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: Lock, 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 window opens beside the note and has three sections: Text, Background and Size.

Every change shows on the note as soon as you make it, and it is kept however you close the window: Close, Escape, Ctrl+W (⌘W on a Mac) or the window's close button. In a number or font field, press Enter (or click somewhere else) to confirm what you typed.

The Note Settings dialog

Text

Font family: pick any font installed on your system, or System default (the first entry) to follow your operating system's own UI font. A font that is not installed on this machine is still listed under its own name and kept exactly as you set it
Font size: 8pt to 72pt (you can also zoom with Ctrl+Mouse Wheel)
Text color: click the color button to pick a color. This is the note's default, and it also colors the note's file shortcuts and their icons; to color just some text, use the footer's color button, and to highlight it, the highlight button in the selection toolbar that appears when you select text with the mouse (see Text Formatting)
Line spacing: adjust how much space appears between lines (100%–200%)
Text direction: Automatic (each line follows its own language), Left to right or Right to left. See Text Formatting

Note Color

In the Background section, 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 the app's 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 color picker: swatch grid, Recent row, color square and hex field

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 in the Background section to make the note more or less transparent (1%–100%). The note updates as you drag, so you can see exactly how it'll look.

Size

Set the exact Width and Height of the note, or turn on Lock aspect ratio so changing one changes the other too. You can also resize notes by dragging any corner.

While a note is collapsed, the Size section is greyed out. Expand the note first to change its size.

Background Images

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

Setting a Background

The Background section of Note Settings has a box that reads Drop a background image here. Three ways to use it:

Drag an image file onto the box (or anywhere on the Note Settings window)
Click the box to choose an image
Click Choose Image… under it

Once set, the box shows the image's file name. Hover over it to see the full path.

Supported Formats

Format	Notes
PNG, JPG, BMP, WebP	Standard image formats
SVG	Vector, stays crisp at any size
GIF	Animated, loops automatically
ICO, TIFF	Also supported

Dragging an image from another computer's shared folder doesn't set it. Copy the image to your own computer first.

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.

A note with a picture background at reduced opacity, its text still readable

Note Title

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

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

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

A locked note (or one made read-only by the Free version limit, marked with a crown) can't be renamed. The header won't offer the edit. Unlock the note to rename it again. If the Free version limit made it read-only 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:

Open Menu > Settings… from the hub
Go to the Notes tab
Adjust the Text, Background and Window sections, then click Apply

The defaults for new notes in Settings

The Text and Background sections have the same rows in the same order as Note Settings, so what you learn in one works in the other. You can set defaults for:

Font family and size, text color, line spacing
Text direction: Automatic, Left to right or Right to left for every new note
Background color and background opacity
Size: the width and height new notes start at
Always on top: whether new notes float above other windows

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

The All Notes section at the bottom of the same tab works differently: its settings apply to every note, old and new.

Confirm before deleting notes: ask before a note or a tab goes to the trash. Notes with an active reminder always ask
Positioning: Free Form or Snap to Grid (see Grid Snapping below)
Pasted Images: show pasted images Inline in the note, at the Image Size you pick, or as a Link to the file

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

Dark and Light Theme

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

Open Menu > Settings… from the hub
On the General tab, find Theme in the Appearance section
Click Dark, Light, or Auto (System), then click Apply

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

On macOS and Windows, dialogs also use the accent color you picked for your system (for the main button, switches that are on, check boxes, selected items and focus rings), made a little darker or lighter when needed so text stays readable. Linux keeps the app's blue. If you change the accent color, close and reopen a window to see it. A note's buttons light up in a tint of the note's own text color instead.

Grid Snapping

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

Open Menu > Settings… from the hub
On the Notes tab, find Positioning in the All Notes section
Switch from Free Form to Snap to Grid, then click Apply

When enabled, notes snap into a grid when you drag them. A faint grid overlay appears while dragging to help you align notes (you can turn it off with Show grid overlay while dragging). Each note uses its own size as the grid cell, so different-sized notes still align cleanly. On Linux the note settles into the grid a moment after you let go.

On Linux with native Wayland (always the case for the Flathub version on a Wayland desktop), grid snapping isn't available, because Wayland doesn't let apps place their own windows: that setting is greyed out. Always on top is greyed out too, except on KDE Plasma, where it keeps working (but not in the Snap version, or in a Flathub version without access to KDE's window manager). See Native Wayland for what else changes and how to switch.

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.