File Shortcuts

Turn any file or folder on your computer into a clickable shortcut inside a note, like a bookmark for your files.

Adding a File Shortcut

Drag a file or folder from your file manager and drop it into a note. A clickable shortcut appears with an icon that matches the file type.

A note with three file shortcuts (a PDF, a spreadsheet and a folder), each with its own icon

BetterStickies picks the right icon automatically: documents, spreadsheets, images, music, videos, code files, archives, discs, fonts, and more. A shortcut is drawn in your note's text color, name and icon alike, on a soft grey background, so it stays easy to read on any note color. The icon is slightly dimmed so it reads as part of the shortcut without competing with its name, and it grows and shrinks with the note's text size. Change the note's text color and its shortcuts follow. Web links stay blue and underlined.

The icon is a picture, not a character: it isn't part of the shortcut's name, so it never turns up in exports, search results, or reminder titles.

Shortcuts made before this update keep their old emoji icons and keep working exactly as before. To give one the new look, drag the file in again.

Opening a File

Click the shortcut to open the file in its default app. For example, a PDF shortcut opens in your PDF reader, and a folder shortcut opens in your file manager. Sound files are the exception: they play right inside the note (see Sound Clips below).

Moving a Shortcut Within a Note

Drag a shortcut to a different spot in the same note to move it there. The shortcut is repositioned, not copied, and it's a single step, so Ctrl+Z puts it back. Dropping it where it already is does nothing.

If you drop it onto another shortcut, it lands neatly beside that one rather than in the middle of its name.

Dragging Files Out

You can also drag a file shortcut out of a note and drop it into your file manager or desktop. This copies the original file to wherever you drop it. The original stays where it was.

Dragging a shortcut into a different note copies it there, leaving the first note's shortcut in place.

Right-Click Options

Right-click a file shortcut to:

Show in File Manager: opens the folder containing the file and highlights it
Rename: change the display text without changing the file (the icon stays put; you can right-click the icon itself and get the same result)
Copy File Path (or Copy Folder Path): copy the path to your clipboard
Remove: turn the shortcut back into plain text, icon and all (the actual file is not affected)

Sound Clips

Keep a voice memo or a sound clip in a note and play it without leaving the note.

Adding a Sound Clip

Drop a sound file onto a note, or copy it in your file manager and paste it into the note (Ctrl+V). BetterStickies keeps its own copy of the file with your notes, so the clip keeps working even if you move or delete the original. The clip shows its original name, with a small ▶ badge showing its length (for example ▶ 1:24).

These formats play inside the note:

Format	File endings
MP3	`.mp3`
WAV	`.wav`
FLAC	`.flac`
Ogg Vorbis	`.ogg`, `.oga`
Opus	`.opus`

Other sound files, such as .m4a and .aac, become ordinary file shortcuts and open in your default music app.

Files over 50 MB are linked, not copied: the note points at the original file, and a short message tells you so. If you move or delete that original, the clip stops working.

Playing a Clip

Click the clip to play it. A player bar appears at the bottom of the note, below the text:

Play / Pause: the play button, left of the clip's name
Jump to a spot: click the progress line, or drag along it and let go
Stop: the square button on the right, which also closes the bar

The bar shows the clip's name and how far along it is (for example 1:12 / 4:30), and the clip is highlighted in the text while it plays. Click the clip again to pause it, and once more to carry on.

Only one clip plays at a time. Starting another clip, in the same note or a different one, stops the first.

A clip also keeps playing when you collapse its note. While it plays or is paused, the collapsed note's header shows a Play / Pause button next to the collapse arrow (after the page menu on a note with several tabs), plus Previous clip and Next clip when the page holds more than one clip. Expand the note to get the full player bar back. A very narrow collapsed note widens a little to fit these buttons.

A clip keeps playing when you hide its note. To stop it without finding the note, choose Stop Audio from the tray icon's menu (on a Mac, the Dock icon's menu). The entry only shows while something is playing or paused.

Keyboard: with the cursor inside a clip or just after it, Ctrl+Shift+P plays or pauses it (⇧⌘P on a Mac). Anywhere else in a note, it pauses or resumes whatever is playing.

If the clip can't be played, the player bar says so and offers Open in default player. If its file is gone, the bar tells you it can't find it. Either way, if the page has another clip after it, the bar also shows the Next clip button (⏭) so you can skip ahead.

Playing Several Clips in a Row

When the clip's page holds more than one clip (an album, say, or a run of voice memos), the player bar gains three more buttons:

Previous clip (⏮): more than 3 seconds into a clip, it starts the clip over; otherwise it plays the clip before it (on the page's first clip it starts over)
Next clip (⏭): plays the next clip on the page. It's greyed out on the page's last clip
Play the next clip automatically (the button just left of stop): while it's on (highlighted), the next clip on the page starts by itself when one ends, and playback stops after the page's last clip

Auto-continue is off to begin with and is remembered for each note separately, so an album note can play straight through while your voice memo notes still stop after each clip. Clips play in the order they appear on the page, and playback never moves on to another tab of the note. If a clip in the run can't be played, playback stops there; press Next clip to carry on.

On a very narrow note, some of these buttons step aside to leave room for the clip's name. Widen the note to get them back.

Right-Click on a Clip

Right-click a sound clip for these extra options at the top of the menu:

Play, Pause or Resume: the same as clicking the clip
Open in default player: play it in your usual music app instead

The usual shortcut options (show in file manager, rename, copy the path, remove) are there too.

Good to Know

When a note is deleted for good (emptied from the trash), the copies of its clips are deleted too, unless another note still uses the same clip
Locked notes play their clips too, and their previous, next and auto-continue buttons work; they just don't accept new files
Snap version: playing audio inside notes isn't available in the Snap yet; audio links open in your default player. Dropping a clip still keeps a copy of it with your notes, and new clips show a plain music icon instead of the length badge

Tips

You can drop several files at once: each gets its own shortcut on its own line, and one Ctrl+Z removes them all. In a bulleted or numbered list, each becomes its own item. Dropped onto a checklist item, they go on the lines below it, so the item stays whole. A single file still goes right where you drop it
Shortcuts work with files anywhere on your computer, including external drives
If you move or delete the original file, the shortcut will still be there but won't be able to open it
Dropping a file the app can't reach (common on Flatpak and Snap, where access to folders is restricted) still creates the shortcut, and you'll get one warning explaining how to grant access
Dropping a file named like an image that can't be opened as a picture (an unusual format, a file that isn't really an image, or a picture too large to open, such as a very large scan saved as PNG) creates a shortcut to it instead of silently doing nothing. Several of them go one per line, like other files