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 1.0 · 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.
Save As, and it stays linked
Point a tab at a .txt file of your own and 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 and characters in the status bar, along with the path of the file a tab is bound to.
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.
- 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.
- No opening arbitrary files. Version 1.0 makes new notes and can hand one over to a file with Save As. There is no Open command yet.
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 note you have pointed at your own file 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?
Not in version 1.0. SimpleTextPad creates notes; Save As hands an existing note over to a file on disk and keeps writing there. To bring old text in, paste it into a new tab.
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. It stores exactly what you typed and shows exactly that.
Is there a light theme?
No. SimpleTextPad is dark in every window, whatever macOS is set to.
Get SimpleTextPad
SimpleTextPad 1.0 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.