Jotly — A compact notebook right in your Chrome browser

Have you ever found yourself in this situation: reading an article, chatting with ChatGPT, or viewing code on GitHub, and suddenly wanting to copy a few lines to keep for later? It's too much of a hassle to open Notepad, VS Code is too heavy, and pasting temporarily into the search box feels risky. In the end, you just forget about it.

Jotly was created to solve that tiny problem.

WHAT IS JOTLY

Jotly is a Chrome extension. Click on the icon, and a textarea will appear on the right edge of the browser. You can paste in, continue typing, or edit. When you're done, just close it. The content saves automatically, no need to click Save.

It's that simple.

KEY FEATURES

- Click once to have a place to paste. No need to open another app, no need to switch windows.

- Supports multiple notes at the same time through tabs at the top. Each topic has its own tab.

- Automatically saves while you type. No worries about losing data because you forgot to Save.

- Notes are saved as real .txt or .md files, located in a folder on your drive (you choose that folder during installation). No cloud, no account registration, no server.

- Only handles plain text. Pasting from the web, chat, or IDE results in clean text without messy formatting.

- Completely runs offline. Your notes don't go anywhere.

- Offers light and dark themes.

WHY SAVE FILES ON THE DISK?

Because the notes are yours, and you have full control over them. You can open that folder with Finder or File Explorer, read with any editor, back up, sync via Dropbox/iCloud/Google Drive as you like, or delete them entirely. Nothing is locked inside the extension.

The first time you open Jotly, it will ask you to select a folder to save notes. That's it for the setup.

WHAT TO USE IT FOR

A few practical examples:

- You’re reading a long blog post and want to copy three quotes before you forget.

- You’re asking ChatGPT and want to keep a part of the answer for later use.

- You’re debugging and need a temporary place to paste a stack trace or a super long URL.

- You’re in a Google Meet meeting in one tab and want to quickly jot down a few tasks without alt-tabbing to Notes.

- You’re drafting a tweet or email and want to write it down before pasting it back.

- You need to transfer text back and forth between two applications where the clipboard might not be enough.

HOW TO USE IT

1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store.

2. Click the Jotly icon on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+Shift+Y. The panel will appear on the right.

3. On the first time, choose a folder on your machine for Jotly to save notes there.

4. Type or paste. Notes save automatically.

5. Create a new tab when you need a new note. Close the panel when you're done.

You can also open notes in full-page mode if you need more space.

SMALL TIPS

- The default shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Y. If it conflicts with other software, go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts to change it.

- Since notes are actual files, you can open the same .md file in VS Code or Obsidian alongside Jotly. Edit in one, and the other updates automatically.

- Empty "Untitled" tabs that you don't type in will be cleaned up automatically to keep the folder tidy.

PRIVACY

Jotly has no analytics, sends no notes anywhere, and has no server. Everything happens on your machine. The extension only requests the necessary permissions to open the side panel and read/write to the folder you selected.

UPCOMING ROADMAP

The current version focuses on doing the basics well: paste, keep, reopen. The next plans include:

- Preview Markdown and syntax highlighting for code snippets (md, mermaid, sql, html, css, js, ts, vue, php, xml).

- Folders and subfolders for organizing notes.

- Syncing via self-hosted cloud and sharing password-protected links with expiration dates, for those who need it. Still maintaining a purely offline option for those who don't want it.

REQUIREMENTS

Chrome 129 or higher.

If you find any bugs or have suggestions, they're welcome. Thank you for reading.