Customizing Your Notes

Every note in BetterStickies can look different: change colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more to suit how you work.

A note's header buttons handle the quick stuff: Pin, Always on top, and Collapse. See Getting Started for what each one does. Everything below lives in Note Settings.

Note Settings

Click the Settings button (gear icon) in any note's header to open its settings.

The Note Settings dialog

Font and Text

  • Font family: pick any font installed on your system
  • Font size: 8pt to 72pt (you can also zoom with Ctrl+Mouse Wheel)
  • Text color: click the color button to pick a color
  • Line spacing: adjust how much space appears between lines (100%–200%)

Note Color

Click the Background Color button to change the note's color. You can pick from preset colors or choose any custom color.

Choosing a Color

Every color button in Note Settings (and in Global Settings) opens the same color picker:

  • A grid of 40 colors: neutrals across the top, then eight color families from pale to deep. Click to select, or double-click to pick and close in one go.
  • Recent: the colors you've picked earlier in this session appear in their own row, most recent first.
  • A custom color: use the color square and hue slider, or type or paste a hex value like #1e88e5 into the field (with or without the #). An invalid value outlines the field instead of changing anything.

The picker works fully from the keyboard too: press Tab to move between the grid, the recent row, the color square, the hue slider and the hex field: arrows move within each, Space picks a swatch, and Enter picks and closes.

Press Select to apply your choice, or Cancel (or Escape) to keep the color you had.

Background Opacity

Use the slider to make the note more or less transparent (1%–100%). The preview updates live as you drag the slider, so you can see exactly how it'll look. Line spacing also previews live.

Note Size

Set the exact width and height of the note. You can also resize notes by dragging any corner.

Background Images

You can set a photo, pattern, or GIF as a note's background.

Setting a Background

Two ways:

  • In Note Settings, click Choose Image...
  • Drag an image file directly onto the Note Settings dialog

Supported Formats

FormatNotes
PNG, JPG, BMP, WebPStandard image formats
SVGVector, stays crisp at any size
GIFAnimated, loops automatically
ICO, TIFFAlso supported

Adjusting the Background

Use the Background Opacity slider to blend the image with the note color. At lower opacity, text is easier to read over busy images.

Removing a Background

In Note Settings, click Remove Image to go back to a plain color background.

Note Title

By default, notes show their creation date in the header. To set a custom title:

  1. Double-click the date in the header
  2. Type your title (up to 50 characters)
  3. Press Enter to save

The title appears in search results and makes notes easier to find.

A pinned note (or one locked by the Free version limit) can't be renamed. The header won't offer the edit. Unpin the note to rename it again. If the Free version limit locked it instead, remove some notes or tabs to get editing back, or upgrade to Premium, so your notes and tabs stop counting toward the limit.

Defaults for New Notes

Changes in Note Settings only affect that individual note. To change the defaults for all new notes:

  1. Open Menu > Settings from the hub
  2. Adjust the Note Defaults section

You can set defaults for:

  • Font family and size
  • Background and text color
  • Note size
  • Background opacity and line spacing
  • Always on top: whether new notes float above other windows
  • Confirm before deleting: show a confirmation dialog when deleting notes

Existing notes are not affected, only notes you create after changing the defaults.

Not sure what a setting does? Hover over any section heading in Settings, a tooltip pops up explaining what it affects.

Dark and Light Theme

Dialogs and menus follow your system theme. To change it manually:

  1. Open Menu > Settings from the hub
  2. Find the Theme option
  3. Choose Dark, Light, or Auto

Auto follows your system's setting. Notes themselves keep their own colors regardless of the theme.

Grid Snapping

If you like your notes neatly organized, turn on grid snapping:

  1. Open Menu > Settings from the hub
  2. Find the Grid section
  3. Switch from Free Form to Snap to Grid

When enabled, notes snap into a grid when you drag them. A faint grid overlay appears while dragging to help you align notes. Each note uses its own size as the grid cell, so different-sized notes still align cleanly.

Hover Glow

Hover over a note and it glows with a soft border in the note's own text color, a small touch that makes the note under your cursor easy to pick out. It's always on and needs no setup.

See Also

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