1. Scratchpad
Scratchpad is a simple and straightforward note-taking web app developed directly by Google. The app provides basic formatting options, making it more versatile than standard desktop notepads. The toolbar provides a drop-down menu for changing the selected font and font size. You can make text bold or italic, underline words, or strike through characters. Both bullet lists and numbered lists are available. Scratchpad’s defining feature, however, may be its syncing functionality. Scratchpad stores notes on your Google Drive in a folder aptly named “Scratchpad.” Saving is automatic and takes place silently in the background. If you want the peace of mind knowing that your notes are backed up, consider giving Scratchpad a spin.
Scratchpad comes pre-installed on Chromebooks and opens in a small window by default. While the automatic syncing, formatting options, and built-in spellcheck makes Sratchpad heavier than a basic notepad application, it gets the job done.
2. Drive Notepad
Drive Notepad is more of a standard text editor. The app saves and opens notes directly to and from Google Drive, but it lacks the auto-syncing features of Scratchpad. While Drive Notepad lacks formatting options, it comes with numbered lines by default. An options menu pops out of a hovering menu bar, which you are free to click and drag wherever you like.
It doesn’t just edit text inside Google Chrome, though. For people who want a notepad for editing code or writing scripts, Drive Notepad also comes with syntax highlighting. It is the only app on this list that does. You can snap Drive Notepad into its own window to make it feel more like a dedicated application, but the hovering menu bar gets in the way if you make the window too small.
3. Quick Note
For those of you with a knack for flare, Quick Note offers the most visual note-taking experience of the options presented here. The app shows text on a yellow lined notepad. Despite the appearance, this is a stripped-down notetaking app. There are no formatting options, nor numbered lines, nor syntax highlighting. This is an app for those who want a place to save notes that look good in the process. By default, your text is saved locally. You are free to save notes in the cloud, but you must use Diigo to do so.
4. Notepad
Notepad is more of a mixed bag than the previous options. It’s a bare-bones webpage. It looks like a bare-bones webpage. There’s no point for Chromebook users to pop it into a separate window, because it will still look like a bare-bones webpage. That said, it is the most basic of the options available. It saves to the computer, not the cloud. There are no extra features, and the application developers explicitly say that’s the way things will stay. If you want a snappy and basic place to type text or do not trust your notes being saved in cloud storage, this solution may be the one for you.
Conclusion
Google opened up the Chrome Web Store at the end of 2010, and it has since become filled with enough applications to make taking notes inside your browser as easy as browsing the web. If you have your own personal favorite app that allows you to edit text inside Google Chrome, please share it with us in the comments below. Image credit: Pen, Diary and Glasses
