Sticky Notes That Remember Which Screen They're On

How to See All Your Notes at Once on Mac

1. Open the Corkboard

   Click the Peel & Stick icon in the menu bar and choose “Corkboard Overview”. Or press ⌥⌘Space, unless macOS or another app already uses that shortcut.

2. Find Each Note on Its Screen

   Every display gets its own cork. Pinned notes sit close to where they are on that screen, each with a red pin; notes still resting on a pad have none.

3. Move Between Notes

   The arrow keys move the highlight, even from one display to the next. Tab and ⇧Tab step through every note in turn.

4. Open the Note You Want

   Press Return, or click the card. A pinned note comes to the front of its screen; a note resting on a pad brings that pad forward. Clicking a card never ticks one of its boxes.

5. Go Back

   Press Escape, as the line along the bottom of the board says (“Press Escape to go back.”), or click the bare cork. Switching to another app puts the board away too. Your notes stay where they are.

Sticky Notes on a Second Monitor, Right Where You Put Them

Peel & Stick keeps sticky notes on a second monitor of your Mac, or on every display you have. Each pinned note is its own small window that floats above your other windows on its screen. To put one where you want it:

• Peel and drop. Peel a sheet off the pad and let go over that display.
• Drag it across. Drag a pinned note onto the other screen. It belongs to the display that holds most of it.
• Pin from the tools. Open the gear in the tools (“This Note”) and choose “Pin”. The sheet lands near the middle of the screen that holds the pad; drag it to another display from there.

Sticky Notes on Multiple Monitors Remember Their Display

Each note remembers its display, and its spot there in proportion to the screen’s size, not as a fixed position. Rearrange your displays or change a display’s resolution, and the note keeps the same relative spot. When Peel & Stick opens again, after you quit it or restart your Mac, each pinned note reopens where you left it, as long as its display is connected.

A note can hang off an edge, the way paper hangs off a desk. If you let go of it almost entirely past the edge, it slides back until a strip of it shows, so you can grab it again. The next time Peel & Stick opens, the note sits fully on screen again, at that edge. Pinned notes also join every Space; the guide to sticky notes on Mac desktop has more.

Sticky Notes on an External Display, When You Unplug It

Unplug the external display from your MacBook and its notes glide to your main screen, at the same relative spot: top right on the big monitor is top right on your laptop. With Reduce Motion on, they move there at once. If a display is missing when Peel & Stick opens, its notes appear on your main screen with one small wobble, so you can see they were moved rather than lost. Nothing on them is thrown away or changed.

Worried that notes move to the wrong screen? Peel & Stick doesn’t pick a new screen for a note while its own display is connected. When a display you unplugged is back, drag the note onto it if you want it there again.

See All Your Notes at Once, on Every Screen

“Corkboard Overview” lays every note out on cork, one board per display. It’s a map, not a list: a note at the top right of your second monitor shows near the top right of that monitor’s board. Notes resting on your pads show too, on the screen that holds the pad. A board too crowded to read that way sets its notes out in a tidy grid instead.

The Peel & Stick menu in the menu bar always opens it. ⌥⌘Space does too, unless macOS or another app already uses that shortcut; on many Macs, macOS uses it for a Finder search window. The guide to the menu bar notes app for Mac covers the rest of that menu.

The board holds up to 48 cards and tells you how many more are resting on your pad. It closes if you plug in or unplug a display while it’s open.

Two Screens During a Call or a Presentation

By default, when an app fills a whole display, such as a full-screen video or a presentation, pinned notes fade to 40%, including the ones on your other screen. A faded note still shows in a screen share. To keep notes at full strength, turn off “Fade notes during full-screen video and presentations” in “Settings…”.

The Corkboard isn’t hidden from screen sharing: a note you keep private can still show on the board in a capture, so close the board before you share. For talking points beside a call, see notes on top during a video call.

Questions