Everything Stickle can do, one feature at a time. If you are new, 'Getting started' and 'Writing notes' are enough to begin; come back to the rest when you need it. In the app, F1 shows every shortcut.
Stickle 0.5
On Windows, the Microsoft Store is the easiest way: it installs without a warning and keeps Stickle up to date. You can also download the zip from GitHub, unzip it anywhere and run stickle.exe. The Store copy and the zip keep notes in the same folder, so moving between them keeps your notes.
On Linux, download the AppImage, make it executable and run it. The first time, Stickle offers to add itself to your application list. There is nothing else to install: no runtime, no fonts.
The first start asks for your language, where you will use your notes and whether to start Stickle when you log in, then shows a recovery key. The recovery key is the only way to open your notes if the key kept on this computer is lost, so copy it or save it to a file, and keep it somewhere other than this computer.
Then a sample note shows the basics. Delete it once you have read it.
Stickle lives in the tray (notification area) rather than the taskbar. Its menu, on a right click, has new notes, hidden notes, the language, quitting and more. While the menu is open, the underlined letter of an item (N for a new note, Q to quit) or the number before a hidden note picks it. On Windows and KDE, double-click the icon for a new note.
The Stickle window holds the list of notes and every feature. Open it with 'Open Stickle' in the tray menu, with Ctrl+Alt+S, or by starting Stickle again. On desktops without a tray, such as Fedora's standard GNOME, this window reaches everything.
A note normally shows its formatting. To change the text, double-click it or press Enter or F2. You then edit the plain text; Esc, or clicking elsewhere, shows the formatted note again. A single click only selects the note, so reading or scrolling never drops you into editing by mistake.
Changes are saved by themselves. There is no Save button.
Markdown marks show as formatting. If you do not know Markdown, just write.
# Heading, **bold**, *italic*, ==highlight==, - list, 1. numbered list, - [ ] checkbox, ` code , [link](https://…)`.
An address starting with https:// becomes a link without brackets. Links open with one click; for safety, only web and mail addresses are opened.
Paste text copied from a web page or a word processor, and its headings, bold, italic, lists, checklists, quotes, links and code come along. Formatting a note cannot show (fonts, colours, table layout) leaves just the text; pictures leave their description and are never loaded.
Text that is only coloured, as code editors copy it, pastes as it was written, and pasted Markdown shows formatted straight away. 'New note from clipboard' works the same way.
Write - [ ] something to do for a checkbox. While editing, typing [] makes one too.
In the formatted note, click a box once to tick it and again to clear it. With the keyboard, choose it with Tab and press Space.
Enter at the end of a list item starts the next item, and numbers count on. Enter on an empty item ends the list.
On a list line, Tab moves the item in and Shift+Tab out, so checklists can have checklists inside them. For a new line without a list mark, press Shift+Enter.
Type ``` ` `` at the start of a line and press Enter`: the closing marks appear too, with the cursor in between. Inside a code block the list helpers stay out of the way.
In the formatted note, point at a code block to see a [Copy] button at its top right. It copies the code without the marks.
Click the three dots (⋯) at the right of a note's title bar, right-click the title bar, or press F10 to open the note menu. Most of what follows is there.
Pick one of 12 pastel colours under 'Color' in the note menu. A note made with Ctrl+N in a note takes that note's colour; a note made from the tray or the Stickle window takes the colour you chose last.
New notes stay above other windows. Click the pin in the title bar to turn that off, and the note can go behind other windows. A note that stays on top has a strip of tape on the corner of the icon at the left of its title bar, so you can tell at a glance.
To bring back notes buried behind other windows, use 'Bring all notes to front' in the tray or the Stickle window.
Choose 100 % to 60 % under 'Opacity when not in use' in the note menu, and the note lets what is behind it show through while you work in another window. Click the note and it is solid again, for reading and writing.
Double-click the title bar to fold a note down to its title bar, which then shows the note's first line. Double-click again, or press Enter, to unfold it.
The ✕ in the title bar (or Ctrl+W) hides a note. It is not deleted: bring it back from 'Hidden notes' in the tray or from the Stickle window.
To delete a note, choose 'Delete note' in the note menu. It goes to the trash at once, without asking, and 'Restore the note just deleted' in the tray or the Stickle window brings it straight back.
'Lock note' in the note menu locks where the note is, its size and its text, so it cannot be moved or changed by mistake. A locked note shows a padlock at the left of its title bar. Colour, the pin, folding and hiding still work.
Drop a note near another note or the edge of the screen and it slides into line. To drop it exactly where it is, hold Alt as you let go.
Hold Shift while dragging to move the notes lined up with it as one group.
Resizing by the bottom right corner lines up too: let go near the edge of a note beside it, and the edges meet. Notes one above the other get the same width, notes side by side the same height.
If you would rather notes stayed exactly where you let them go, turn off 'Line notes up like a magnet' in the tray menu or the Stickle window.
Choose 'Move with the arrow keys' or 'Resize with the arrow keys' in the note menu, then use the arrow keys: 10 pixels at a time, or 1 with Shift. Enter finishes, Esc puts it back.
Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab go to the next and previous note on the screen.
A category says what a note is about: work, home, study. Each note can have one. Make one from the note menu: 'Category' → 'New category…', with a name, a colour and an icon.
A note with a category shows the category's icon at the left of its title bar; point at it to see the name.
Marks say how to deal with a note. To do, Urgent, Important and Waiting are there to start with, and you can add your own. A note can have several, shown as icons at the right of its title bar.
'Manage categories and marks…' in the Stickle window renames (F2), changes colours and icons, reorders (Alt+Up, Alt+Down) and deletes. When you delete a category, you choose whether only the category comes off its notes or the notes go to the trash too.
Choose a category under 'Show on the desktop' in the tray, or 'On the desktop' in the Stickle window, and only that category's notes stay; the rest step aside for a while. New notes made meanwhile get that category. 'Show all' brings everything back.
Give 'Next category only' a shortcut to step through the categories with one key.
In the Stickle window, press Ctrl+F and type: only matching notes stay. Search ignores upper and lower case and finds words inside longer words, in Korean too. Notes in the trash are searched as well.
Above the list, filter by what to show (all notes, notes on screen, hidden notes, the trash), by category and by mark. Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 choose a category, Ctrl+0 every note.
'Find on the desktop' (in the tray menu, or with a shortcut you set) opens a small search box at the top of the screen; as you type, only matching notes stay on the desktop. Enter goes to the first one, Esc puts everything back.
The top of the Stickle window lists every note, most recently changed first. Enter or a double-click brings a note to the front (a hidden note shows again), Del deletes it, and a right-click hides or shows it.
Deleted notes stay in the trash for a year, to restore whenever you like. Emptying the trash cannot be undone, so Stickle asks first. Notes older than a year are emptied by themselves.
Ctrl+Alt+H, or 'Hide all notes for now' in the tray menu, takes every note off the screen; do it again to put them back. Meanwhile the tray icon fades, so an empty desktop is not taken for lost notes.
'New note from clipboard' in the tray or the Stickle window makes a note from the text you copied.
Once a day Stickle asks stickle.linkro.co whether a new version is out, and nothing more: it sends nothing about you or your notes. When there is one, it shows quietly at the top of the tray menu and of the Stickle window; click it to open the page to get it. Nothing pops up.
If you would rather it did not ask, turn off 'Check for a new version daily' in the tray or the Stickle window, and Stickle connects to nothing on the internet. The Microsoft Store copy has no such check: the Store keeps it up to date.
Turn 'Start Stickle when I log in' on or off in the tray or the Stickle window. In the unsigned Windows zip it starts off, to avoid antivirus false alarms; the Store copy does not have this problem.
Even while you use another program, Ctrl+Alt+N makes a new note, Ctrl+Alt+S opens the Stickle window and Ctrl+Alt+H hides all notes for now. Change or turn them off under 'Shortcuts from anywhere' at the bottom of the Stickle window. 'Find on the desktop' and 'Next category only' have no keys to start with; set them if you want them.
In a Wayland session on Linux, the desktop asks once whether to allow the shortcuts, and they are changed in the desktop's settings.
Press F1 (or Ctrl+/) in a note or the Stickle window to see every shortcut. The table below is the same.
Notes are stored encrypted on your computer. The key that opens them is kept in the system's password store (Windows Credential Manager, the keyring on Linux), so Stickle does not usually ask for a password. Where there is no password store, and in portable use, it asks for the notes' password at each start.
The recovery key opens your notes when the key is lost, for example after reinstalling the system or clearing the password store. If you lose the recovery key, make a new one with 'Make a new recovery key…' in the Stickle window; the old one then stops working.
Once a day Stickle backs up all your notes and keeps the backups for a week, encrypted with the same key as the notes. However long you are away, the newest backup is always kept.
If you deleted too much, or need your notes as they were, choose a time under 'Data' → 'Restore from a backup…' in the tray or the Stickle window; each backup shows its date and how many notes it holds. Your notes as they are now are backed up first, so if you change your mind you can come back the same way. Stickle then starts again.
Backups are on this computer, so a failed disk takes them too. To keep a copy elsewhere, use export.
'Data' → 'Bring notes in from another app…' in the tray or the Stickle window lists the sticky-note apps whose notes are on this computer: for now Microsoft Sticky Notes and Zhorn Stickies on Windows, and xpad and Indicator Stickynotes on Linux. The other app may be running meanwhile. For a file copied from another computer, use 'Choose a file…'.
Before anything comes, Stickle shows how many notes will, and what formatting stays behind (underline, fonts and so on). Each note takes the nearest of Stickle's colours and keeps its place and category where it had them. Notes brought in once do not come again. Tick 'Add where each note came from, at its end' and each note ends with a highlighted line naming the app and the date.
The other app's files are only read, never changed, so it goes on working as before.
Choose a folder under 'Data' → 'Export all notes…' in the tray or the Stickle window, and Stickle makes a new folder in it with one Markdown file per note; notes in the trash go into a trash folder. Markdown opens in any notes app or text editor.
Everything else, from colours and places to categories, marks and settings, goes into stickle-export.json beside them. Use it to move your notes or keep a copy elsewhere.
The exported files are not encrypted, so keep them where others cannot read them.
A new version opens your existing notes. When an update changes how notes are stored, the notes from before are kept in the backups folder where the notes are.
The first time Stickle starts after an update, a note tells what changed in that version. It is an ordinary note: hide or delete it once read, and it does not come back. A new installation does not get one.
On Windows, download the -portable.zip and unzip it anywhere. Any other copy becomes portable too: create an empty folder named stickle-data in the folder that holds stickle.exe (on Linux, the AppImage).
Portable Stickle keeps its settings and notes only in that folder, asks for the notes' password at each start, and does not start at login or add itself to the application list.
The zip is not code-signed yet, so Windows may say it protected your PC: choose 'More info → Run anyway'. If Microsoft Defender blocks Stickle, please tell us on GitHub. The Store copy is signed by Microsoft, so this does not happen there.
With automatic login, the desktop's keyring stays locked, so when Stickle starts with you it asks for your login password, as any app using the keyring does. Turn automatic login off, or give the login keyring an empty password, and it will not ask.
'Report a problem or idea…' in the tray or in About Stickle opens a GitHub issue draft in your browser, with the version, system, desktop, input method and screen scale already filled in: add what you did and what happened, and submit it. Nothing is sent until you do, and the draft holds no note text or folder paths.
If you can, attach the log file too. It holds nothing personal either, such as note text or folder paths.
The log file: on Windows %APPDATA%\Stickle\logs\stickle.log, on Linux ~/.local/share/stickle/logs/stickle.log.
| New note | Ctrl+Alt+N |
|---|---|
| Open the Stickle window | Ctrl+Alt+S |
| Hide all notes for now, or show them again | Ctrl+Alt+H |
| Show only the notes of the next category | none (set your own) |
| Find notes on the desktop | none (set your own) |
| New note | Ctrl+N |
|---|---|
| Hide the note | Ctrl+W |
| Note menu | F10 |
| To the next note, or the one before | Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
| Edit the text | Enter, F2 |
| Back to the formatted note | Esc |
| Choose a checkbox, link or code block | Tab, Shift+Tab |
| Check, open or copy what is chosen | Space, Enter |
| These keys | F1, Ctrl+/ |
| Next list item, or end the list | Enter |
|---|---|
| Move a list item in or out | Tab, Shift+Tab |
| A new line only | Shift+Enter |
| A checkbox | [ ] |
| A code block | ``` Enter |
| Search the notes | Ctrl+F |
|---|---|
| Only one category's notes, or all | Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+9, Ctrl+0 |
| Open the note | Enter |
| Delete the note | Del |
| Rename a category or mark | F2 |
| Move a category or mark up or down | Alt+Up, Alt+Down |
| Close the window | Esc |