Use and organize notes in Scratchpad
Last updated: September 19, 2026
Available on: Mac and Windows. For the separate iPhone experience, see Use Flow Notes on iPhone.
Scratchpad lets you type or dictate drafts, add images, and organize reference notes in a tabbed rich-text desktop editor.
Note: If your organization disables Scratchpad, notes cannot be listed, opened or synced; the Open Scratchpad shortcut row, Flow Bar button and System → Scratchpad settings are hidden.
Open Scratchpad and create a note
Open the Notes hub in Flow.
Select + to create a note, or click a note card outside its action buttons to edit it.
Typing saves automatically; blank content is not saved unless you supply a title. Automatic titles use the first few words once text reaches 10 characters or three words; blank titles display Untitled.
To dictate, select the microphone and speak while the waveform is visible.
Select the green checkmark to insert the transcript at your cursor, or X to cancel.
A spinner appears while transcription finishes.
Alternatively, use the push-to-talk key shown in the empty editor. Holding or double-tapping the Open Scratchpad shortcut starts dictation in a fresh tab when the current tab has content, regardless of opening preferences.
Each window supports five tabs; further new-tab requests do nothing. Closing a tab saves it; the window’s X saves and closes all tabs.
Other ways to open Scratchpad
Keyboard shortcut: If available, set a binding in Settings → General → Shortcuts → Open Scratchpad, or click the Notes-page shortcut pill. No shortcut is assigned by default; an empty pill lets you add one. You can disable it; reopening its dialog restores your previously bound keys.
Flow Bar: Enable the toggle in the Notes hub header. The button is hidden by default; an explicit previous choice is preserved. It appears only outside meetings and in Flow Bar states that support polishing; its tooltip includes your assigned shortcut.
On Mac, Scratchpad opens as a floating panel without taking focus from the app where you are typing.
Pin and find notes
Hover a Notes hub card or focus it with the keyboard to reveal Edit, Pin/Unpin and Delete.
Select Pin to pin immediately without confirmation; select it again to unpin.
Sidebar rows reveal pin and delete buttons on hover or focus; click a row to edit. Clicking the already-open note does nothing.
Pinned notes sort first, including search results; each group sorts newest-modified first. Pin status is local to each device and does not sync, including to iPhone.
If Failed to update pin appears, retry the pin button; a pin icon confirms success.
Scratchpad sidebar search matches a contiguous phrase in the title or body, ignoring capitalization. Body matches show a highlighted snippet; title-only matches have none. Select Load more beyond the first 20 notes, including unloaded pinned notes; clear search with X.
Notes hub search checks only already-loaded note content, ignoring capitalization; it has no match highlighting or Load more.
Notes hub shortcuts
Use Cmd on Mac and Ctrl on Windows. Shortcuts do not run in editable fields or while overlays are open.
Action in the Notes hub | Shortcut |
Move through notes | Arrow Down / j; Arrow Up / k |
Open the focused note | Enter |
Create a note | c or Cmd/Ctrl+N |
Focus search | Cmd/Ctrl+F or / |
Navigation stops at either end. Search changes clear the focused note.
Delete a note
Warning: Deleting a note cannot be undone and permanently removes its version history and images, including from other devices after syncing.
Select Delete on the note.
Review “Are you sure you want to delete this note?”; choose Cancel or Yes, delete it.
Deletion removes it from lists and search immediately and closes its open Scratchpad tab. Its pin is cleared; deletion within Scratchpad closes all tabs for that note.
A success message confirms deletion; an error means it failed, and Scratchpad keeps its tabs open.
Restore earlier edits
Version history is available after a note is saved, not after deletion.
Select the clock-shaped Version history button in the note.
Select a version to restore it immediately.
Recent edits save first; further edits create a new version. Notes keep up to 50 versions, preserving Created. Consecutive edits of the same type—typed or dictated—within 10 minutes merge; transforms create separate entries.
Choose what the shortcut opens
Open Settings → System → Scratchpad.
Select Customize beside Scratchpad open behavior.
Choose an option; it saves immediately.
Setting | What happens |
Resume last note (default) | Reopens the hidden window’s existing tabs. |
Open in new tab | Creates a blank tab when reopening a hidden window whose active tab has content. |
Open last active pinned note | Opens the last-used pinned note with the keyboard shortcut. |
Opening behavior exceptions
Open in new tab applies to the shortcut and Flow Bar status bubble. If no window exists, opening creates one fresh tab; if visible, the shortcut hides it.
Resume last note creates a fresh tab if all tabs were closed.
Open last active pinned note remembers pinned notes opened or activated anywhere, across restarts. If deleted or unpinned, it opens the newest-modified pinned note; with none pinned, normal show/hide applies.
That setting does not affect the Notes hub, status bubble or paste-failure fallback.
Images and syncing
Warning: Images are resized and compressed; animated GIFs keep only their first frame.
Paste PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP images into the note editor, or drop them anywhere in the Scratchpad window; dropped non-image files are ignored. Each note supports 10 images, each 5 MB or smaller after compression. Excess or oversized images are skipped with an error.
Images sync to other signed-in desktop devices. Image attachments are not supported on iPhone.
Temporary upload failures retry automatically; permanent request or certificate errors and cancellation stop the current attempts. Text still syncs if an image upload fails.
Notes save locally offline and sync automatically when signed in, online and allowed by your account’s settings and policies.
Where notes require Cloud Sync, privacy, local-retention, organization or HIPAA restrictions can block syncing. If only syncing is blocked, local notes remain available, but images do not sync.
A slashed cloud means syncing is disabled—not offline—with the tooltip “Your notes aren't syncing because Private Cloud Sync is off”. Otherwise, hover Refresh for the last sync time; a cloud checkmark confirms completion.
For manual syncing, select Settings → Data & Privacy → Sync notes; wait 10 seconds after success before retrying. When Cloud Sync is required but off, this button is disabled with an explanation.
See data sharing, cloud storage and local retention settings for restrictions. iPhone Notes has its own sync restrictions and does not depend on Cloud Sync; see the iPhone Notes guide.