A quick notes app for the thing you need to write down right now
A phone number read out on a call. A tracking code. Three measurements for the shelf you are about to buy. These need a quick notes app, not a document, and opening a full editor for them is slower than the moment allows. Scratch Paper is a single sheet that waits in the notification area and appears above the taskbar the instant you click its icon.
Whatever you type is stored as you go, so there is no save button and no file name to think up. Press Esc or click into another window and the pad tucks itself away, or switch on Keep the pad open when you want it to stay.
Under that plain sheet sit three helpers: a way to copy text from the screen that you cannot select, sums that finish themselves, and buttons for the links, phone numbers and times you write.
Copy text from the screen, even when it will not select
Error dialogs, a slide in a video call, a scanned page, a photo of a menu: the words are right there and Ctrl+C does nothing. Press Ctrl+Alt+S, or press Snip text on the pad, then drag a box around the words. The app reads the box with the text recognition that ships with Windows and types the result onto your current sheet.
If the snip picked up more than you wanted, Undo puts the sheet back exactly as it was. If the box held no readable words, the pad says so instead of pasting noise.
A notepad calculator that answers as you type
Write a line with numbers in it, such as Carpet: 4.2 x 3.6 or Tip: 20% of $64, and the total appears at the right-hand end of that line. Click the answer to copy it. You never switch to a calculator, and your working stays on the page above the result.
Temperatures, data sizes, times, volumes, weights and lengths are all understood, so a line such as 12 inches in cm or 350 f to c converts in place. If you would rather keep the sheet plain, turn off Answer sums as I write in Settings.
Tear off sheets, and pin notes to the desktop
When a sheet has done its job, press Tear off for a clean one. Torn sheets are not deleted; the last 30 sit under Earlier sheets, where each can be put back on the pad, copied whole or thrown away.
Some notes need to stay in view, like a Wi-Fi password for a guest or the steps of a task in progress. Drag the sheet off the pad, or use Pin to the desktop, and it becomes a small note of its own that sits in front of other windows. You can have 12 of these at once, and each reopens where you left it.
- Paper: Ruled, Graph paper or Plain
- Text size: Small, Medium, Large or Extra large
- Theme: Light, Dark or Match Windows
- Shortcuts for opening the pad and for snipping are both your choice
