How does JustNoted work?

Creating & Saving Notes

Creating a note on JustNoted couldn't be easier. When you first load the page, you'll see an empty note waiting for your thoughts. Just start typing and, if you need another note, just click/tap the big Add a new note button.

Your work is automatically saved 2 seconds after you stop typing. You'll see a Saving... indicator followed by a Saved confirmation once it's complete.

If the auto-save doesn't trigger for some reason, or you just want the peace of mind of a manual save, hit the button anytime.

Local Notes vs Cloud Notes

JustNoted offers two types of notes to suit different needs:

Local Notes are perfect for quick, anonymous note-taking. They're automatically saved and tied to your specific device and browser – no account required. These notes will be there when you return, as long as you're using the same browser on the same device and haven't cleared your browser data. Think of them as your private scratchpad that's always ready when you need it.

Cloud Notes require a free account but give you the flexibility to access your notes from any device or browser. Perfect for notes you want to keep long-term or access across multiple devices. Your cloud notes are securely tied to your account and sync automatically.

Both types save automatically and work exactly the same way – the only difference is where they're stored and from where you can access them.

Changing the Title of Your Note

If you want to change the title of your note, hover over the title (on mobile: tap on the title) and then click/tap the button. This will let you type in a new title. When you're done, just click/tap the button to save your changes or click/tap the button to cancel your changes.

Downloading Your Notes

Need to take your note elsewhere? Just click/tap the button to download your note as a simple .txt file. These files can be opened on virtually any device, so your thoughts are always portable.

Deleting Notes

Once you're done with a note and don't need it anymore, click/tap the button. You'll get a quick confirmation (just to make sure you're certain), and then it's gone forever. Really forever – I don't keep backups of deleted notes, whether they're local or cloud.

Organising with Notebooks

Look, I know I said JustNoted was meant to be simple, and it still is. But sometimes you end up with a lot of notes and need a bit of organisation without the fuss. That's where notebooks come in.

If you have a cloud account, you can create notebooks to group your notes together. Working on a novel? Make a notebook for it. Got a bunch of work notes? Another notebook. You can even customise each notebook with different covers – solid colours, gradients, or photos. It's a small thing, but it helps you find what you're looking for at a glance.

Don't want to use notebooks? That's completely fine. Your notes will just live in "All Notes" like they always have. The feature is there when you need it, invisible when you don't 🤷‍♂️.

Split View for Referencing Notes

Ever been writing something and needed to check another note? Used to be you'd have to scroll up, lose your place, scroll back down, forget what you read, scroll up again... you get it. It's annoying.

Split view fixes that. Click the split view button in the toolbar and your screen divides in two – your current note on one side, a reference note on the other. You can pick any note to reference, resize the panes however you like, and even switch between side-by-side or top-and-bottom layouts. When you're done, just close it and you're back to normal.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+S (or Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) toggles it on and off.

If you're writing something longer – maybe an article, a story, or just a really detailed plan – the table of contents can help you navigate. It automatically picks up any headings you've added to your note and lists them in a panel on the right.

Click any heading in the list and you'll jump straight to it in your note. The current section gets highlighted as you scroll, so you always know where you are. It's genuinely useful for longer pieces, and completely ignorable for quick notes.

Toggle it with the button in the toolbar, or use Ctrl+Shift+T.

Bulk Actions

Got a bunch of notes that need to move to a notebook? You don't have to do them one by one. In the sidebar, there's a select mode that lets you tick multiple notes and move them all at once. Select what you need, pick the destination, done.

Exporting Notebooks

Sometimes you need to take your notes somewhere else – maybe you're backing up a project, or you want to share a collection with someone. When you're viewing a notebook, you'll see an export button that lets you download all the notes in that notebook at once.

You can export as plain text (.txt), Markdown (.md), HTML (for web viewing), or JSON (if you're a dev who wants the raw data). Pick what works for you.

How Your Privacy Is Protected

I built JustNoted with privacy in mind. For local notes, no information about your computer or browser is stored in the database. JustNoted creates a randomly generated code that serves as an anonymous token for your browser. This token is saved only in your browser. When you return to JustNoted, it checks for this token to retrieve your notes. (The word "Local" is not an indication of where the notes are saved but what type of access you need to access them.)

JustNoted knows nothing about your browser type or device for local notes – none of that is tied to your notes. For cloud notes with an account, only your email and the notes themselves are stored, nothing more.

Both local and cloud notes are stored in separate secure databases. Local notes use a privacy-focused approach where your device signature never leaves your browser, while cloud notes are securely tied to your account credentials.

When you delete a note, whether local or cloud, it's permanently deleted with no backups kept. Your data is yours, and when you say it's gone, it's truly gone.

For local notes, it's more likely that JustNoted will create a separate randomly-generated token for you (for example, if you clear your browser storage or cache) than it is for anyone to ever see your notes. This is why cloud notes with an account are recommended if you want guaranteed access across devices.

If you haven't yet, please check out The What page to learn more about what JustNoted is.