A Fresh Sticky Note, One Shortcut Away

How to make a new sticky note with a keyboard shortcut on Mac

1. Press ⌥⌘N in Any App

   Peel & Stick needs to be running, but it doesn't need to be in front. The pad comes forward with a fresh sheet on top, even if it was put away.

2. Type on the Fresh Sheet

   Your typing goes straight onto the new sheet; there's nothing to click. The first line becomes the note's title.

3. Peel It Off the Pad

   Grab the sheet near its bottom edge and drag it away from the pad. Dragging the top strip moves the pad instead.

4. Let Go Where You Want It

   The note lands where you let go, or just beside the pad if you let go on top of it, and stays on your desktop. Or open the gear in the tools (“This Note”) and choose “Pin” to set it down near the middle of the screen the pad is on.

5. Or Drag Text Onto a Pad

   Select text in any app and drag it onto a pad. It becomes a fresh sheet there, ready to peel.

A Sticky Note Keyboard Shortcut That Works in Any App

⌥⌘N runs “Quick Stick”, Peel & Stick's command for a new note from anywhere on your Mac.

The shortcut needs no Accessibility permission. Peel & Stick asks macOS only for its own shortcut keys, never to watch your keyboard, so you never see a request to let a notes app control your computer.

“Quick Stick” is the first command in Peel & Stick's menu in the menu bar, and it does the same thing. ⌥⌘N works only while Peel & Stick is running; turn on “Open Peel & Stick when I log in” in Settings and it starts each time you log in. If macOS or another app already uses ⌥⌘N, the keys may never reach Peel & Stick, and nothing tells you so: use the menu instead. The guide to the menu bar notes app for Mac covers the rest of that menu.

Jot Down Notes Quickly, Then Peel Them or Leave Them

Each press puts a new sheet on top of the pad you're writing on. The sheet that was on top stays just underneath. On the “Board”, each new sheet is the next color in that pad's run; on the “Tall pad” the run is “Mint”, “Canary”, “Soft Pink” and “Vellum Blue”. On the “Classic pad”, a new sheet comes out on the last paper you chose.

⌥⌘N never pins anything by itself. A sheet you don't peel rests on the pad with your other notes, so the pad works as a scratchpad on your Mac: quick notes wait there until you need them.

• Peel a blank sheet and it's thrown away, not pinned.
• Without Peel & Stick Pro, you can keep 3 notes pinned at once. With 3 pinned, the next sheet you peel goes back onto the pad, and a card tells you why. Your pinned notes stay where they are.

Turn Selected Text Into a Sticky Note

Select words in any app and drag them onto a pad. The pad highlights as you drag over it, and the words become a fresh sheet, as plain text. They land on the pad you dropped them on, even if another pad has the typing.

• Several pieces dropped at once become several sheets, in the order you picked them up.
• A Peel & Stick note file (.pstick) becomes the note it holds.
• A picture is turned away with “A picture can't become a note”. Nothing is copied, and what you dragged stays where it was.

Choose Which Pad Gets the New Sheet

The “Board” is a tray of 3 pads: the “Tall pad”, the “Vellum pad” and the “Cloud pad”, a pad of cloud-shaped notes (not cloud storage) that needs Peel & Stick Pro. ⌥⌘N writes on whichever pad has the typing. To hand the typing to another pad:

• Click the pad.
• With the Board in front, press ⌘1, ⌘2 or ⌘3 for the Tall, Vellum or Cloud pad.
• In the menu bar, choose “Write on Tall pad”, “Write on Vellum pad” or, with Pro, “Write on Cloud pad”. A checkmark shows the active pad.
• If you switch to the single “Classic pad” (“Show the Classic Pad” in the menu bar), every new sheet goes there.

Where Your Note Goes Next

A peeled note floats above your other windows on every Space. The guide to sticky notes on your Mac desktop covers where notes land and when another app can still cover one.

Add a checklist with “Lists” ▸ “Checklist” before you peel, and you have a to-do list sticky note on your Mac desktop you can tick without leaving your app. To make notes from an automation instead, Peel & Stick adds 3 Shortcuts actions: see how to create a sticky note with Shortcuts.

Questions