The Scratch Pad

Every project has a Scratch Pad: a place for the thought that isn't ready to be part of anything yet. A line of dialogue, a question for later, a list of things to fix. Notes wait there until you drag them into a file, tick them off or delete them. The Scratch Pad is free for everyone.

It has two sides:

• Notes, with a Tasks view that gathers every checklist item in the project.
• Captures: structured items like cards and wiki entries that arrive from your BYOK. See Captures.

Open the Scratch Pad

A dot on the button means something new has arrived since you last looked. The quick pad's expand button opens the full view.

Notes

1. Click + (on mobile, the + button).
2. Type. Enter saves; Shift+Enter adds a new line; Esc discards.

Hover a note for pin, copy and delete. Click its text to edit it.

Pin a note

Click the pin on a note and it moves to the top of the Scratch Pad and stays there, in the quick pad and the full view. Pinned notes also appear on the dashboard under Where I left off: the sentence you want to read before anything else next time. Click the pin again to let it go; the note stays on the pad.

Tasks

A note where every line starts with - is a checklist. The Tasks view pulls every checklist item from the whole project into one list:

• Tick a task off here and it's ticked in its note too.
• Click a task's text to edit it; Enter splits it into a new task; the trash button deletes it.
• Start a note while Tasks is showing and each line becomes a task automatically.

The dashboard's Tasks part shows your open tasks too, with a box to add one. See Customize the dashboard.

Use a note

When a note is ready, drag it where it belongs:

• into a text file, manuscript or wiki entry, where it drops in as text;
• onto an outline, where it becomes a row (Studio asks which level if more than one fits);
• onto a card stack section, where it becomes a card.

Going the other way, select text in a file and click + (the Scratch Pad icon) in the bar over it, or use Add to Scratch Pad on an outline row, card or grid tile.

Notes from your BYOK

On your BYOK, start a block with ::note or ::task and the lines that follow arrive in the Scratch Pad when the device syncs:

::task
- Finish chapter 3
- Rewrite the inn scene

A blank line ends the block, and your writing carries on. Notes from the device show a small from link on hover that opens the file they came from. This needs Wi-Fi sync; see Captures for the other commands.

Hide the notepad button

Prefer a cleaner screen? Turn off Scratchpad in the gear menu (on mobile, Settings › Hide quick-access button). The Scratch Pad is still a click away from the header's inbox or Cmd+Shift+J.