A lightweight, elegant macOS app for quick note-taking with floating, transparent windows that integrate seamlessly with your desktop workflow.
- Beautiful blurry transparency that blends with your desktop
- Always-on-top floating windows that stay visible across all apps
- Multi-space support - notes appear on all desktop spaces
- Intelligent window placement with smart positioning for multiple windows
- Global keyboard shortcuts for instant note creation
- URL scheme support for automation and integrations
- Menu bar integration with quick access menu
- Dock or menu bar only display options
- Auto-save functionality - your notes are saved automatically
- Markdown support with live preview
- Pin important notes to keep them accessible
- Notes list view with search and organization
- Custom storage locations - choose where your notes are saved
- Use with Raycast to replace Raycast notes - Guide here
- Store notes in Obsidian - Guide here
- Download the latest release from the Releases page
- Drag FloatingNotes.app to your Applications folder
- Launch the app and grant necessary permissions
On first launch, Floating Notes will:
- Create a notes directory in
~/Documents/FloatingNotesApp/ - Set up default keyboard shortcuts
- Display your first floating note window
| Action | Default Shortcut | Customizable |
|---|---|---|
| Create New Note | ⌘⇧N |
✅ |
| Open Recent Note | ⌘⇧O |
✅ |
Shortcuts can be customized in Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts
Floating Notes supports URL schemes for automation and integration with other apps:
floatingnotes://create
floatingnotes://create?content=Your%20note%20content
floatingnotes://last
Access settings through the menu bar icon or the application menu:
- Custom storage location - choose where notes are saved
- Note migration - easily move existing notes to new locations
- Directory management with automatic folder creation
- Pin important notes to keep them easily accessible
- Pinned notes management in the notes list view
- Menu bar mode - run quietly in the menu bar
- Dock mode - traditional dock icon behavior
- Toggle between modes without restarting
- Enable/disable shortcuts individually
- Custom key combinations for all actions
- Real-time shortcut testing
- macOS 14.0+
- Xcode 13.0+
- Swift 5.5+
- KeyboardShortcuts - Global keyboard shortcut management
- SwiftDown - Markdown parsing and rendering
- SwiftUI - Modern UI framework
- AppKit - Native macOS window management
FloatingNotes/
├── FloatingNotesApp.swift # Main app entry point
├── ContentView.swift # Note window UI
├── WindowManager.swift # Window lifecycle management
├── NotesManager.swift # Note data management
├── SettingsView.swift # Settings interface
├── NotesListView.swift # Notes browser
├── MenuBarManager.swift # Menu bar integration
└── Supporting/
├── KeyboardShortcutNames.swift
├── MenuCommands.swift
└── AppDisplayManager.swift
- Clone the repository
- Open
FloatingNotes.xcodeprojin Xcode - Build and run (⌘R)
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or create issues for bugs and feature requests.
- UI/UX improvements
- Additional keyboard shortcuts
- Export/import functionality
- Theme customization
- Plugin system
This project is available under the MIT License. See LICENSE file for details.
- Built with ❤️ for the macOS community
- Inspired by the need for seamless, non-intrusive note-taking
- Special thanks to the SwiftUI and AppKit communities
Floating Notes - Where your thoughts float freely on your desktop ✨