Jot down a quick thought on a Mac without opening an app

The fastest built-in way to take quick notes on a Mac is Quick Note: press Globe-Q (Fn-Q on keyboards that label the key Fn), or push the pointer into a hot corner, and a note opens on top of whatever you are doing. Close it and the text is already saved in Notes. If you would rather the note open from the same spot every time, with a hover and nothing to remember, Inkling keeps one in the MacBook notch behind Option-N.

The rest of this post covers how to set each method up, where each one falls short, and how to pick.

What “without opening an app” really means

Nobody minds that some app is involved. What gets in the way is the trip: switching to Notes, waiting for the window, picking a folder, making a new note, and then finding your way back to the email or call you were in. By the time you are back, the thought has often gone soft at the edges.

So the useful test for any quick note method is short:

• Can you open it from anywhere with one key or one movement?
• Does it open on top of what you are doing, rather than replacing it?
• Does it save without asking where?
• Can you get back to your work with one key?

Each method below is judged on those four.

Quick Note: the one macOS already has

Quick Note has been part of macOS since Monterey, and it is easy to miss. It is a floating Notes window that opens over any app, so the window you were working in stays where it is.

To open it:

1. Press Globe-Q. On keyboards where that key is labeled Fn, press Fn-Q.
2. Type the note. The first line becomes its title, the same as in Notes.
3. Close the window when you are done. There is no save step.

If your keyboard has no Globe or Fn key, which is common on external keyboards, use a hot corner instead:

1. Open System Settings and choose Desktop & Dock.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click Hot Corners.
3. Choose Quick Note from the menu for one of the four corners.

Out of the box the bottom-right corner is usually set to Quick Note, which explains the note that sometimes appears when you did not ask for one.

Quick Notes land in their own Quick Notes folder in the Notes app, so they reach your iPhone through iCloud if Notes already syncs there. Notes also has a setting that decides whether Quick Note reopens your last Quick Note or starts a new one; a scratchpad that is always one key away covers using it as one running page.

Where it falls short: with that setting off, each Quick Note becomes a separate note, and the folder fills up with one-line notes titled by whatever you happened to type first. The hot corner is also easy to trigger by accident when you reach for the Dock or a scroll bar.

Other built-in routes

Quick Note is the closest match, but macOS has a few other ways to get a thought down without a detour.

Stickies. Stickies, in the Applications folder, is the nearest thing macOS has to a note stuck to the screen, and it saves as you type. The catch is that Stickies has to be open already, and its notes stay on that one Mac.

Siri. If Siri is turned on, saying “make a note” followed by the thought creates a note in Notes without touching the keyboard. It works well for a single sentence and less well for a list, a link or anything you need to read back and correct.

A shortcut with its own key. The Shortcuts app can build a shortcut that asks for a line of text and adds it to a note in Notes, and each shortcut can be given a keyboard shortcut in its details. It takes some setting up, and the input box is plain, but once it exists it works from any app and always writes to the same note.

On the four-question test, all three get the thought down. Stickies is the only one that stays visible, and the shortcut is the only one that always adds to a single running note.

A note that lives in the notch

Inkling takes a different route: the note lives in the MacBook notch, the black cutout at the top of the screen that otherwise only holds the camera.

To jot something down, hover over the notch or press Option-N, and type. Press Command-Return and the note tucks back into the notch; Ink, the pair of eyes that lives there, gives a nod so you know it went in. The window you were working in never moved. When you come back later, the same note is waiting, so a running list keeps growing in one place instead of scattering across a folder.

On the four-question test: it opens from anywhere with one key or a hover, it opens over your work, it saves without asking where, and Command-Return gets you back.

A few details that matter for quick notes in particular:

• A note can hold checkboxes, links, headings, highlights, quotes, code and tables, so a jotted list can turn into a to-do list later without moving anywhere.
• Capturing a web address fetches that page’s title, so a saved link still makes sense next week.
• Both shortcuts can be changed in Settings. If you type accented letters on a US keyboard, Option-N is also how macOS types the tilde in ñ, so you may want a different key.
• On a display without a notch, such as an external monitor, a virtual notch appears in the same place.

Notes are stored on the Mac, and writing and searching work offline. There is no account to create. Sync between your own Macs is available through your own private iCloud, and it stays off until you turn it on.

When a notch note is not the answer

Be clear about what you need before you add anything:

• You capture on your phone as much as on your Mac. Inkling has no iPhone or iPad app. Quick Note, which lands in Notes and syncs through iCloud, fits better if ideas arrive on a walk as often as at the desk.
• You share notes with other people. There is no sharing or collaboration in it.
• You only take a note now and then. Quick Note costs nothing and is already on your Mac.

If none of those apply, it is $12 once after a 24-hour free trial, with no card needed to start, on macOS 14 Sonoma or later. If the trial runs out without a license, every note stays readable, searchable, copyable and exportable; a license unlocks writing and editing again.

Questions

Where do my Quick Notes end up? In the Notes app, in a folder called Quick Notes. You can move them into other folders like any note, or treat the folder as an inbox you clear out now and then.

Why does a note appear when my pointer hits the corner of the screen? That is the Quick Note hot corner. Change it or switch it off in System Settings, Desktop & Dock, Hot Corners.

Does the notch method need a MacBook with a notch? No. On displays without one, Inkling shows a virtual notch, so it works the same way on an external monitor or on a Mac without a notch, as long as it runs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Can I get my notes out later? Yes. Notes export as Markdown, rich text or PDF, and Markdown files can be imported too. Daily local backups are kept on the Mac as well.