The App

Note taking that stays out of your way

Plain text notes that strip formatting on paste, reveal hidden Unicode characters, and sync across all your Macs via iCloud. Everything you need, nothing you do not.

ScratchPadIt showing a plain text file with line numbers, coloured URLs, and a sidebar listing linked files and page groups — **Plain text, with line numbers** A text file open from disk, with links picked out and the sidebar showing files above pages.

A ScratchPadIt page with paragraphs above a seven row table whose cells contain several lines of text each — **Tables inside a page** A table sits in the text where you put it. Cells hold as many lines as they need.

The ScratchPadIt window split into three editor panes, each showing a different document side by side — **Three documents at once** Compare a checklist against the runbook it came from, without leaving the window.

A CSS file in ScratchPadIt with selectors, properties and values in different colours and several rules folded to one line — **Stylesheets, folded** Rules collapse to a single line so the shape of a stylesheet is visible at a glance.

A JSON configuration file in ScratchPadIt with nested objects, coloured keys and values, and fold arrows in the gutter — **JSON that stays readable** Objects and arrays fold away, and stay folded when you switch documents and come back.

ScratchPadIt showing markdown source on the left and the rendered document on the right — **Markdown, as you write it** The rendered page updates beside the source. It is a view, never a second file to save.

A context menu open in ScratchPadIt with the Text Tools submenu showing options such as Pretty-Print JSON, Base64 encode, URL encode and Trim Trailing Whitespace — **Text tools where you are** Pretty-print JSON, encode and decode, trim whitespace, sort or dedupe lines. On the selection, in place.

Features

Built for the way you actually work

No formatting toolbars, no rich text, no bloat. Just fast, reliable plain text. Everything here is free.

📄

Multiple Pages

Keep as many separate pages as you need. Switch between them instantly from the sidebar. Add or delete pages in one click.

☁️

iCloud Sync

Your pages sync automatically across all your Macs via iCloud. Everything is always right where you left it, no setup required.

⚙️

Per Page Settings

Each page has its own settings for word wrap, delete protection, and invisible character detection. Files you open keep their own word wrap and invisible characters too. Customize one without touching any other.

🔤

Font and Color Control

Choose your font, size, text color, and background color. Global preferences apply everywhere so the look stays consistent across all pages.

🔍

Invisible Character Detection

Reveal hidden Unicode characters with a visible marker. Find and remove zero width spaces, non breaking spaces, and other invisible characters before they cause problems.

🔍

Find in a Page

Search the page or file you are looking at, with the find bar every Mac app has. Free, from the toolbar or ⌘F.

🏷️

Name a Page, or Do Not

A page is named after its first line, which is right until you paste JSON in and it is called a curly brace. Rename any page, or clear the name and it goes back to using the first line.

↕️

Sort and Filter

Sort your pages by newest, oldest, alphabetically, or last modified. Filter to find any page or open file instantly, by whatever it is called in the sidebar.

🔢

Line Numbers and Folding

Numbered lines down the side, and a fold arrow beside every bracket and brace. Collapse a whole level at once, switch to another page, and it is still folded when you come back.

🎨

Code Coloring

Open a stylesheet, a script, a config file, an XML feed or a property list and it is coloured as you read it: strings, numbers, comments, selectors, properties, tags, attributes and whole web addresses. Ten colours, all of them yours to change in Preferences, with one click back to the defaults.

📂

Open Any Text File

Open a file from anywhere on your Mac and read or edit it right here, or copy its contents into a page and keep it. Both are free. Markdown files are part of Premium.

Premium

More, for when a scratchpad is not quite enough

One purchase, no subscription. Everything above stays free and keeps working exactly as it does today.

✏️

Edit Files Where They Live

Open a file from anywhere on your Mac, or create a new one wherever you want it, and save your changes straight back to disk. No copying, no exporting, no second version to keep track of.

📝

See Markdown As You Write It

Open a markdown file and watch it render beside the text, updating as you type. Headings, lists, tables, quotes, code and links, all in your own font and colours. Show both, or just the text, or just the formatted page.

🧮

Tables in a Page

Insert a grid anywhere in a page. Drag the edges to size it, merge cells across rows and columns, and align the text inside them. It is stored as plain text, so it survives export and sync.

🪟

Up to Three Documents at Once

Put pages or files side by side to compare them, each scrolling on its own. Close any pane when you are done with it.

📋

Copy a Line From the Gutter

Click a line number and that whole line goes to the clipboard, whether it fits on one row or wraps across three. Drag down the gutter to take a run of them at once. Nothing to select by hand, no missing the end of a long line.

🔎

Find and Replace Everywhere

Regular expressions with capture groups, and search across every page at once instead of one at a time.

✨

Text Tools

Format and minify JSON, encode and decode Base64 and URLs, deduplicate and trim lines, join and split on commas, and hash a selection.

🗂️

Groups

Collect pages into folders in the sidebar, drag them in and out, and collapse a group to keep a long list short.

📤

Export

Write any page out to a text file, from the File menu or by right-clicking it in the sidebar.

Per page settings

Every page on its own terms

Different pages serve different purposes. A deployment checklist needs word wrap off. A draft email needs it on. A private page needs delete protection so nothing gets wiped by accident.

ScratchPadIt gives each page its own configuration so you never have to undo a global setting just because one page needs something different.

Word Wrap Delete Protection Show Invisibles Sort by Date Sort Alphabetically Line Numbers Code Folding Markdown Preview

Word Wrap

Delete Protection

Show Invisibles

ScratchPadIt: plain text notes for Mac