Notes category
Notes menu bar apps
Notes menu bar apps for macOS. 2 listed: 2 free with a paid upgrade. Of those, 1 with a free trial. Prices and trials as the developers state them.
2 apps
- About Smolpad
Smolpad , also on the App Store , opens the developer's site in a new tab Smolpad is a smol Markdown editor with respect for your files.
A tiny Markdown editor for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Every note is a plain .md file, synced through iCloud.
$14.99 - About Oh My Notes
Oh My Notes, opens the developer's site in a new tab
Floating sticky notes for Mac that stay above fullscreen. Notes, to-dos, reminders; local Markdown; no account. Free + one-time Pro.
$9.99
What notes menu bar apps do
A scratchpad in the menu bar is for text that has nowhere to go yet: a number somebody read out, a sentence you want out of your head, the thing you will paste in a minute. Not a notes app with folders and sync, and the difference is on purpose.
The cost of writing something down is the cost of finding somewhere to write it. One keystroke and a blank box is low enough that you actually do it, which is the entire feature.
2 listed: 2 free with a paid upgrade. Of those, 1 with a free trial.
What to compare
- Whether it keeps anything. Some hold a single pad that persists forever, some forget when you close them. Both are reasonable; knowing which one you have before trusting it with a phone number is not optional.
- Where the text ends up. A plain file on your disk is a note you still have in five years. An app's own database is a note that lives as long as the app does.
- Markdown, or plain. If you write in Markdown everywhere else, a pad that does not understand it will annoy you every day. If you do not, formatting is in the way.
- How it opens. A keyboard shortcut, a click, or hovering somewhere. For something used twenty times a day this is most of the experience.
Questions
- How is this different from Apple Notes?
- Apple Notes is a filing system with folders, attachments and sync. These are a single sheet of paper that opens in a keystroke. People who use both use Notes for things they will read again and a scratchpad for things they will not.
- Will my notes sync to my phone?
- Usually not, and often deliberately. A scratchpad is for the machine you are sitting at. The listings say where a particular one stores its text.
- What is a menu bar app?
- An app that lives in the strip along the top of the screen instead of the Dock. It has an icon there, and clicking it drops down a small window. Most have no main window at all, so they stay out of the way until you want them and never appear when you switch apps.
- Do menu bar apps slow a Mac down?
- Each one is a running process, so a dozen of them is a dozen processes. Most sit idle and cost close to nothing. The ones worth watching are those doing work when you are not looking: reading the screen, polling a server, or watching every file you save. Activity Monitor will tell you which is which on your own machine.
- My menu bar is full. What then?
- macOS drops icons that no longer fit, and on a Mac with a notch there is less room than there looks. Holding Command and dragging rearranges them, so the ones you use can be kept to the left of the crowd. There are also apps whose whole job is hiding and grouping the rest, listed here under Utilities.