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RAMnotes keeps plain-text notes in a folder you choose. Open the note list to find a note, or use the global shortcut to bring your open notes back.

Contents

Getting started

Open RAMnotes to see the note list. Choose New Note to create a note, or select an existing note to open it in its own window. A new note is saved as a UTF-8 .txt file in the current notes folder. Blank notes stay in the folder until you delete them.

The default notes folder is inside RAMnotes’ Application Support data. To choose another folder, open Settings → General → Choose Default Folder… and select a folder. RAMnotes asks for access to that folder so it can read and save your notes.

Showing and hiding notes

The default global shortcut is Control–Backslash (⌃\\). Change it in Settings → Keyboard → Global Shortcut. Press the shortcut to hide the visible note group, or press it again to reveal the notes that were open. Hiding the group does not close or delete notes.

You can also enable Menu-bar scroll gesture in Settings. With it enabled, scroll either direction over the menu bar to toggle notes. The gesture may also respond to a compatible mouse wheel. If macOS prevents the gesture from working, check the status shown in Settings and use Retry Gesture.

Press Escape to hide notes after any open menu or dialog is dismissed. If no notes are open when you reveal the group, RAMnotes opens the note list.

Note windows and background tint

Each note opens in its own window. The list button in a note window returns to the note list. Closing a note window with its close button or ⌘W saves pending edits and closes the window; the note remains in the list. Open it from the list to show it again.

Use the palette button in the header to set a background tint for that note. The tint is a local display preference: it does not change the .txt file and does not travel with a copy of that file.

Notes are plain text. RAMnotes saves edits automatically; it does not add rich-text styling or render Markdown. Standard macOS text editing, spelling, grammar, and Services are available where supported by macOS.

RAMnotes recognizes links in a note. Hold Command and click a link to open it in your default browser. Copy and paste happen only when you use the usual macOS commands; RAMnotes does not read your clipboard when you open a note.

Search and the note list

Press ⌘⇧F to open the note list with its search field focused. Search matches note filenames and text without regard to capitalization. When you enter more than one word, every word must match. Results are ordered by recent edits. With an empty query, the list shows all notes, most recently edited first.

Use Up and Down to move through results and Return to open the selected note. Search results include a matching text excerpt. If some files are unavailable, the list marks results as incomplete; use Retry Folder in Settings or make the file available and retry.

Tints

The background tint menu offers No color, Gray, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, and Purple. A small dot beside a note in the list shows when it has a tint. Tint settings are stored on this Mac, separately from note text.

Your notes folder and iCloud Drive

RAMnotes reads regular .txt files directly inside the selected folder; it does not scan subfolders. You can choose a folder in iCloud Drive. iCloud availability and storage are governed by Apple’s services and terms.

To change the default folder, choose Settings → General → Choose Default Folder…. In the confirmation, Move existing notes to the new location is selected by default. Clear it to leave those files in place. Notes registered from custom paths are not moved by this option. You can also move or rename .txt files in Finder; RAMnotes will update the list when it detects the change.

When setting up RAMnotes on another Mac, choose the notes folder again. Folder access is granted by macOS for that Mac and does not transfer with the app.

Deleting and Undo

Choose Move to Trash in a note window or use ⌘⌫ to delete a note. RAMnotes asks before moving the file to the macOS Trash. The latest deletion can be undone during the current app session; if the original name is already in use, the restored note gets a new name. You can also restore the file from the macOS Trash.

Recovery notes

If RAMnotes cannot save a note, keep its window open while you use Retry or Export. A recovery copy is preserved when journaling succeeds. Do not close a window that reports an unresolved save problem unless you have exported the text.

If a file changes or disappears outside RAMnotes while it has unsaved edits, RAMnotes preserves the local text as a separate recovery note and shows links to the original and recovery copy when available. If iCloud Drive or another volume is temporarily unavailable, use Retry Folder in Settings after it becomes available.

Settings

Settings lets you choose the default notes folder, configure the global shortcut and optional menu-bar gesture, opt in to launching RAMnotes at login, and change window and appearance preferences. In Appearance, choose a font family, weight, size, line spacing, and System, Light, or Dark appearance. Always on top is off by default.

For login launch, RAMnotes starts in the background without opening note windows. Use the global shortcut to show the notes you left open.

Keyboard shortcuts

ActionShortcut
Toggle open notes⌃\ by default; configurable in Settings
New note⌘N
Search notes / open the note list⌘⇧F
Show the note list⌘L by default; configurable in Settings
Search inside the current note⌘F
Next note⌘] by default; configurable in Settings
Previous note⌘[ by default; configurable in Settings
Move the current note to Trash⌘⌫ by default; configurable in Settings
Hide notes or dismiss transient UIEscape
Close the current window⌘W
Increase / decrease note font size⌘+ / ⌘−
Reset note font size⌘0
Open Settings⌘,
Quit RAMnotes⌘Q
Undo / redo, cut, copy, paste, select all⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z, ⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘A

You can change the global shortcut and the note list, next note, previous note, and Move to Trash shortcuts in Settings → Keyboard.

Installing a GitHub build

RAMnotes’ direct GitHub build is signed ad hoc. On first launch, Gatekeeper may block it. In System Settings → Privacy & Security, use Open Anyway for RAMnotes, or follow the release instructions for removing the quarantine flag in Terminal. Only remove quarantine for a build you trust.

After installing on a new Mac, choose your notes folder again in Settings. The folder’s permission does not transfer between Macs.