Text Formatting

BetterStickies supports rich text: you can style your notes with headings, bold text, checklists, code snippets, links, and more.

Basic Formatting

Select some text and press the shortcut (or click the button in the footer):

All three are toggles. Press the shortcut again to remove the formatting. You can combine them (bold + italic, etc.).

If nothing is selected, the formatting applies to whatever you type next.

Clear Formatting

Select some text and press Ctrl+\ to strip all formatting and reset it to the note's default font, size, and color. You can also right-click selected text and choose Clear Formatting from the menu.

Headings

Use Title and Subtitle to create headings that stand out:

Press the shortcut again to turn a heading back into normal text. Title and Subtitle are mutually exclusive, a line can only be one or the other.

Checklists

Press Ctrl+T to add a checkbox at the start of the current line.

• Check it off: click the checkbox (☐ → ☑). The text gets a strikethrough and the cursor moves to the next line
• Uncheck it: click the checked box (☑ → ☐). The strikethrough is removed
• Long tasks wrap neatly: a task too long for one line continues aligned under its own text, at every nesting level
• Checkboxes don't work inside code blocks: the Todo footer button and Ctrl+T both do nothing there, and a ☐ that's part of pasted code is just text

Nested Checklists

Press Tab on a checkbox line to indent it, creating a nested (child) item. Press Shift+Tab to move it back out.

You can select multiple checkbox lines and press Tab or Shift+Tab to indent or outdent them all at once.

Tips

• Press Enter on a checkbox line to create another checkbox on the next line
• Press Enter on an empty checkbox line to exit the checklist and go back to normal text
• Indentation stops if it would leave less than 30% of the note width for text

Code Blocks

Press Ctrl+M to turn selected text (or the current line) into a code block. Code blocks use a monospace font with a dark background: great for code snippets, terminal commands, or anything that should look like code.

Press Ctrl+M again to turn it back into normal text.

Automatic Code Detection

When you paste multi-line text that looks like code (lots of brackets, semicolons, keywords like import or SELECT), BetterStickies automatically formats it as a code block. If it guesses wrong, just press Ctrl+M to switch it back to normal text.

Exiting a Code Block

Press Backspace on an empty line inside a code block to leave the code block and return to normal formatting.

Pasting Formatted Text

When you paste content from emails, web pages, or documents, BetterStickies keeps the formatting that matters (bold, italic, links, lists, highlights, headings) while adapting fonts and colors to match your note. Pasted code and Markdown are recognized automatically too.

Press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste as plain text, skipping all formatting and detection. See Pasting Content for everything BetterStickies recognizes and how to override it.

Links

Inserting a Link

Press Ctrl+K to insert a link. You can also just paste a URL. BetterStickies automatically turns it into a clickable link with an icon.

• Web links show a globe icon
• File links show an icon matching the file type (document, image, music, archive, and more): drawn in the same blue as the filename beside it, dimmed, so it reads as part of the link without competing with the name

Click any link to open it, web links open in your browser, file links open in your file manager.

Editing or Removing a Link

Right-click on a link to:

• Open Link: open it in your browser or file manager
• Copy Link Address: copy the URL to your clipboard
• Rename Link: change the display text
• Remove Link: remove the link formatting (the text stays)

File Shortcuts

Drag a file from your file manager into a note to create a clickable shortcut. BetterStickies recognizes the file type and shows a matching icon in a dimmed link blue beside the filename. You can also drag shortcuts back out to copy files. See File Shortcuts for the full details.

Images and Screenshots

Paste a screenshot (Ctrl+V) or drag an image into a note. You can choose between inline display or link mode in Menu > Settings. Hover over image or PDF links to see a thumbnail preview. See Images & Screenshots for display modes, sizes, and more.

Text Color

Press Ctrl+Shift+C (or click the color button in the footer) to change the color of selected text. The footer button opens a small palette of preset colors. For a full color picker (a swatch grid, your recent colors, and any custom color by hex value), use the color buttons in Note Settings. See Customizing Your Notes.

Right-to-Left Text

Press Ctrl+Shift+R to switch the current line between left-to-right and right-to-left alignment. This is useful for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu text.

BetterStickies also auto-detects RTL text, if the first thing you type in a new note is in a right-to-left script, RTL mode turns on automatically.

Text Size

Hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom text in or out. The size range is 8pt to 72pt. Headings scale proportionally, if you zoom in, titles and subtitles stay larger relative to body text.

You can also set a specific font size in the note's Settings (gear icon in the header).

See Also

• Keyboard Shortcuts: full list of formatting shortcuts
• Pasting Content: what happens when you press Ctrl+V
• Images & Screenshots: paste images and screenshots into notes
• File Shortcuts: drag files into notes as clickable shortcuts
• Getting Started: overview of notes and the hub