Try This Mac Notepad Alternative to Give Your Notes Superpowers
When it comes to note-taking apps on Mac, it’s hard to beat Apple Notes as it has a lot of features and has proven to be quite reliable. But in my workflow, I sometimes miss using Notepad on my Mac, something like Notepad on Windows. I like to use tools like this to describe my articles, jot down notes that can turn into story ideas, or just create quick to-do lists for mundane tasks.
macOS has a built-in app called Stickies that does some of these things, but it’s in desperate need of an update as the design looks dated and isn’t ideal for working with multiple notes. I recently discovered Antinote , a beautifully designed app that does everything I need in a notes app and has plenty of other features, including creating Pomodoro timers and currency conversions that will appeal to advanced users, too. Antinote has a seven-day free trial, after which you can pay a one-time fee of $5 to purchase the app.
Speed ​​up your Antinote workflow
The first thing you need to do after downloading Antinote is to learn the hotkey to launch it (by default it is option-A) . Personally, I’ve set up a custom keyboard shortcut to launch an app when I need it, which you can do in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Global Hotkey , and it works very well for my workflow.
I usually don’t need to use this shortcut. Instead, I usually pin Antinote to my screen, which means it sits in a floating window above all my other apps. However, when you use any application on your Mac in full screen mode, Antinote hides itself. In these cases, using the hotkey takes you to the desktop and back to Antinote, which is a lifesaver.
You should also take a minute or two to customize Antinote to your liking, starting with Settings > Visuals . Here, the app lets you choose whether you want it to appear in the Dock, Menu Bar, or neither. I recently switched to Barbee for menu bar management , which allows me to control the chaos when I have many apps open in my menu bar and that’s why I prefer to use Antinote as my menu bar app. However, sometimes I make it a “headless” application, meaning that it only appears when I use a keyboard shortcut to launch it (another reason to remember it).
Understanding Antinote Keywords
Antinote uses keywords to decide which features are enabled on a given note. You can type the word “timer” at the top of the note and it will show you all the commands needed to start the timer. For example, enter “timer 5” to start a five-minute timer, or “pomo timer” to turn on the Pomodoro timer , which allows you to work for 25 minutes before starting a five-minute timer for breaks. Other keywords include “math” for calculations, “paste” to have Antinote save your clipboard history, and “list” to run a checklist. Go to the app settings and go to the Keywords tab to remember or customize all these keywords.
Navigation between notes
While there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts for managing notes, I like how the app uses swipes to switch between different notes. You can use your Mac’s trackpad to perform these gestures. Swipe left with two fingers to start a new note, and swipe right to go to a previous note. This way, you can view your entire note history by simply swiping your finger across the screen. These gestures are quick, and notes open almost instantly after swiping in any direction.
Antinote also automatically saves all your notes in the app, but if you want to share a note with others, you can click the Share button in the bottom right corner of the app window. The note will be saved as a text file in the folder you selected. You can then use other apps to share the note. Unfortunately, there is no real-time collaboration feature.
Interesting additional features
Besides being quick and easy to use for jotting down ideas or quickly converting units of measurement, this app has several other useful features in its toolbox. You can take a screenshot of text and the app will use OCR to extract it into a note. The default macOS keyboard shortcut is Command-Control-Shift-4 to take a snapshot of an area on the screen . Use this to copy the screenshot to your clipboard and paste it into Antinote. The application will automatically extract any text for you.
I also like Antinote’s distraction-free user interface. It displays text and allows you to write without showing all available buttons until you move your cursor over those buttons. There are a few buttons at the top of the app window and a few at the bottom, so if you find you can’t find what you need, try both places. One of the buttons at the top is a global search button that allows you to search across all your Antinote notes, which is very useful.
The app allows you to set an automatic deletion schedule, which is good if you primarily want to use it for temporary notes. In its settings, go to the Notes section to configure this. I’ve set it to delete notes after a month, but you can even clear everything in the app within a day if you want. The app also supports multiple themes, available under Settings > Visuals . For example, you can make the app more like a physical notebook, or change the canvas from unlined to ruled or grid-based.
Settings > Visuals also allows you to change the default window size and font size to suit your needs. When I use my MacBook’s display, I set it to medium, but increase the font size when the laptop is connected to a large monitor.