Getting Started
BetterStickies puts sticky notes on your desktop, quick notes you can see at a glance without opening an app.
First Launch
The first time you open BetterStickies, a Help window appears with a short tour (Welcome and Features & Hidden Powers), along with one empty note ready to type in. The Help window doesn't count as a note. You can reopen it anytime from the hub's Menu > Help.
The Hub
A small floating bar appears on your desktop. This is the hub, your home base for managing notes.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| + | Create a new note |
| Search | Find any note by typing |
| Bell | See all your reminders |
| Menu | Settings, export, trash, help, about, and more |
| Hide | Minimize the hub to the system tray |
You can drag the hub anywhere on your screen. To bring it back after hiding, click the BetterStickies icon in your system tray.
Hiding the hub normally lasts until you quit. If you'd rather it stay out of the way for good, turn on Start with the hub hidden in ☰ Menu → Settings → Appearance. The app then launches straight to the tray. Most useful when you also add BetterStickies to your system's startup applications, so it's simply always there in the background. Your notes still open normally; only the hub bar is hidden. The option is greyed out if your desktop has no system tray, since the tray icon would be the only way to get the hub back.
Creating a Note
Click the + button on the hub. A new sticky note appears, ready for typing.
You can also press Ctrl+Alt+N. This works even when BetterStickies isn't focused. On Windows it works right away; on Linux it needs a one-time setup in your desktop's own keyboard settings (see Global Shortcuts on Linux), and it isn't available on macOS yet.
Parts of a Note
Each note has three areas:
Header
The bar at the top. It shows the creation date, or a custom title if you set one. Double-click the date to type your own. Hover over a note to reveal the header buttons:
- Collapse: shrink the note down to just the title bar
- Settings: change this note's font, color, size, and background
- Delete: move the note to trash
- Pin: lock the note in place and make it read-only
- Always on top: keep the note above other windows
- Hide: hide this note (it's not deleted, just invisible)
Content Area
Where you type. You can format text, build checklists, paste images, drop files, and split a note into tabs.
Footer
The bar at the bottom, with buttons for bold, italic, strikethrough, titles, checkboxes, links, text color, reminders, right-to-left text, and adding a page. Every one of them has a keyboard shortcut. See Text Formatting and Keyboard Shortcuts.
The footer shows while you're working in a note and gets out of the way while you're actually writing: it sits over the last line, so it stands down the moment you type and comes straight back when you move the mouse. Clicking away to another window hides it too.
Moving and Resizing
- Move: drag the header bar or the edges of the note
- Resize: drag any corner
- Collapse: double-click the header bar to shrink the note to its title bar; double-click again to expand
- Zoom text: hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel
Hiding and Showing Notes
Sometimes you want notes out of the way without deleting them:
- Hide all notes: open the hub's Menu and click Hide All Notes
- Show all notes: the same menu item changes to Show All Notes with a count of how many are hidden
- Hide one note: click the Hide button in that note's header
- Find a hidden note: use Search, opening a note from search makes it visible again
Where to Go Next
| To learn about | Read |
|---|---|
| Bold, headings, checklists, code blocks, links | Text Formatting |
| Splitting one note into several pages | Note Tabs |
| Pasting screenshots, code, web pages, and Markdown | Pasting Content |
| Colors, fonts, backgrounds, and grid snapping | Customizing Your Notes |
| Getting notified about a note | Reminders |
| Finding a note again | Search |
| Restoring something you deleted | Trash & Recovery |
| Every keyboard shortcut | Keyboard Shortcuts |
| What the free version includes | Free & Premium |
Two Things Worth Knowing Early
- Hover for help. Most buttons, settings, and options have tooltips, including the hub buttons, the note header buttons, and the date in a note's header. If you're not sure what something does, hover over it.
- The right-click menu adapts. Right-click inside a note for cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo, plus extras for whatever is under your cursor. Right-click a link for link options, or an image to change its size.
System Tray
BetterStickies lives in your system tray (the small icons near your clock). Clicking the tray icon toggles the hub, and double-clicking always brings it up. Right-click it to show or hide the hub, create a note, show or hide all notes, open search or settings, or exit.
If you've turned on Start with the hub hidden (see The Hub above), the tray icon is how you reach the hub each session.
Auto-Save
Everything saves as you type. No save button needed. BetterStickies also keeps automatic backups in case anything goes wrong. See Backing Up Your Notes.
About & Updates
Open Menu > About from the hub to see your version, check for updates, find community links (Discord, Reddit, GitHub), or support development.
See Also
- Note Tabs: several pages inside a single note
- Pasting Content: what happens when you press Ctrl+V
- Search Notes: find and jump to any note
- Reminders: set reminders so you don't forget what's on your notes
- Languages: switch the app's language
- Free & Premium: what's included in each version
- Backing Up Your Notes: automatic backups and syncing
- Troubleshooting: help with common issues