Sticky Notes for Ubuntu

What are Sticky Notes?

Sticky Notes can be described as the desktop notes software contained in Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7. The application loads very quickly and enables all users to quickly grab notes with the help of post-it notes such as Windows on the desktop.

In 2002, Sticky Notes come from Windows XP Tablet Edition and was contained in Windows Vista as any gadget for the Sidebar of Windows. As of April 2016, there were 8 million sticky notes users per month according to Microsoft. It is developed by Microsoft Team in Outlook.com.

Sticky Notes are across in the user's bucket for a longer period.
This useful tool was initially available in a hard form, now it is available as digitization emerged.
Also, Sticky Notes have become famous in cellular and computing devices.
People across the globe can profit from sticky notes, regardless of their professions.
For example, a book reader or a student can mark the pages of their books using this tool, a network assistant or PC user can utilize it as a cable recognizer and tie it with any cable to make it convenient for recognizing any cable in the mess.
Let's move to the digitized release of this tool: if we switch from Windows operating system to any distribution of Linux, especially Ubuntu operating system, we might realize the absence of several tools like Sticky Notes (built-in) that Windows supports.
It doesn't mean that we can't get the benefit because Ubuntu supports a wide range of Sticky Notes apps that we can get using the Ubuntu Software Center, or we can manually download from internet sources.

Development of Sticky Notes

The authentic Sticky Notes were known as a gadget contained with Windows Vista. These gadgets were extended in Windows 7, using Sticky Notes itself became a standalone application developed on the Win32 platform, that can continue at startup. This release didn't support pen input directly. Other five colors are provided, but yellow is the default color. Sticky notes have a taskbar preview and jumplists which display the notes inside a stack. Sticky Notes are saved automatically. This release was reused in the 8th version of Microsoft and the starting versions of Windows 10.

A new sticky notes version established on the Universal Windows Platform was announced in the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 and it was published in 2016.
It could be launched as the Windows Ink workspace part or a standalone app.
The latter technique leads to the space trailing the notes becoming blurred.
A new release directly accepts the pen input and can identify letters and words in handwritten text, pictures, and basic text formatting.
It is made to be stuck on the desktop or motion around.
The fresh Sticky Notes offers stock information if a ticker is written or typed, and it offers flight information if the number of a flight is written or typed.
It includes Cortana integration and can make reminders using notes that contain a date.
The taskbar preview of this version displays a stock image instead of the notes a user has made, unlike the 7 version of Windows.
Originally, it didn't have any jumplist, however, that was included back in the 1.6.2 version on 6 February 2017.

Cross-platform

Sticky Notes could sync notes around more than one device, not only to Windows 10 devices but to Android and iOS devices as well as executing Outlook for Windows and Microsoft OneNote. Also, a web client for editing Sticky Notes is available on the website of the OneNote at the obscure location, i.e., onenote.com/stickynotes. Microsoft launcher can display Sticky Notes that is synced with the OneNote app's local instance on Android devices.

In this article, we are going to list a few popular Sticky Notes applications that are offered by Ubuntu.

Trending Sticky Notes Applications for Ubuntu

The applications of Sticky Notes are helpful in several ways. We can spontaneously get the key points or ideas and can be stored for remembering for further use. This section includes a few popular applications that we can use in our Ubuntu operating system.

Xpad

It is a widely used and simple Sticky Notes app available in Ubuntu. It is easily present on the Ubuntu Software Center, or we can get this application by getting it using the command line Windows. These yellow-colored Post-It-style notes contain three fields: a toolbar, a text area, and a title bar. Right-clicking on the text area of a note will represent the context menu in which we will get the Preferences menu. When we start Linux, we can use a Startup tab for ensuring Xpad automatically loads. The previous notes would be restored, but remember that they would be gone when notes are closed.

Note: If Xpad does not appear in our applications menu, we can manually launcher using the command line.

This tool is an easy-to-use sticky notes application available in Linux with various formatting options for all notes. Color-coding (task-based) is supported and permits us for setting note-specific colors.

Note: Xpad may already be pre-installed on our Linux computer in some cases, so check before installing the application.

Xpad Pros

Some of the prominent aspects of this application are mentioned as follows:

More than one Window support
Instantly store the content
Customize the font color, font style, and background color.
Facilitates an isolated window for detailed font customization, size of notes, background color, etc.
Resize the window of the notes and can also drag it across the PC Window.

Xpad Cons

Some of the important cons of Xpad are mentioned below:

Some note applications permit password protection, but this feature is not provided by Xpad.
Emails and Web URLs are not identified.

How to install Xpad on our Ubuntu operating system?

We can get the Xpad application using the Ubuntu Software Center or terminal. If we don't want to install this application using Ubuntu Software Center, then we just need to open our terminal and execute the below command to install the application:

Rhinote

Rhinote is an important application of Sticky Notes that is present for Ubuntu. It is a very common application in terms of interfaces and features as compared to the one which is mentioned above. Also, this tool is available in Ubuntu Software Center, and we can easily install Rhinote with the help of the terminal as well. A few of the distinctive aspects of this tool are mentioned as follows.

Rhinote Features

It supports a few of the very common features like moving the windows of the note, resizing it as well as we can save it as a file of the text.

Rhinote Cons

Due to the very common features and interface support of Rhinote, it has many cons which are mentioned below:

We need to manually save our files because it does not provide an instant save option.
No more styles of font.
It doesn't offer a colorful interface either for fonts or notes window.

How to install Rhinote in Ubuntu?

There are two different ways to install Rhinote in Ubuntu. These two methods are explained below:

We can install Rhinote using Ubuntu Software Center. To do so, we need to find "Rhinote" on Ubuntu software.
In a second way, we need to open our terminal window and run the following command:

KNotes

It is another useful tool for note customers. However, its interface is very classic. This tool has a range of characteristics that reduce the interface problems of KNotes. This tool was developed for KDE desktops, but it is also compatible with several other desktops.

Also, KNotes supports the drag and drop feature, while it enables us to configure our choice of background and font color. For example, we can make a note, email it by dropping it inside the email's body. Or we may drag it inside the KDE calendar application for blocking out a timeslot.

Many noteworthy showcases of this tool are explained as follows:

Pros of KNotes

It supports speak text and spell check feature.
We can print and send sticky notes.
We can customize the styles of the font and notes background color.
It provides auto insert time and date for everything we wish to write.
It facilitates setting a reminder for a sticky note.
We can find any note and pin these notes on the head of other Windows.
Also, the notes can be printed.

KNotes Cons

It doesn't offer the password protection option.
Email addresses or a hyperlink are not identified.

How to install KNotes in Ubuntu?

In Ubuntu, we can install the application by running the command in the terminal which is mentioned as follows:

Once installed, we can execute KNotes using the Accessories menu. It will launch along with an icon within the tray section of the system of our desktop panel.

Indicator stickynotes

This sticky note application is open-source and available for the distributions of Ubuntu. This application is good for common use. Also, it offers fewer or more features like an Xpad. This tool provides per-note settings and formatting. Quickly, we can make a note and fix its formatting and category.

The resulting note is convenient for repositioning around our desktop. We should see indicator stickynotes in the package manager of Linux.

Pros of Indicator stickynotes

A few of the aspects of indicator stickynotes are mentioned as follows:

It supports more than one window and can save all notes as a distinct category.
Users can customize the font color, font style, and background color of a note window for many categories.
It enables lock mode for avoiding any accidental modification.
It includes an export and import feature which we can apply for archiving our notes or syncing them with other computers.

Indicator Stickynotes Cons

This tool also has some cons apart from these aspects which are mentioned below:

It can't access the notes which are outside the environment of the desktop.
There is no email or web URL recognition.

How to install indicator stickynotes in Ubuntu?

There are a few prerequisites for installing "indicator stickynotes" to get the application in Ubuntu. First, we need to include PPA in our Ubuntu computer and install it.

We need to open our Ubuntu terminal and execute the commands which are mentioned below:

GloboNote

It is a cross-platform and Java-based sticky notes application. It provides a huge variety of note types. Journals, reminders, to-do lists, and other sticky notes could be built and coordinated into groups. Also, a helpful search tool is added for helping us find previous notes.

How to install GloboNote?

We can start by installing JRE (Java Runtime) using the terminal for installing GloboNote. Check first for ensuring we do not have an installed Java version.

We can check the Java version using the following command in the terminal: