SimpleTextPad
A notepad that just holds text
SimpleTextPad keeps your notes in tabs across the top of one dark window, saves every keystroke as you type, and never changes a character of what you wrote.
Version 1.04 · macOS 14 Sonoma or later
Thursday standup - ship the export fix, it's been sitting for a week - ask Dana about the migration window - follow up on the invoice from the 3rd pasted from the terminal, unmangled: rsync -avh --delete ~/site/ box:/var/www/site/ no smart quotes: "like this" and 'like this' no em dash swap: -- stays --
What it does
Nine tenths of a notepad is staying out of the way. Here is the other tenth.
Tabs across the top
Every note gets a tab. Each one keeps its own scroll position, selection and undo history while you switch between them.
Saves itself
Notes are written to disk as you type, when you switch away, and when you quit. There is no save button because there is nothing to remember to press.
Comes back as you left it
Your tabs, their order, their names and the one you had open are all restored the next time you launch.
Nothing is rewritten
Autocorrect, automatic capitals, curly quotes, dash substitution and text replacement are all switched off. What you type is what gets saved, as UTF-8.
Deleting takes two steps
Closing a tab asks first, so a note never disappears by accident. An empty tab you never touched closes without the interruption.
Open a file, and it stays linked
Open any text file, or Save As a new one, and the tab is tied to it: every later edit is written straight there. SimpleTextPad never deletes a file outside its own storage.
Text size, not formatting
Eleven sizes from 10 pt to 32 pt. It applies to every tab and is remembered between launches, and it changes nothing in the saved file.
Live count
Lines, characters and the line you’re on, in the status bar, along with the path of the file a tab is bound to.
Code and config, too
Plenty of what ends up in a notepad is a command, a config file or a bit of script. SimpleTextPad opens those files as they are, and can colour them so they read the way they would in an editor.
# Shrink every photo in a folder to 1600px wide. from pathlib import Path from PIL import Image WIDTH = 1600 def shrink_all(folder): count = 0 for path in Path(folder).glob("*.jpg"): image = Image.open(path) if image.width > WIDTH: height = int(image.height * WIDTH / image.width) image.resize((WIDTH, height)).save(path) count += 1 return f"shrank {count} photos"
{} again and it is plain text: the colours are never written into the file.Code view
The {} button in the top bar, or ⇧⌘C, colours each tab by its file type: comments, strings, numbers, keywords, and the key on the left of each : or = in a config file. It is off until you turn it on. After that it applies to every tab and stays on between launches.
Like the text size, it changes how a note looks and nothing else. What gets saved is exactly what you typed, and a .txt note stays plain because there is nothing in it to colour.
Opens what you work in
Use Open… (⌘O), or right-click a file in Finder and choose Open With ▸ SimpleTextPad. The tab is tied to that file and every edit is written straight back to it. Save As keeps the extension you type, so config.toml stays config.toml and never turns into config.toml.txt.
| Kind | Files |
|---|---|
| Config | .json .yaml .yml .toml .ini .cfg .conf .xml .plist |
| Docs | .txt .md .markdown .rst .log .csv .tsv |
| Web | .html .css .scss .js .jsx .ts .tsx .vue .svelte |
| Languages | .py .rb .go .rs .swift .java .kt .c .h .cpp .cs .php .lua .sql |
| Shell and dotfiles | .sh .bash .zsh .ps1 .bat .gitignore .editorconfig .npmrc .env |
What it doesn't do
Worth knowing before you install it, because none of this is coming in a later update by surprise.
- No formatting. No bold, no headings, no bullets, no markdown preview, no fonts to choose. Plain text, one font, one size at a time. Code view colours what is on screen and never writes anything into the file.
- No sync. Notes live on the Mac you wrote them on. SimpleTextPad has no iCloud, no server and no account. If you want a note somewhere else, use Save As and put the file where you like.
- No network. The app makes no connections at all. No updates check, no analytics, no crash reporting.
- Not an IDE. Code view colours text, and that is all it does. There is no autocomplete, no error checking, no project sidebar and no running anything. It is a notepad that is easier to read when the note happens to be code.
Privacy, briefly
SimpleTextPad collects nothing. No account, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, no network requests of any kind. Your notes are files on your Mac and nowhere else — not on a server of mine, because there isn't one.
The long version says the same thing with the detail Apple asks for, including where notes are stored and what happens to them when you delete the app.
Questions
Where are my notes kept?
In SimpleTextPad's own folder inside your Mac's Application Support directory, one .txt file per note, plus a small session.json that remembers the tab order. Reveal Notes in Finder in the ⋯ menu opens the folder. A tab you opened from a file, or pointed at one with Save As, lives at that file instead.
Does it sync with my iPhone or iPad?
No. There is no sync of any kind — notes stay on the Mac you wrote them on. Save As into a folder you already sync is the workaround.
Can I open a text file I already have?
Yes. Use Open… (⌘O), or right-click the file in Finder and choose Open With ▸ SimpleTextPad. The tab is tied to the file, so edits save straight back to it, and closing the tab leaves the file where it is. Config files, Markdown, source code and dotfiles like .gitignore and .env all open. If it is text, it opens.
Can it be the default app for a kind of file?
Yes. Select a file in Finder, choose File ▸ Get Info, pick SimpleTextPad under Open with, and click Change All…. SimpleTextPad never makes itself the default for anything; it only offers.
Is my work ever unsaved?
Only for a fraction of a second. Typing schedules a write, and SimpleTextPad also saves when the app loses focus and when it quits. If a write ever fails — an unplugged drive holding a file you saved to, say — the status bar says so in orange and your text stays in the tab.
Does it do markdown?
You can type markdown; SimpleTextPad will not render it. With code view on, headings, code and links get colour so the structure is easy to pick out, but what is stored is still exactly what you typed.
Is there a light theme?
No. SimpleTextPad is dark in every window, whatever macOS is set to.
Get SimpleTextPad
SimpleTextPad 1.04 needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
The Mac App Store listing is on its way. Email cavan@judgestudios.com if you would like a note when it goes live.
Something not working, or something missing that you want? Write to me at cavan@judgestudios.com. Mail from a person gets an answer from a person.