HTML Notepad is a self-contained, offline notepad that runs in a web browser. It provides tabs, rich-text formatting, folders, embedded images, search tools, printing, backups, and session recovery without requiring an internet connection.
The important difference from a conventional text editor is where files are stored: Save writes documents to HTML Notepad’s virtual filesystem in the browser’s IndexedDB storage. It does not create a normal file in Windows, macOS, Android, or another operating system unless you explicitly export a document or create a JSON backup.
For the standalone edition, open HTML Notepad v2.9.5.html in a modern browser. The standalone app runs entirely from the local HTML file and does not need an internet connection. The modular edition can instead be hosted over HTTPS and installed as a Progressive Web App (PWA).
A new, empty Untitled document is available when there is no previous workspace to restore. HTML Notepad also remembers the prior session, including open tabs, the active tab, tab order, scroll positions, and unsaved drafts.
HTML Notepad uses three kinds of storage:
Because IndexedDB and localStorage belong to the browser/profile that opened the app, a saved document is not automatically available in another browser or on another computer. Use Backup & Restore to create a portable JSON copy of the Notepad library.
Do not wait for a computer move or a problem before making a backup. For notes you care about, create backups fairly often and keep them in a safe, known location separate from the browser storage containing the working Notepad library.
The main screen has four working areas.
The primary document controls are:
New · Open · Import · Save · Save As · Print · Trash
Additional controls provide access to the Files drawer, Backup & Restore, Settings, Help, and other workspace functions. Help ▾ opens quick links into the integrated user manual.
On a narrow mobile screen, only the most commonly used controls are shown initially. Use the expand button to reveal the rest. Collapse the controls again when you want more room for the document.
The formatting toolbar contains Undo/Redo, Bold, Italic, Underline,
Clear Formatting (Tx), the Edit ▾ menu,
font and size controls, alignment, lists, indentation, and font-color
controls.
On mobile, the less frequently used formatting controls are hidden until the formatting row is expanded.
Every open document has a tab. An unsaved or modified document is marked as changed until it is saved.
All Tabs ▾ gives a vertical list of open documents, which is useful when enough tabs are open that the tab strip becomes crowded.
Select Files to open the virtual filesystem. The drawer contains saved files and folders stored in IndexedDB. Closing the drawer does not close documents that are already open in tabs.
Select New or press Ctrl+N to choose the type of document to create:
The document type is stored with the document. Notepad does not guess
that ordinary text is Markdown merely because it contains characters
such as #, *, or backticks.
If an untouched empty Untitled tab is already present when you open a saved document, HTML Notepad can discard that unused tab automatically rather than leaving an unnecessary blank tab behind.
Select Open or press Ctrl+O to open the Open File window. This window lists saved documents in the virtual filesystem, shows each document’s folder location, and includes a search box. Select a document and choose Open, or double-click the document in the window.
The main Open command does not depend on which item happens to be selected in the Files drawer.
You can also double-click a document directly in the Files drawer when you are already working there.
Recent files are tracked by the app. Right-click Open to show Recent Files; Ctrl+Alt+O opens the same Recent Files interface.
Save stores the current document in IndexedDB.
The first time an Untitled document is saved, HTML Notepad asks for a name. Once saved, later uses of Save update that virtual file.
Unsaved working documents are kept as local drafts. After a document is successfully saved into the virtual filesystem, its temporary unsaved-draft copy can be cleared.
Save As creates or targets a separately named virtual file. If the requested name conflicts with an existing file, HTML Notepad shows an in-app replacement confirmation.
In Settings, enable Autosave saved documents after a short pause if you want changes to already-saved documents written automatically after editing settles.
Autosave does not remove the usefulness of backups. A backup is still the portable copy to keep outside the browser’s own storage.
Select a tab to switch documents. HTML Notepad remembers the document’s scroll position and cursor/selection state when possible.
Right-click a tab for:
Closing a tab with unsaved changes displays a Notepad-style confirmation rather than a browser confirmation box.
This creates an independent unsaved copy of the document. It does not create two live editors connected to the same saved IndexedDB file. This prevents one tab from silently overwriting edits made in another.
Use the tab menu or Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen a recently closed tab. HTML Notepad keeps a short closed-tab history.
If a closed tab represented modified saved content, recovery behavior is designed to avoid silently overwriting the saved file.
Use All Tabs ▾ to jump directly to any open document. It remains available even when the tab strip is not overflowing.
Split View is designed for wide desktop and ultrawide displays. It divides the document workspace into left and right sides while keeping one main menu bar and one formatting toolbar.
Choose Split View while working in a document. The document that was active is placed on the left. The right side starts empty.
You do not need to open a second document before entering Split View. Open tabs remain available in the tab bar.
Drag any open tab from the tab bar and drop it onto the left or right pane. The dropped document becomes the document shown on that side and becomes the active side.
If that side already contained another document, the previous document simply leaves the pane. It is not closed; its tab remains open and can be dragged back into either side later.
A tab can occupy only one pane at a time. Dragging a tab from one side to the other moves its visible assignment and leaves its former side empty.
Each occupied split header has an × button at its upper-right. This is a real Close command for that document tab. Unsaved-change protection still applies. Closing a split document empties that pane; Notepad does not automatically substitute another open tab.
Split View remains active even if both panes become empty. Other open tabs stay in the tab bar until you drag or explicitly open one into a pane.
Tabs currently assigned to the visible panes show a small L or R marker. Clicking an L/R tab activates that side. Clicking an unassigned tab does not replace either pane; drag it to the side where you want it.
When Split View is active, double-clicking a saved file in Files first tries Left View. If Left is occupied, it tries Right View. If the file is already visible in either pane, that pane is simply activated.
If both sides are occupied, Notepad displays its own Choose Split View dialog. The Left Side and Right Side cards show the documents currently displayed there; click the side itself to choose where the new document should open. Both choices use the same neutral appearance. Cancel is centered below them. Replacing a view does not close the displaced document; its tab remains open.
When Split View is not active, Files double-click keeps its normal behavior and opens the document in Single View.
You can also right-click a saved file and choose Open in Left View or Open in Right View. These commands explicitly target that pane and start Split View first when necessary.
While Split View is active, you can also drag a saved file directly from the Files drawer onto Left View or Right View, including its header area. The file opens in the side where you drop it. If that side already contains another document, the displaced document remains open as a tab. Dragging a file into a Split View does not move the saved file within the Files tree. Folders cannot be dropped into a document pane.
Only one occupied side is active at a time. The active side has a highlighted header and contains the live editing cursor. Click the other visible document or its header to make that side active.
All shared commands target the active side: Save, Save As, Print, Find/Replace, formatting controls, Markdown Edit/Preview, zoom, ruler commands, spellcheck, and status information. The main toolbar is deliberately not duplicated.
Drag the center divider left or right to change how much width each pane receives. Double-click the divider to immediately reset the workspace to an even 50/50 split. With keyboard focus on the divider, the Left and Right arrow keys make smaller adjustments.
The inactive side remains visible and scrollable. Notepad keeps one live editor surface and moves it to whichever occupied side is active; this prevents formatting, spellcheck, selection, and save commands from accidentally operating on both documents.
Choose Single View to return to the normal workspace. This is the control that deactivates Split View; closing documents does not. If no document is currently displayed when you choose Single View, Notepad returns to an available open tab or creates a new Untitled document when necessary.
Split View assignments, empty panes, active side, and divider position are stored with the normal tab session. On a narrow layout, the Split View control is hidden and the workspace is presented in a compact single-pane form, but Notepad does not silently change the saved Split View mode.
Split View stability: pane assignments remain independent from unassigned tabs. Close/delete/session reconciliation clears stale pane references without promoting unrelated tabs, and saved-file drops are handled strictly as open/copy actions rather than Files-tree moves.
An intentionally empty Split workspace is a supported state. Document-only commands now stop cleanly when no pane contains a document instead of acting on stale hidden editor content, and tab-closing operations refresh the recovery snapshot.
The Files drawer is an expandable tree rather than a Windows Explorer-style folder browser. Folders expand in place; you do not “enter” a folder on a separate screen.
The Files controls include:
New Folder · Tree ▾ · Import · Sort ▾ · Rename · Delete
Creates a folder in the virtual filesystem.
Right-click an existing folder and choose New Folder Inside… to create a nested folder.
Tree ▾ provides:
Expanded/collapsed folder state is remembered between sessions.
Sort ▾ provides:
Use Custom Order when manually rearranging items relative to one another. Sorting by another mode changes the displayed order without redefining the custom order.
Documents and folders can be moved with drag and drop or with Move to Folder… from the right-click menu.
Valid moves include:
HTML Notepad prevents a folder from being moved into itself or one of its own descendants.
If drag and drop is inconvenient—particularly on a touch device—right-click the item and use Move to Folder….
The file menu includes actions such as:
Folder actions include:
Deleting a folder also deletes its contents. The confirmation dialog shows how many contained items will be affected.
Open tabs representing a deleted saved file are preserved as unsaved working copies rather than being silently discarded.
The Files drawer supports desktop-style multi-selection.
When several items are selected, the Files header shows the selection count. Rename, Move, Duplicate, Open, and export commands remain single-item operations. Dragging also returns the selection to the dragged item rather than implying that the entire group will move.
Delete applies to the entire selection. Before anything is moved to Trash, Notepad shows one detailed confirmation containing the selected file/folder counts, additional contents inside selected folders, the total number of filesystem items affected, and the number of open tabs that will close.
If both a folder and one of its descendants are selected, the descendant is not duplicated in Trash; it remains part of the folder’s restorable tree.
With keyboard focus in the Files list, the Delete key performs the same multi-item Trash action as the Delete button.
Deleting a saved file or folder moves it to Trash instead of permanently erasing it.
When you delete a saved file that is open in one or more tabs, those tabs close automatically. Notepad does not ask a second time whether to close them: moving the file to Trash is treated as the deliberate deletion action. If an ordinary file has unsaved edits, Notepad captures the current editor content into the Trash copy before closing the tab. If a password-protected file has unsaved edits, Notepad first saves those changes back into its encrypted record so Trash receives ciphertext, not the decrypted working copy.
Open Trash from the main toolbar immediately after Print. Trash opens in its own popup so deleted items are kept separate from the normal Files tree.
Each Trash entry shows when it was deleted and approximately how long remains before automatic removal. Items are retained for 7 days from deletion.
From Trash you can:
Permanent deletion and Clear Trash require confirmation because those actions cannot be undone through Trash.
A restored item returns to its original folder if that folder still exists. If the original folder no longer exists, the item is restored to the Files root. A deleted folder is stored and restored together with its contained files and subfolders.
Trash is included in JSON backups and restore safety snapshots. Embedded image assets referenced only by a trashed document are retained while that document remains recoverable.
Saved documents can be protected with an individual password. Right-click a normal saved file in Files and choose Password Protect…, or use the same command from the tab menu for an open saved document.
The minimum password length is 7 characters. Longer, less predictable passwords are still recommended for stronger protection.
Protected document contents are encrypted locally with AES-256-GCM. The password is used to derive a wrapping key with PBKDF2-SHA-256; Notepad does not store the password. The document's text, document type, layout information, and associated embedded images are kept inside the encrypted payload. The file name, folder location, timestamps, and the fact that the file is protected remain visible so Notepad can still display and organize the file while it is locked.
🔒 means the saved document is password protected and currently locked. 🔓 means the protected document has been successfully unlocked and its decryption key exists only in the current in-memory session. These indicators appear in Files, tabs, All Tabs, Split View headers, Open/Recent lists, Trash, Restore Inspector, and other document-identification areas.
Opening, double-clicking, dragging into Split View, or explicitly opening a locked protected file in Left/Right View displays Notepad's own unlock dialog. Enter the document password or choose Use Recovery Key.
A protected document remains unlocked only while its open tab exists. Closing that tab locks the document by discarding its in-memory key. Lock & Close is available from Files and the tab menu; if the protected document has unsaved changes, Lock & Close first saves them back into the encrypted file and then closes the tab.
Normal tab close behavior is still respected. If a protected document has unsaved changes and you use the ordinary Close command, Notepad asks before discarding those changes. Once the tab closes, the document is locked.
When protection is first enabled, Notepad creates a long, random, document-specific recovery key. Save it somewhere separate from the Notepad data. If both the password and recovery key are lost, Notepad cannot decrypt the document.
The recovery key remains constant for that protection lifecycle. Changing the document password does not change the recovery key. Use Regenerate Recovery Key… only when you deliberately want a new key; regeneration invalidates the previous recovery key for the current protected record and Notepad's current in-app safety state. Removing password protection and later protecting the file again creates a new protection lifecycle and therefore a new recovery key. Historical external backups and already-encrypted Restore Safety snapshots made before a password change or recovery-key regeneration are not retroactively rewritten, so an older credential may still unlock one of those older encrypted historical copies that was created while that credential was valid.
While a protected document is unlocked, Recovery Key… can show the same recovery key again because Notepad stores that recovery secret only in encrypted form inside the protected record. The key can be copied or saved to a text file.
Change Password… verifies the existing password or recovery key, then lets you choose a new password. The recovery key stays the same. Remove Password Protection… also requires verification and converts the document and its images back to normal IndexedDB storage.
Save As from an unlocked protected document creates a new protected document with a new password and a new recovery key. Protected files are not duplicated into unencrypted drafts; use Save As when you want an independent protected copy.
New JSON backups store protected files as encrypted records. Their protected images remain inside the encrypted payload rather than appearing as readable image assets. Trash and Restore Safety likewise retain the encrypted record. The active recovery snapshot for an unlocked protected document is itself encrypted with that document's key, so decrypted editor content is not written to localStorage.
When protection is enabled, Notepad also removes or replaces matching plaintext copies from its own current closed-tab, recovery, and Restore Safety state where possible. Once a Restore Safety copy is already encrypted, it remains historical rather than being rewritten by later credential changes. External JSON backups created before protection are not retroactively changed. If an older backup may contain the document in plaintext, create a fresh backup after protection and manage the older backup appropriately.
Use Import on the main toolbar, between Open and Save, to bring outside files into HTML Notepad without opening the Files drawer. The Import button in the Files drawer remains available as an equivalent shortcut.
Import accepts .txt, .html,
.htm, .md, and .markdown
documents. You can select multiple supported files in the computer’s
file picker.
Successfully imported documents open immediately as tabs. For a single import, that document becomes active immediately. If several files are imported together, they open in the selected order and the last imported file becomes the active tab.
The imported extension determines the document type:
.txt becomes Plain Text,
.md/.markdown becomes
Markdown, and .html/.htm
becomes Rich Text. Notepad does not infer Markdown from
the contents of a TXT file.
Imported HTML is cleaned before use. Potentially unsafe or inappropriate page elements and attributes are removed rather than being allowed to execute inside Notepad. Markdown files retain their Markdown source.
Right-click a saved document and choose Export TXT to create a plain-text computer file. Rich formatting is removed.
For a Rich Text document, right-click the saved file
and choose Export RTF to create a real
.rtf file for use outside Notepad. RTF is the most natural
portable rich-text export for these documents and preserves common text
formatting, alignment, lists, colors, fonts, and supported embedded
PNG/JPEG images.
Export HTML remains available as a separate format for Rich Text and Markdown documents. Rich Text is stored internally as HTML, while Markdown is rendered to HTML for this export.
Normal Save still writes to Notepad's IndexedDB virtual filesystem. Export commands create ordinary downloadable computer files.
HTML Notepad can import, edit, preview, save, search, print, back up, and export Markdown documents.
Use Import and select a .md or
.markdown file. HTML Notepad recognizes it as a Markdown
document and preserves the original Markdown source rather than
converting it into rich-text HTML.
The imported filename extension is omitted from the virtual file name, just as with imported TXT/HTML documents.
Markdown formatting is rendered only in Preview.
Edit intentionally displays the literal Markdown
source, including #, **, backticks, and other
syntax.
Markdown tabs display an Edit / Preview control in the formatting toolbar.
Switching to Preview does not alter or rewrite the Markdown source. Return to Edit to continue changing it.
The built-in offline renderer supports the common Markdown used by notes and manuals, including:
# through ######)Raw HTML in a Markdown file is displayed as text rather than executed. The renderer is intentionally self-contained and does not download a Markdown library.
Save, Save As, Autosave, recovery, tabs, folders, search, backup/restore, and Recent Files work with Markdown documents in the same way as other Notepad documents.
Markdown source is stored as Markdown in IndexedDB. It is not silently converted into rich text.
Right-click a saved Markdown document and choose Export
Markdown to create a normal .md file on the
computer.
Export HTML renders the Markdown and exports the rendered result as an HTML document. Export TXT exports plain text.
Printing a Markdown document prints the rendered Preview rather than the raw Markdown punctuation.
While a Markdown document is in Edit mode, the formatting toolbar becomes Markdown-aware. Formatting commands change the Markdown source itself rather than inserting Rich Text HTML.
** markers, for example **bold text**. Ctrl+B does the same.* markers, for example *italic text*. Ctrl+I does the same.If no text is selected for an inline command, Notepad inserts example text inside the Markdown markers and selects it so you can immediately type a replacement. Reapplying Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, or Inline Code to text already surrounded by the same markers removes those markers.
Rich Text-only controls such as underline, font family, font size, text alignment, and font color are hidden while editing Markdown because standard Markdown has no equivalent for them.
Edit / Preview is a Markdown-only control. In Preview, source-formatting controls are hidden because Preview is read-only rendered output. Return to Edit to change Markdown formatting.
The document area supports normal text selection and standard browser editing shortcuts.
Use:
Tx removes formatting from selected text while retaining
the text itself.
Choose a font from the toolbar. Available choices are local/system fonts such as Monospace, Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, System Sans, and System Serif.
Font sizes range from 10 through 72.
Because HTML Notepad is fully offline, it does not download web fonts.
The toolbar supports left, center, and right alignment, along with bulleted and numbered lists.
For ordinary text, Tab inserts a tab.
Inside a list:
The toolbar also provides explicit Outdent (⇤) and
Indent (⇥) controls.
Font color tools include a quick palette, a custom color wheel, brightness adjustment, and recent colors.
The color history keeps up to 10 recent font colors and can show their use within the current document.
Select Edit ▾ for additional document tools.
Choose an image from the device and insert it at the current editor position.
Choose from several local date/time formats and insert the result at the cursor.
Provides a palette of commonly useful symbols such as ©, ®, ™, °, ±, em/en dashes, arrows, currency symbols, check marks, card suits, and others.
Adds a horizontal divider to the document.
Inserts a space that prevents the surrounding text from breaking across lines at that position.
Select text and use:
Use the menu or Ctrl+G and enter a line number.
Shows information about the current document, including its name, virtual filesystem location, saved/modified state, dates, word/character/line counts, approximate document size, and embedded-image storage where applicable.
Provides document counts and, when text is selected, statistics for the selection.
HTML Notepad can keep images inside its offline data store.
Use Edit ▾ → Insert Image…. On phones and tablets, the operating system’s image/file picker is used.
Where the browser exposes an image through the clipboard, pasting the image directly into the editor is also supported.
Large images may trigger a Notepad dialog offering to optimize the image to reduce storage use. You may instead keep the original-quality image.
Click or tap an image to select it. Right-click or use the platform’s context-menu gesture for image actions:
Custom Width accepts a pixel or percentage width.
Embedded images are stored separately from the document’s text markup in IndexedDB and are included in Notepad backups.
Use Ctrl+F for Find and Ctrl+H for Replace.
The Find/Replace tools provide:
The Files search field is separate from document Find. Files search can look through saved file names and document text and can display a matching snippet.
Rich Text Find/Replace: replacements are mapped back to the document DOM and preserve surrounding formatting instead of flattening the document. Matches can span inline formatting boundaries such as bold-to-normal text.
Rich Text Find/Replace treats line breaks and embedded objects such as images as structural boundaries, so a replacement cannot accidentally consume them. A match that spans inline formatting inherits the formatting at its starting character, and empty formatting shells are removed afterward.
Rich Text documents use Notepad's built-in offline U.S. English spellchecker. Misspelled words are marked with a red wavy underline. The spellchecker checks words only; it does not evaluate grammar, punctuation, writing style, or sentence structure.
Right-click a red-underlined word to place spelling actions at the top of Notepad's normal editor menu. The menu can show suggested corrections plus Ignore and Add to Dictionary.
The custom dictionary is stored with Notepad settings and is included in JSON backups/restores. This makes personally added names, abbreviations, technical terms, and other accepted words portable with the rest of the Notepad setup.
Normal right-clicks on correctly spelled Rich Text open the usual Notepad editor menu: Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste as Plain Text, Select All, Clear Formatting, and Print. Right-clicking an embedded image opens the image menu.
Plain Text and Markdown use the browser's native text-area spellcheck. Their exact spelling suggestions and dictionary options therefore depend on the browser and operating system.
The built-in U.S. English dictionary is derived from the SCOWL/English Hunspell word lists maintained by Kevin Atkinson and contributors. The embedded dictionary is entirely local; spellchecking does not send document text anywhere or require an internet connection.
Dictionary data copyright 2000–2026 Kevin Atkinson and contributors. Permission is granted to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell SCOWL or word lists created from it without fee when the copyright and permission notice are retained in supporting documentation. The dictionary is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty.
On desktop-sized screens, HTML Notepad displays rulers around the document.
The horizontal ruler supports:
Drag an indent marker to adjust it. Click the ruler to add a custom tab stop; click an existing custom tab stop to remove it.
Rulers are hidden on small mobile layouts to preserve editing space.
Use the status-bar zoom controls or:
Zoom ranges from 50% to 200%.
The status area can show document word/character information and the current line/column position. When text is selected, selection statistics are shown as appropriate.
Enable Show line numbers in Settings. The gutter is shown for Rich Text and Plain Text documents and for Markdown while in Edit mode. Markdown Preview omits source line numbers because they would not align with the rendered document.
Line numbers represent logical text lines, not every visual line created by word wrapping. A long paragraph that wraps onto several screen rows may therefore still be one numbered line. Rich Text paragraph or block formatting does not create extra “phantom” line numbers.
Select Print or press Ctrl+P.
HTML Notepad creates a print-only copy of the current document so the app interface—toolbars, tabs, Files drawer, and other controls—does not appear on the printed page.
The browser’s own print dialog controls the printer, paper options, margins, and Save as PDF functionality.
If the print preview shows a date, document title/path, or page number at the edges, those are browser-generated headers and footers. Disable Headers and footers in the browser’s print options if you do not want them.
Open Settings to configure:
Controls whether long text wraps within the editor.
Enables or disables spelling checks. Rich Text uses Notepad's built-in offline U.S. English dictionary; Plain Text and Markdown use the browser's native spellchecker. Spellcheck covers words only, not grammar or punctuation.
When enabled, clearly recognizable http://,
https://, and www. addresses can become
clickable links.
This feature recognizes text locally. It does not contact those websites merely to recognize the URL.
Automatically saves changes to documents that already have a saved virtual file.
Shows the logical line-number gutter in editable document views. Markdown Preview intentionally hides it.
Settings are kept locally and are included in Notepad’s JSON backup.
Select Backup & Restore on the main toolbar to open the backup and recovery hub.
Create JSON Backup creates a portable .json backup file and downloads it through your web browser.
A current JSON backup can contain:
Password-protected documents remain encrypted inside the JSON backup. Their passwords are not included. Restoring the backup preserves the encrypted record, and the same document password or recovery key is required to open it.
A backup is the best protection against clearing browser storage, changing browser profiles, moving to another computer, or other loss of local browser data.
Back up periodically if the documents matter. Keep those backups in a safe, known location. OneDrive or another reputable cloud-storage provider is a good choice because the backup remains available if the current computer is replaced, lost, damaged, or otherwise unavailable.
If you plan to switch computers/laptops, browsers, or browser profiles, make a fresh JSON backup before the switch and verify that you can access that backup from the new environment.
Open Backup & Restore and select Restore from JSON… to choose a compatible Notepad backup.
Before changing data, HTML Notepad opens a Restore Backup inspector showing the backup date, source version, counts, and validation warnings.
Merge with current data keeps the current library and adds restored data where possible. Replace selected data replaces the selected categories with the backup contents.
You can independently include Files & folders, Unsaved drafts, and Settings & workspace state. The inspector also allows individual files/folders to be selected.
Immediately before any restore, Notepad creates a one-level safety snapshot of the current state. The Restore Safety area in Backup & Restore reports whether that snapshot exists.
Undo Last Restore… is disabled when no snapshot exists. When available, it replaces the current Notepad state with the pre-restore snapshot after a confirmation. This is intended only to roll back a problematic restore and is not a substitute for normal JSON backups.
HTML Notepad maintains working-state information separately from saved virtual files.
The htmlNotepad.recovery record follows the
currently active document. It is refreshed when you
switch or open documents and while you work. The snapshot identifies the
active document and keeps its current editor content and state even when
that document is presently clean/saved. This recovery copy is separate
from the authoritative saved file in IndexedDB.
This helps with:
For password-protected documents, the active recovery snapshot is encrypted with that document's in-memory encryption key. It stores ciphertext rather than readable protected document content. After the protected tab is closed, the in-memory key is discarded.
Recovery is a safety feature, not a substitute for Save or Backup. If a document is important, save it to the virtual filesystem and maintain an external JSON backup.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+N | New document |
| Ctrl+O | Open |
| Ctrl+Alt+O | Recent Files |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save As |
| Ctrl+P | |
| F1 | Open integrated Help / User Manual |
| Ctrl+F | Find |
| Ctrl+H | Replace |
| Ctrl+G | Go to Line |
| Ctrl+B | Bold |
| Ctrl+I | Italic |
| Ctrl+U | Underline |
| Ctrl+\ | Clear Formatting |
| Ctrl+Shift+7 | Numbered list |
| Ctrl+Shift+8 | Bulleted list |
| Ctrl+Shift+T | Reopen closed tab |
| Ctrl++ | Zoom in |
| Ctrl+- | Zoom out |
| Ctrl+0 | Reset zoom |
| Tab | Insert tab / nest list item |
| Shift+Tab | Outdent / unnest list item |
Standard browser/editor shortcuts such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Z, and Ctrl+Y continue to work where supported by the browser.
While the Manual popup is open:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| / | Focus manual search |
| Ctrl+F | Focus manual search |
| Alt+Up | Previous manual section |
| Alt+Down | Next manual section |
| Escape | Close the Manual popup |
HTML Notepad is designed to remain usable on narrow screens.
On mobile:
Browser and operating-system behavior varies for clipboard and long-press context menus. When a custom clipboard command is unavailable, use the device/browser’s normal copy and paste controls.
In Rich Text documents, normal keyboard/browser Copy and Cut use Notepad's own selection payload. Notepad keeps an in-memory fingerprint of that payload so same-app paste does not depend on browser or operating-system clipboard metadata. For Rich Text boundary handling, the clipboard's plain-text representation is the ground truth for the exact number of leading and trailing blank lines. Notepad removes alternate empty HTML boundary nodes and then recreates precisely that many blank lines in one canonical representation, preventing both phantom lines and doubled intentional blank lines.
Mobile layout: At phone-sized widths, document rulers are hidden and the editor uses the full available document area. The status bar is also simplified: word count, character count, and zoom controls are hidden to avoid horizontal scrolling. Cursor position and essential status information remain available. The full status bar and zoom controls remain available on larger screens.
Mobile Open: The dedicated Open top-bar button is hidden at phone-sized widths to conserve space. Use Files to open saved documents, or All Tabs to switch among documents that are already open. The Open command itself is still available, including its keyboard shortcut when a keyboard is connected.
On phone-width layouts, the file-controls expander uses a compact icon-width button so the primary Files/New/Import/Save controls have more room to remain on one row.
HTML Notepad is designed to work without online connectivity.
The application itself does not need a server, external JavaScript library, web font, or cloud account. Saved files remain in browser storage unless you explicitly export them.
Password protection also operates entirely locally through the browser's built-in Web Crypto API. Notepad does not transmit passwords, recovery keys, document keys, or protected document contents. Normal unprotected files remain readable in local browser storage; use per-file password protection when encryption at rest is required.
A recognized or manually created hyperlink can still open a website if you choose to activate it; that is separate from the Notepad application’s own offline storage behavior.
For everyday use:
The virtual filesystem is intentionally different from a normal disk folder. This gives HTML Notepad a consistent local filesystem-like interface while remaining a single standalone HTML application.
However, browser storage can be removed if browser/site data is cleared. Private/incognito modes may also have different persistence rules and are not a good place for long-term Notepad storage.
The JSON backup exists specifically to give you a portable copy outside that browser-managed storage.
Saved files and open tabs show a small type indicator: RICH for Notepad rich text, TXT for plain text, and MD for Markdown. These indicators describe the internal document type; they do not cause automatic format conversion.
The user manual is built directly into HTML Notepad. Select Help ▾ and then User Manual, or press F1, to open it.
The Manual popup is separate from the editing workspace. A section list provides direct access to every major topic, and the search box filters that list using both section titles and section contents. The Help menu also contains shortcuts that open frequently used sections directly, including Keyboard Shortcuts, Backup and Restore, Data Safety, and Offline and Privacy information.
On desktop, the section navigator remains visible beside the manual. On narrower screens, use the section selector at the top of the popup.
The manual is part of the standalone HTML file and is available completely offline. It is updated along with the application. A separate Markdown manual is not required for normal releases.
Manual navigation shortcuts are shown at the bottom of the popup. Press / or Ctrl+F to focus manual search, Alt+Up or Alt+Down to move between sections, and Escape to close the popup.
HTML Notepad User Manual — v2.9.5
Version 2.9.5 is published in two forms that share the same application code and features.
HTML Notepad v2.9.5.html remains a single local file. It can be opened directly from a device and requires no server. A directly opened local file is not a normal installable PWA.index.html, assets/styles.css, separate responsibility-based JavaScript files under assets/js/, manifest.webmanifest, icons, and sw.js. The hosted PWA runs those separate JavaScript files directly; it does not use a monolithic app.js. Shared runtime state is initialized during startup after all ordered scripts have loaded, so cross-file dependencies do not rely on single-file function hoisting. The service worker only intercepts same-origin HTTP/HTTPS requests; browser-extension and other non-web schemes are ignored. Host the built folder over HTTPS (for example with GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages) to make it installable and to allow the service worker to cache the application shell for offline launches.The hosted PWA does not upload Notepad documents. Saved documents, folders, images, settings, and drafts continue to use browser-local IndexedDB and localStorage. The hosting server supplies the application files themselves.
The deployable GitHub/PWA package contains only runtime files. Its JavaScript remains split by responsibility under assets/js/. The separate standalone edition embeds the same JavaScript into one portable HTML file.