QuickDown For Mac

However accessible a note-taking app is, it never seems to compare to just quickly writing something down on an actual notepad. You don't need to switch away from the app you were using, and your notes are in front of you whatever else you decide to do on your Mac.

QuickDown is an open-source app that seeks to emulate a physical notepad as closely as possible. You access it from the menu bar or with a simple hotkey, it remains on top of other windows until you put it away, and it doesn't force any context switching.

To open QuickDown, just click its menu bar icon or use the ⌘⌥N hotkey. A small window will pop up from the menu bar, where you can write your notes using Markdown. There is no live preview or any other fancy features. Everything is kept as simple as possible.

Once you're done writing a note, you can save it anywhere on your Mac with ⌘S. You can also just close the pop-up and bring it up later to add to your note, but it will be cleared after saving. To open it again, use ⌘O.

After opening the note window, it will remain on your desktop until you press Esc. Even if you click away from it, your note will still be visible on top of other windows. This is great if you need to glance at what you've written or want to add to it at a moment's notice.

Another advantage is that there is no need to open another application and switch away from what you were doing just to jot something down.

There are no advanced features to speak of, but you're probably not looking for them in an app like QuickDown anyway. It serves a very specific purpose, and it does it well. Still, it would still be nice to have the option to change the global hotkey or customize the UI to some extent. Other than that, this is a very handy notepad to have around.