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Papelzinho: For text that doesn't need a home

ImaginaryApps

ImaginaryApps

macrumors newbie
Original poster
App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/papelzinho/id6754223651

Papelzinho is for text that doesn't need a home.

Just open the app and type.

Each window is a little piece of paper.

Grab (open) as many as you need.
Crumple (close) them when you're done.

Everything you crumple is quietly kept in the Wastebasket, just in case.

There's also a slip of paper in the menu bar.

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When working on my Mac, I constantly need to take quick notes, whether to capture some info or adjust temporary text. I know there are many apps in this space, but I built one to fit my use case exactly. It is:

Native: that means it does not drain your battery.

Ephemeral: you don't need to worry about managing notes. You just open a window (or a lot of windows) and write. When you "crumple" (close) a window, its text is automatically saved to the app's Wastebasket, where you can easily recover it if needed. It's just like real life: you jot something down on a scrap of paper and later toss it into the trash.

Any feedback is welcome!
 
bogdanw said:
Is there a reason for the app to require "macOS 26.0 or later"?
Click to expand...
Both my Macs are on Tahoe right now, so I haven't verified older versions yet. I’ll test on Sequoia this weekend and release an update lowering the minimum requirements then. Will let you know!
 
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Snørrbjørg said:
Would you please explain why I should use Papelzinho instead of Stickies (and Notes) apps already in MacOS?
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No problem. I use Papelzinho for 'fire and forget' notes. I like to keep my Notes app organized and don't want to clutter it with ephemeral text. There are also a lot of times when I just need a text field to modify some text. Instead of using the Messages app or my text editor, I just use Papelzinho. It is quicker and does not interfere with what I am doing in those apps.
 
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ImaginaryApps said:
No problem. I use Papelzinho for 'fire and forget' notes. I like to keep my Notes app organized and don't want to clutter it with ephemeral text. There are also a lot of times when I just need a text field to modify some text. Instead of using the Messages app or my text editor, I just use Papelzinho. It is quicker and does not interfere with what I am doing in those apps.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but isn't that what Stickies is for?
 
First thoughts on Papelzinho

I love the simplicity. I hope as folk make more and more suggestions, you stay focussed on this aspect.
  • Settings/Menu bar
    • I didn’t understand “Show Menu Bar Paper” till I tried it. I’d go with “Show Menu Bar Paper Icon”.
    • I certainly didn’t understand “Show Toolbar in Menu Bar Paper”. But once I understood what the Menu Bar Paper was, it’s obvious. (Great idea to have a persistent/global note.)
  • Wastebasket
    • The word Grab might better be replaced by Reopen
  • Bugs?
    • “Check Spelling While Typing” doesn’t work for me.
  • General
    • I think that reopening the papers that were open on quit should be an option. Some people will want it and some won’t. I understand that *not* reopening them is in the spirit of the app, but sometimes it would be annoying.
  • Ideas
    • It would be cool to have a one-click “arrange all papers” (on the screen i.e. no overlaps).
Looking forward to using Papelzinho in the real world of work tomorrow. Thanks again.
 
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auxbuss said:
First thoughts on Papelzinho

I love the simplicity. I hope as folk make more and more suggestions, you stay focussed on this aspect.
  • Settings/Menu bar
    • I didn’t understand “Show Menu Bar Paper” till I tried it. I’d go with “Show Menu Bar Paper Icon”.
    • I certainly didn’t understand “Show Toolbar in Menu Bar Paper”. But once I understood what the Menu Bar Paper was, it’s obvious. (Great idea to have a persistent/global note.)
  • Wastebasket
    • The word Grab might better be replaced by Reopen
  • Bugs?
    • “Check Spelling While Typing” doesn’t work for me.
  • General
    • I think that reopening the papers that were open on quit should be an option. Some people will want it and some won’t. I understand that *not* reopening them is in the spirit of the app, but sometimes it would be annoying.
  • Ideas
    • It would be cool to have a one-click “arrange all papers” (on the screen i.e. no overlaps).
Looking forward to using Papelzinho in the real world of work tomorrow. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I will change to "Show Menu Bar Paper Icon". Will look into the spelling thing. You can change the behavior to reopen the papers that were open by turning off "Close windows when quitting an application" in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Windows. Right now I am using SwiftUI default window restoration behavior and haven't made my mind yet if working on a built-in solution (so you can have this settings specific for Papelzinho) is worth it
 
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ImaginaryApps said:
You can change the behavior to reopen the papers that were open by turning off "Close windows when quitting an application" in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Windows.
Click to expand...
Yeah but… of course this applies to all applications, so that would cause havoc in my case. Not a deal-breaker for me, but I can imagine some folk having lots of papers, and having to reopen them even daily would be painful.

Anyway, more suggestions:
  • Highlighted text in the Menu Bar Paper is barely visible in dark mode. It’s fine on regular Papers.
    • There seems to be a problem with copying text from the Menu Bar Paper, which I think is related to the fact that the app doesn't take focus – which I think it should do. This might be related to me using PopClip to copy. I'll investigate.
    • There's a further problem with not taking focus in that you can't open the Wastebasket or Settings from the Menu Bar Paper.
  • It would be nice to have a configurable global keyboard shortcut to open the Menu Bar Paper.
  • To reopen/grab a paper from the Wastebasket, it would be nice to simply double-click the item. I kind of did this naturally and was surprised it didn't work.
More later ;-)
 
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auxbuss said:
Yeah but… of course this applies to all applications, so that would cause havoc in my case. Not a deal-breaker for me, but I can imagine some folk having lots of papers, and having to reopen them even daily would be painful.

Anyway, more suggestions:
  • Highlighted text in the Menu Bar Paper is barely visible in dark mode. It’s fine on regular Papers.
    • There seems to be a problem with copying text from the Menu Bar Paper, which I think is related to the fact that the app doesn't take focus – which I think it should do. This might be related to me using PopClip to copy. I'll investigate.
    • There's a further problem with not taking focus in that you can't open the Wastebasket or Settings from the Menu Bar Paper.
  • It would be nice to have a configurable global keyboard shortcut to open the Menu Bar Paper.
  • To reopen/grab a paper from the Wastebasket, it would be nice to simply double-click the item. I kind of did this naturally and was surprised it didn't work.
More later ;-)
Click to expand...
Yes. I wish Apple allowed us to set this setting individually. Maybe in the future I will implement my own solution to restore windows instead of relying on SwiftUI.

The menu bar paper tries to take focus. Did you investigate?

A global hotkey to create a new paper will be available in the next update!

Good catch. I will also implement this for the next update.

Again, thanks a lot for the feedback!
 
The copying issue is probably linked to PopClip, as I suspected. I found a post on their forum that discusses this issue https://forum.popclip.app/t/popclip-copy-not-working/2876

That post concludes with there being an interaction with Better Mouse causing the problem. I don’t use Better Mouse, but I’m wondering whether my issue might be similar but linked to Better Touch Tool.

You can’t block apps from within BTT – as you can, apparently, with Better Mouse – but the forum post notes that their issue only occurred when Better Mouse was launched after PopClip. That is my default setup with BTT and PopClip, but a BTT update requires a relaunch, which might have happened in my case, thus causing my problem. I’ll keep an eye of things and report back anything useful.
 
Thanks for the update 👍

Without spellcheck, unfortunately Papelzinho is of limited use to me because I have to load any text that I wish to use elsewhere into something that does spellcheck.

The very dim highlighting in the Menu Bar Paper remains a problem.

I note that you have added a global hotkey for a new Paper, which is cool, but not one to open the Menu Bar Paper, which is what I mentioned. (I think this would be useful for a lot of folk, although I've been able to set it up myself with BetterTouchTool.)
 
auxbuss said:
Without spellcheck, unfortunately Papelzinho is of limited use to me because I have to load any text that I wish to use elsewhere into something that does spellcheck.
Click to expand...
I looked into it and unfortunately it seems to be a SwiftUI bug.

What do you mean by "very dim highlighting"? It is supposed to be the same background and text color as the normal window. Can you send me a screenshot?
 
New name: Papelzinho is now Spare

Someone pitched me the name “Spare”, and I like it almost as much as “Papelzinho”. I think it captures the idea of the app really well while being super accessible. For that reason, I decided to rename the app.
 
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ImaginaryApps said:
I looked into it and unfortunately it seems to be a SwiftUI bug.

What do you mean by "very dim highlighting"? It is supposed to be the same background and text color as the normal window. Can you send me a screenshot?
Click to expand...

I did ⌘+A for the Menu Bar Paper otherwise it's very hard to see the selection colour.

Screenshot 2026-04-06 at 19.26.05.png
Screenshot 2026-04-06 at 19.30.46.png
 
ImaginaryApps said:
New name: Papelzinho is now Spare

Someone pitched me the name “Spare”, and I like it almost as much as “Papelzinho”. I think it captures the idea of the app really well while being super accessible. For that reason, I decided to rename the app.
Click to expand...
I presume you mean spare as in lean. It took me a minute or two to think of that meaning, because it's rarely used – almost literary I'd say these days. The Oxford defines the word as "elegantly simple", but it also has the meaning of frugal, scantly, meagre. I prefer Papelzinho, personally; but I can always symlink.
 
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