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NoteTab.app is a Privacy-First NotePad for Google Chrome with robust context search, themes, and export features. NoteTab is a fast (privacy-first) notepad that lives in your Chrome toolbar. Click the icon, start typing, done. Your notes are saved instantly to your own device — nothing is uploaded, nothing is shared. Built by an indie developer (me!) out of frustration with bloated, cloud-locked note apps. NoteTab is what I wished existed: simple, fast, private, and genuinely yours. No cloud, no tracking, no ads. Why people love NoteTab 📝 Rich-text editor — bold, italic, underline, lists, links, code blocks, images, and inline screenshots ✅ Checklists with progress tracking — perfect for daily to-dos 🔍 Lightning-fast search with context highlighting across all your notes 🗂️ Categories, stars, and pinning to keep things organised 🎨 Five built-in themes plus a custom theme editor 📤 Export anywhere — Markdown, HTML, plain text, or JSON backup 📋 Templates for meetings, daily logs, code snippets, and more ⌨️ Keyboard-first — every action has a shortcut 🗑️ Trash & recovery so you never lose a note by accident 🌐 Right-click "Send to NoteTab" to capture text from any page 📸 Screenshot capture straight into your active note Privacy you can verify Your notes are stored locally in Chrome's storage on your device. They are never uploaded to any server. The only information I collect is your name, email, and country at sign-in — used to keep you signed in and understand who's using NoteTab. I do not sell data, run ads, or read your notes. Full details: https://notetab.app/privacy. Built for people who appreciate notes (a lot) Whether you're a developer keeping daily logs, a writer drafting ideas, a student taking lecture notes, or just someone who wants a reliable scratchpad — NoteTab gets out of your way and lets you write. Try it. If something's broken or missing, email me or leave feedback. I read every message. Alan We have lots of updates and new features (see footnote) in this 5.3 version. This v5.3 update strengthens how NoteTab handles note content to keep your data safe: Improved HTML sanitisation across the app - content from backups, templates, and the sidebar preview is now parsed in a fully inert mode, so no embedded code can ever execute. Restored backups are now sanitised before being saved, closing a potential risk when importing old backup files. General code cleanup for a more stable, polished experience. No changes to your notes, settings, or workflow (just more safety built-in). Key Features: • NoteTab opens in its own dedicated Chrome tab. • Drag and resize the NoteTab window anywhere you like on your desktop. • Customise your workspace with dark, white, or gradient themes. • Delete multiple notes in a single click. • Export notes easily with a save-as feature. • Create unlimited note categories. • Assign each note a unique title. • Search all notes at once to find full or partial words (or by date). • Convert notes to plain text to remove unwanted formatting. • Star important notes and flag for quick access. • Filter by category and sort by starred status, modification date, or creation date. • Keep track of live word and character counts. • Zoom feature: zoom in and out to enlarge the text area. • All information stays on your device — no data is transferred to the cloud. NoteTab.app delivers powerful note management, so you stay organised in your own space. Quick User Guide for NoteTab.app 1. Getting Started • Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store. • Click the NoteTab.app icon in your toolbar. • A blank note opens automatically. 2. Create & Load Notes • Click New Note. • A fresh note appears in the sidebar and editor. • Click any note title in the sidebar to load it. • Auto-save - you can also manuall save too if you like :-) 3. Writing & Formatting • Type freely in the main editor. • Use toolbar buttons to: • Insert links or images • Add emojis • Toggle ordered/unordered lists • Undo or redo edits with the ↺ and ↻ buttons. 4. Save & Rename Note Titles • Edit the title field in the header. • Click Save Title to lock it in. • First save happens immediately. • If you change a saved title, you’ll get a confirmation prompt. • Title changes update your last‑modified timestamp. 5. Word & Character Count • Look at the footer for live counts. • Counts update as you type or paste content. 6. Search, Sort & Categories • Type in the search box to filter by title, content, date or category. • Use the sort menu to order by: • Last modified • Creation date • Title • Create custom categories in the header dropdown. • Select notes, then apply a category to multiple items at once. 7. Star & Bulk Delete • Click the star icon to flag a note. • Toggle Star Filter to show only starred notes. • Check multiple notes via checkboxes. • Click Delete Selected to remove them all (with confirmation). 8. Themes & Zoom • Choose Light, Dark, White, Orange or Gradient in the theme selector. • Click Zoom In or Zoom Out to adjust editor size. 9. Export & Backup • Click Export in the toolbar. • Notes download: Give your note a filename and it will save in that format .txt (plain text) or .html if you include markup, 'json etc • Save copies on your device instantly. Pro Tips • Autosave runs on blur and before you close the tab. • Hover the modified date in the sidebar to see the note creation date. • No external account needed. All data stays in your browser. • Unlimited notes. Zero servers. Use this guide to hit the ground running. NoteTab.app stays local, stays fast, data stays safe and under your control. ChangeLog: What’s New in NoteTab.app 03-July-26 v5.3 Improved HTML sanitisation across the app - content from backups, templates, and the sidebar preview is now parsed in a fully inert mode, so no embedded code can ever execute. Restored backups are now sanitised before being saved, closing a potential risk when importing old backup files. General code cleanup for a more stable, polished experience. No changes to your notes, settings, or workflow (just more safety built-in) 05-May-2026 v5.2 Right click copy image from any webpage straight to a new note v5.0 — Trash, Contextual UX & Polish 20 March 2026 New Feature Note Trash / Recycle Bin — deleted notes are no longer permanently gone after the 5-second undo window. They are moved into a Trash, accessible via the Category filter dropdown. Each trashed note shows its deletion date and a Restore button to return it to the main list. An Empty Trash button permanently removes all items. Notes older than 30 days are auto-purged on load. Editor Checklist keyboard shortcut — Ctrl+Shift+C (or ⌘+Shift+C on Mac) inserts a checklist at the cursor. Listed in the Ctrl+/ shortcuts modal. Shift+Enter exits checklist — pressing Shift+Enter inside any checklist item immediately creates a new paragraph below the list, without needing to empty the current item first. Also fixes the prior bug where pressing Enter on an empty checklist item could place the cursor incorrectly. Checklist moved to overflow menu — the ☑ checklist button has moved from the main toolbar into the ··· overflow menu, restoring the Export Note (Save As) button to full visibility in the toolbar. Sidebar Checklist progress badge — notes containing a checklist now show a 2/5-style badge in the sidebar, indicating how many tasks are checked. Notes without checklists are unaffected. Contextual empty state — the "No notes found." placeholder has been replaced with an icon and a message tailored to the reason: first-run (no notes), active search, starred filter, or category filter. Reliability Schema validation on load — loadNotes() now silently drops any corrupt or malformed note objects (missing id or content) instead of allowing them to crash the UI. Other Bug Fixes & Polish v4.4 — Always-Visible Overflow Menu 20 March 2026 Bug Fix ··· button always visible — the overflow menu button is now pinned to the right of the toolbar and permanently accessible at any window width. Previously, adding the v4.2 checklist button pushed the ··· button off the right edge of the toolbar at the default window size, making the overflow menu (Zoom, Plain Text, Markdown Mode, Open File, Templates, Find & Replace, HTML Preview, Split Preview) unreachable without manually resizing the window. v4.3 — JSON Import 20 March 2026 New Feature Open JSON files — the Open File option in the ··· overflow menu now accepts .json files in addition to .md, .txt, and .html. NoteTab note JSON (files previously exported via the Export modal): the note's title, content, category, starred/pinned state, and colour are fully restored into the current note — closing the export/import symmetry gap. Arbitrary JSON (any other .json file): the file is displayed as editable plain-text source, consistent with how .txt files are handled. v4.2 — Interactive Checklists 20 March 2026 New Feature Interactive checklists — a new ☑ button in the formatting toolbar inserts a checklist (<ul class="checklist">). Each item has a clickable checkbox that toggles checked state with strikethrough styling on completion. Checked state persists across sessions via the existing HTML save/load pipeline — no data model changes required. Press Enter inside a checklist to add a new unchecked item; pressing Enter on an empty item exits the list back to normal text. Markdown export serialises checklist items as GFM task list syntax (- [x] done / - [ ] open). v4.1 — IP Collection Overhaul 19 March 2026 Switch to https://freeipapi.com/api/json/, HTTPS, returns countryName. v4.0 — UX Overhaul 18 March 2026 Safety & Data Protection Soft-delete with Undo — deleting a note (single, multi-select, or Ctrl+Delete) no longer removes it immediately. A toast appears for 5 seconds with an Undo button; the deletion is committed only after the window expires. No more confirm() dialogs. Editor Improvements Unsaved-changes indicator — a pulsing orange dot ● appears next to the note title while un-saved changes are pending. It clears automatically when the auto-save fires (300 ms after last keystroke) or on Ctrl+S. Selection word/char count — selecting text in the editor updates the footer counter to show "Selected: N chars · M words" instead of the full-note totals. Tab key indents — pressing Tab inside the editor inserts 4 spaces rather than moving focus away from the note. Markdown Split Preview — a new Split Preview item in the ··· overflow menu opens a live side-by-side pane that renders the current note as formatted HTML. Works for both Markdown Source Mode notes and rich-text notes. Toggle it off with the same menu item. Search & Navigation Editor search highlighting — opening a note from a sidebar search result highlights every occurrence of the search term inside the editor content. Highlights fade automatically on first edit. Accessibility & Keyboard Focus trap in modals — Tab key cycles only within the active modal (Export, Templates, Keyboard Shortcuts). Focus returns to the trigger on close. Ctrl+/ shortcut — opens the keyboard shortcuts reference (in addition to the existing ? key). Keyboard shortcuts updated — new shortcuts listed in the reference modal. Sidebar UX Note hover preview — hovering over a note item in the sidebar for 300 ms shows a floating tooltip with the note's title and the first 150 characters of content. v3.5 — Export, Markdown Editing and HTML Source Mode 15 March 2026 This release gives NoteTab more flexibility for people who want to move between formats, work directly in Markdown, and handle imported HTML files more safely and cleanly. You can now export notes in multiple formats, including plain text, HTML, Markdown and raw JSON, with a live preview before you download or copy. If a note began life as an HTML file, exporting it as HTML now preserves the original source rather than rebuilding it inside a generated wrapper. Markdown Source Mode has been added for direct Markdown editing. While active, rich-text controls are switched off so you can work in clean source format, but undo still behaves properly. This release also adds a block format picker, plus support for strikethrough, inline code and horizontal rules. Markdown export has also been improved, with broader handling for headings, lists, blockquotes, code blocks, links, images and tables. Open File now supports .md, .txt and .html files directly into the current note. Markdown files open in Markdown Source Mode automatically, while HTML files now open in a dedicated HTML Source Mode. Imported HTML files are now shown as escaped source code in a monospace editor view rather than rendering immediately as a live page. A new HTML Preview option lets you switch into a full-screen preview when you want to see the rendered result, then return straight back to source view. The toolbar has also been simplified. Less-used tools now sit inside a compact ··· menu, and Sign Out has been moved to the top bar beside the theme selector. Alongside that, this version fixes a handful of UI issues, including overflow menu behaviour, logo flashing on load, and a theme-specific background issue in the White theme. v3.4 — Collapsible Sidebar This version adds a collapsible sidebar, giving you more room to focus when you need it and a cleaner way to move between navigation and writing. The sidebar now opens and closes with a chevron control on the resizer strip, includes a smooth animation, remembers its state between sessions, and can also be toggled with Ctrl/⌘+\. v3.3 — Organisation and Formatting This release focused on making notes easier to organise and the editor easier to work with day to day. You can now pin notes to the top of the list, regardless of sort order, with a keyboard shortcut and a visual accent to make pinned items easier to spot. Templates have also been added, so any note can be saved and reused as a starting point for future notes. Find and Replace is now built in, including match highlighting, navigation between results, single replacement, replace all and quick close with Escape. Font family and font size controls have also been added to give more control over formatting inside the editor. v3.2 — Polish A smaller clean-up release, but an important one. This fixed a sidebar spacing issue that could push the note list down and hide notes from view. v3.1 — Theme-Aware Category Badges Category badges are now handled in a more consistent, theme-aware way. Each theme has its own badge palette, and the badge colour system has been rebuilt so colours work more reliably across light and dark themes. The result is better visibility, less visual clash and a more coherent interface overall. v3.0 — Redesign, Stability and Keyboard Shortcuts Version 3.0 was a major step forward for the app. It combined a broad bug-fixing pass, a full visual refresh and a more capable shortcut and search experience. On the stability side, this release resolved issues affecting note deletion, undo timing, storage consistency, export safety, duplicate categories, screenshot handling, touch resizing, memory leaks and several other edge cases. It also tightened up security and data handling in a number of areas. On the design side, the app moved to a more structured token-based system for colours, spacing, borders, shadows and transitions. Typography, buttons, inputs, the sidebar, toolbar and dark mode styling were all improved to create a cleaner and more consistent experience throughout the app. This release also introduced a full keyboard shortcut suite, more advanced search operators, search highlighting, and result counts when filtering notes. Earlier Improvements Before version 3.0, NoteTab had already introduced a number of foundational improvements, including a privacy consent gate before Google sign-in, better accessibility across controls, toast notifications in place of alerts, safer HTML paste handling, smoother search performance, stronger category protection and a title length limit for cleaner note management.