Jot a quick note
Scratchpads catch a thought in two keystrokes, and Sticky Notes keep a note floating on screen. Both stay on this computer.
A scratchpad catches a thought before you lose it: a phone number, a command, a reminder to check something later. Your notes are saved in Yardmaster's own database on this computer. Yardmaster never sends them anywhere by itself; if you set up Backup Mirror, it copies them, encrypted, to the folder you pick.
Write a note#
Press Shift plus Command plus S⇧⌘SCtrl plus Shift plus SCtrlShiftS from anywhere in Yardmaster, or click Scratchpad in the toolbar at the top of the window.
Type your note. You can also paste a screenshot or other image.
Press EscEscEscEsc (or Command plus Enter⌘EnterCtrl plus EnterCtrlEnter) to save and close.
The first line becomes the note's title. A note under 3 characters is thrown away instead of saved, so an accidental open leaves nothing behind.
To write several notes in a row, press Command plus T⌘TCtrl plus TCtrlT while the window is open: it saves the note and gives you a blank one, without closing.
Find an older note#
In the quick note window, click the notes count under the title (for example "12 notes"), or press Command plus L⌘LCtrl plus LCtrlL. Your notes appear on the left, newest first. Click one to open it and keep editing; changes save as you type.
For a bigger view, click Open in its own window (the small window button) to give your notes a separate window you can park beside your work. You can also add a Scratchpads row to the sidebar's Productivity group with Show Scratchpads in sidebar. Both views have a filter box and a Create scratchpad button.
Copy, style and tidy a note#
Copy all copies the whole note as plain text.
Markdown (a T button in the full view) turns on live styling: lines that start with
#become headings, text in**stars**turns bold, and lines that start with-become a list. The characters stay in your text; only the look changes.Click a pasted image to get Copy image and a corner handle to resize it. Right-click it to remove it.
To delete a note, open it in the full view and click Delete scratchpad, then Delete. An Undo button appears for a few seconds.
Keep a note on screen with Sticky Notes#
A sticky note floats above the whole app, so a reminder stays in view while you switch projects.
Click More toolbar items (the three dots) in the toolbar and choose Sticky Notes. A pale yellow note appears.
Type on it. It saves as you type.
Drag it by its top bar, and resize it from the bottom-right corner.
Each note has buttons along the top: New note, Change color (six soft colors), Minimize (it shrinks to a small chip you click to open again) and Delete note, which asks first because a deleted sticky note cannot be brought back. Clicking Sticky Notes again hides all your notes; they come back where you left them.
Sticky notes are saved on this computer, like scratchpads. They are on at first; to remove the button, open Settings > Optional Features and turn off Enable Sticky Notes.
List shortcuts. In a scratchpad, Command plus .⌘.Ctrl plus .Ctrl. turns the line into a bullet and Command plus /⌘/Ctrl plus /Ctrl/ into a numbered item. Press again to undo it.
More quick note keys. Command plus W⌘WCtrl plus WCtrlW also saves and closes. TabTabTabTab shows or hides the list of notes and Shift plus Tab⇧TabShift plus TabShiftTab hides it.
Export. In the full view, Export saves a note as a PDF file. If you turned on Word or Google Docs export in Settings, it can also save a Word file, or Export to Google Docs creates a new Google Doc in your Google account (that copy leaves this computer).
Change the key. The quick note key is Quick scratchpad in the keyboard shortcuts settings: see Keyboard shortcuts.
Notes for your agents. Scratchpads are for you. For notes an agent should read, see The Vault or project notes.