the browser you are using right now, under this site's origin. Nothing is uploaded. That also means a note written in Chrome will not appear in Firefox, or on another computer, or in a private window.
I closed the tab. Can I get my note back?
Usually yes: open onlinenote.app again in the same browser and profile, and the note is still in the list. It is gone if you cleared site data, used a private or incognito window, or the browser evicted storage because the disk was nearly full.
Is it private?
The text never leaves your device unless you make a share link, and even then the note travels inside the link itself rather than through a server. There are no accounts, no cookies and no analytics. Anyone with access to your browser profile can read your notes, so use your operating system's lock screen. Details on the privacy page.
Is there a size limit?
Browsers give each site roughly 5 MB of localStorage, which is around two to three million characters across all your notes. If a save fails you will see a warning under the status bar; download the note as .txt to keep it.
Can I use it on my phone?
Yes. The editor fills the screen, the notes list opens as a drawer, and on iOS Safari or Android Chrome you can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app.
Does it work offline?
After the first visit, yes. A service worker keeps a copy of the page in the browser, so it opens with no connection and your notes are already local. The first visit needs a connection.
Can I format text, add bold or headings?
Not here, on purpose: this notepad is plain text so it stays fast and pastes cleanly anywhere. If you want headings, lists and bold, use the Markdown Notepad, which has a live preview and exports .md.