Inklingfor Mac

A notch on a Mac that has no notch

· 5 min read

Only recent MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models have a notch, and only on their built-in screen. An external display, an iMac, a Mac mini or a MacBook with its lid closed has none, so anything that lives in the notch needs somewhere else to go. Inkling, a notes app that lives in the notch, shows a virtual notch on displays without one, and its Option-N shortcut opens the note without any notch at all.

Here is which Macs have a notch, what happens to the top of the screen on an external display, and how a virtual notch fills the gap.

Which Macs have a notch

The notch is the black cutout at the top of the screen that holds the camera. It arrived with the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro in 2021, and the MacBook Air has had one since the M2 model. That leaves a long list of Macs without one:

  • Intel MacBooks, the M1 MacBook Air and every 13-inch MacBook Pro.
  • Every desktop Mac: iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
  • Every external display, Apple’s own included.

A MacBook with a notch also loses it when the lid closes. With the lid shut and an external display, keyboard, pointer and power connected, the Mac can run on the external display alone, a setup usually called clamshell mode. The only screen you can see then has no notch.

Why the spot matters more than the cutout

What a notch app really gives you is a place, not a hole in the screen. The top center is easy to reach without looking: push the pointer up and the edge of the screen stops it, then slide toward the middle. Once your hand knows that move, it works the same in every app.

That is the habit a screen without a notch takes away. On a MacBook the camera marks the spot for you. On a large desk display there is nothing at the top center but more menu bar, and a long way to travel from a window in the bottom corner. (If the notch on your MacBook is costing you menu bar icons instead, Put the MacBook notch to work covers that side of it.)

What the menu bar does on an external display

An external display can have a menu bar of its own, depending on one setting.

  1. Open System Settings and choose Desktop & Dock.
  2. Scroll to the Mission Control section and find Displays have separate Spaces.
  3. With it on, each display shows its own menu bar. With it off, only the main display has one.

The change takes effect after you log out and back in.

Which display counts as the main one is set in System Settings, under Displays. In the arrangement of your displays, the main one is shown with the menu bar along its top, and you can make another display the main one there.

Notice what none of this does: it does not give an external display anything like a notch. The menu bar there is a plain strip from edge to edge, and any app built around the notch has nowhere obvious to appear.

A virtual notch

Inkling brings the notch along. On displays without a notch, it shows a virtual notch, so there is still a place at the top of the screen to hover. The note opens from there the same way it does on a MacBook: hover, write, press Command-Return, and the note tucks away while Ink, the pair of eyes in the notch, gives a nod. Come back later and the same note is waiting.

That covers each of the cases above:

  • Desktop Macs. On an iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio or Mac Pro, the virtual notch is the notch.
  • MacBooks without a notch. Intel MacBooks and the M1 MacBook Air get one too, as long as they run macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The app runs on Apple silicon and Intel.
  • Clamshell mode. With the lid closed, the external display is the only screen, and it gets the virtual notch.

If the eyes are more company than you want on a big screen, Ink’s mood can be set to Lively, Calm or Still. There are also two themes, Night and Paper, with five accent colors, which helps if a dark panel looks heavy against a bright desktop.

Hover or a key

There are two ways to open the note, and they suit different setups.

Hover suits a single screen in front of you. Move the pointer to the top center and the note is there, with nothing to remember.

Option-N suits everything else: several displays, a notch that is on a screen you are not looking at, or hands that would rather stay on the keyboard. It opens the note from any app, notch or no notch, and Command-Return puts it away again.

Both shortcuts can be changed in Settings, which is useful if Option-N is already doing something for you, such as typing the tilde over an ñ on a US keyboard.

What the notes themselves can do

The notch is only where the note opens. The note itself can hold headings, checkboxes, links, highlights, quotes, code and tables, and there are templates for a daily scratchpad, a meeting, a project and a journal. You can pin notes, search for a phrase, follow tags and links between notes, and go back to a previous version.

Notes live on the Mac, and writing and searching work offline. iCloud sync between your Macs is optional, off by default, and goes through your own private iCloud, so a MacBook with a real notch and a desk Mac with a virtual one can share the same notes. One license covers up to 3 Macs.

Honest limits: there is no iPhone or iPad app, and no sharing or collaboration. It costs $12 once, with 24 hours free and no card needed, and a 7-day refund policy.

Questions

Does Inkling need a MacBook with a notch? No. On a display without a notch it shows a virtual one. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on an Apple silicon or Intel Mac.

Why does my external display have no menu bar? Displays have separate Spaces is probably off. Turn it on in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, then log out and back in, and each display gets its own menu bar.

Does it work with the lid closed? Yes. In clamshell mode the external display is the only screen you can see, and it has no notch, so Inkling shows a virtual one there. Option-N opens the note as well.