Getting Started with Handy Note

Handy Note is a beautifully crafted sticky notes app for Mac. It lives in your menu bar and lets you quickly jot down ideas, organise notes with hashtags, customise themes, and keep important information visible on your desktop.

Launching the App

Handy Note runs as a menu bar app. After launching, you will see its icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Click the icon to create a new note or access an existing one.

On first launch, a welcome note appears with a brief overview of the app.

Creating Notes

To create a new note, use one of these methods:

• Press Cmd+N on your keyboard
• Click the Handy Note menu bar icon and select New Note
• Use the File > New menu

You can create an unlimited number of sticky notes.

Note Controls

Each note has a gear icon in the top-left corner. Click it to access the following options:

Window Opacity

Use the slider to adjust the transparency of your note. This is useful for keeping notes visible without fully covering your desktop content.

Window Level

• Normal -- the note behaves like a regular window and goes behind other apps when they are in focus.
• Floating -- the note stays pinned above all other windows, always visible on screen.

Delete Note

When you delete a note, you are prompted to either save its contents to a file on your Mac or discard it entirely.

Resizable Windows

Drag the bottom-right corner of any note to resize it horizontally and vertically.

Collapsible Windows

Double-click the title bar of a note to collapse it down to a single line showing the first line of text as a title. Double-click again to expand it.

Word and Character Count

Click the counter in the top-right corner of any note to cycle through word count, paragraph count, and character count.

Hashtag Search

You can tag notes using the # symbol (for example, #todo or #work). To search for tagged notes:

1. Click the magnifying glass icon in the top-left corner of any note (next to the gear icon).
2. Type a tag into the search field.
3. Only notes containing that tag will be displayed.

You can also trigger the tag search from anywhere using the global hotkey (default: Ctrl+Shift+N). This can be configured in Settings.

Menu Bar Access

Click the Handy Note icon in the menu bar to quickly create a new note or jump to any existing note without needing to locate it on your desktop.

macOS Services Integration

Select text in any app on your Mac and send it directly to a new Handy Note via the macOS Services menu. No manual copy-paste needed.

Troubleshooting

Notes are not visible on screen

If your notes are open but hidden behind other windows, try setting the window level to Floating via the gear icon on the note. You can also click the menu bar icon and select a note from the View Note submenu to bring it to the front.

The menu bar icon is missing

Open Settings and make sure Show Menu Bar Icon is enabled.