TSNotes: sticky notes that stay on your desktop
Posted by Chris
TSNotes: sticky notes that stay on your desktop TSNotes (you may also see its earlier name, Tom Spark Notes) is sticky notes for your desktop that stay on your desktop: every note is a local file on your machine — no cloud, no account, and nothing about your notes ever leaves your computer. It's a one-time $10 purchase at tsnotes.app, and it's included in the SparkBox Ultimate bundle. This guide covers the email that carries your download and key, installing on each platform, activating, and where your notes actually live. 1. Your purchase email — everything is in it TSNotes doesn't have a public download page — after checkout (or your Ultimate purchase), one email arrives with everything: download links for all four builds (Windows, Mac Intel, Mac Apple Silicon, Linux), your license key in a copy-paste block, and checksums for the curious. It comes from noreply@tomsparknotes.com with the subject "Your TSNotes — license key + download" — check spam if it hasn't landed a few minutes after checkout. 2. Install Windows 10/11: download the portable .zip, unzip it anywhere you like, and run TSNotes.exe. No installer to click through — the app adds its own Start Menu entry on first launch. Mac: pick the build matching your machine (Apple Silicon for M-series, Intel otherwise), unzip, and drag TSNotes to Applications. The app isn't signed with Apple, so the very first launch needs one extra step: right-click the app → Open → Open. Only once — after that it opens normally. Linux: download the .AppImage, make it executable (chmod +x or right-click → Properties → allow executing), and run it. On GNOME desktops the tray icon needs the "AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support" extension — install that if you don't see the tray icon. TSNotes starts with your computer by default on Windows and Mac (you can turn that off from the tray menu → Start on Login); on Linux it's off unless you turn it on. 3. Activate your license The first time you open TSNotes, the activation window appears on its own — that's expected; the app is activation-first. 1. Copy the license key from your purchase email (the long block of characters). 2. Paste it into the activation window and click Activate. 3. Done — your first note appears, and everything unlocks for good. Activation checks the key on your machine — no account, no license server involved. (The app also checks for new versions.) If you ever need to move machines, there's a Deactivate button in the same window, and the tray menu has Activate TSNotes… whenever you need it again. 4. Using it — hotkeys and the good stuff Four global shortcuts work from anywhere (swap Ctrl for Cmd on a Mac): Ctrl+Shift+N — new note Ctrl+Shift+F — search across all your notes Ctrl+Shift+Space — quick capture (jot a thought without touching the mouse) Ctrl+Shift+H — hide everything instantly (the boss key) Notes float above your other windows. Beyond the basics there's a lot packed in: 8 themes (Paper, Terminal, Amber CRT, Typewriter, E-ink, Blueprint, Dossier, Tech Grey), typing shortcuts that turn into headings and [] into checklists as you type, pasted or dragged-in images, per-note reminders with snooze, per-note opacity ("ghost mode"), [[wikilinks]] between notes with backlinks, hashtags, a daily note, version history per note, and optional per-note encryption with a passphrase. One honest warning on that last one: the passphrase is not recoverable — there's no reset, by design. Use it for the notes that need it, and don't lose the phrase. 5. Where your notes live (and backups) Every note is a JSON file on your machine, in the app's data folder (it keeps the original internal name, paper-notes, so your notes survive updates and rebrands): | Platform | Notes folder | | --- | --- | | Windows | %APPDATA%\paper-notes\notes\ | | Mac | ~/Library/Application Support/paper-notes/notes/ | | Linux | ~/.config/paper-notes/notes/ | Alongside notes/ you'll find history/ (per-note version snapshots — up to 50 each, browsable from a note's ⋯ → History…) and inbox/ — drop a .txt file in there from any sync tool and it becomes a note, which is the trick for capturing from your phone. Copying the whole folder is a full backup — point Syncthing or Dropbox at it if you want an off-machine copy. There's also built-in export from any note's ⋯ menu: Export all notes (one JSON file of everything), or export a single note as text. Import notes brings a JSON export back in — imported notes get fresh identities, so importing never overwrites what's there. 6. Updates TSNotes checks for updates quietly (about once a day) and, when one exists, shows a small "↓ Update available" entry in the tray menu and a banner in your notes. Nothing installs itself: clicking takes you to the download, you grab the new build, and your notes are untouched — they live in their own folder, separate from the app. 7. Troubleshooting "That key doesn't look valid." The key is one long block with a dot in the middle — both halves matter. Re-copy the entire block from the email (triple-click usually grabs it all) and paste again. No tray icon on Linux/GNOME. Install the "AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support" GNOME extension — GNOME hides tray icons without it. Mac says the app "can't be opened." First launch only: right-click the app → Open → Open. It's the unsigned-app prompt, not damage. Clicking × doesn't quit. By design — × hides the note. TSNotes lives in the tray; quit from the tray menu. Moved to a new computer and notes are "gone." They're on the old machine — copy the notes folder (table above) across, or use ⋯ → Export all notes on the old machine and Import on the new one. Then Deactivate on the old machine and Activate on the new one with the same key. Forgot an encrypted note's passphrase. There is no reset — that's the point of the encryption. The note stays sealed; nothing else is affected. A note refuses a huge image. Notes cap at 5 MB each; big images are better dragged into a folder and linked by name. Ctrl+Shift+Space doesn't open quick capture. If you also run SparkFlow, its AI-dictation shortcut uses the same combo — whichever app started second silently loses it. Rebind the shortcut in SparkFlow (Settings → General → SparkFlow Shortcuts); TSNotes' four hotkeys aren't remappable yet. 8. If something's off No email after checkout (spam checked)? For Ultimate buyers: the Notes email comes separately from your SparkBox key — if the others arrived and this one didn't, message @tomspark on Demox with your checkout email and it'll be re-issued. For anything else, replying to the purchase email reaches Tom directly, and d/tomsparknotes is the community home. That's TSNotes — your notes, your disk, forever. If something doesn't match what you see, post in d/tomsparknotes — every stumble in this guide gets rewritten. tsnotes.app → More guides → Set up a reliable everyday workflow Create one note called Inbox and one disposable test note. Try a heading, a checklist and a search term, then use the global hide shortcut and show your notes again. This checks that note creation, saving, search and tray access work before you depend on a large collection. If you use SparkFlow too, change one application's Ctrl+Shift+Space binding because both apps use that shortcut by default. A conflicting shortcut can look like a broken quick-capture window even while ordinary note creation still works. Use separate notes for separate subjects and a small set of consistent tags. Wikilinks are useful for connecting a project note to reference notes; they are not a substitute for an external backup. A note's history lets you revisit previous versions, but all versions stored on the same computer can disappear together if that disk is lost. Prove that your backup can restore Export all notes to JSON before a move or major cleanup. Keep the export somewhere private and confirm that the file is present and non-empty. On a spare profile or replacement machine, use Import notes to check a small exported collection. Imports create fresh identities, so test restoration without repeatedly importing into your main collection and accumulating duplicates. For a full-folder backup, include the app's data directory, not just the executable you downloaded. The internal paper-notes folder name is intentional and can survive a public rebrand. Do not rename it to match the current logo and then assume the app will discover the new location. If you use a file sync tool, understand its conflict behavior and avoid treating concurrent edits on multiple computers as a built-in collaboration feature. The inbox folder can accept captured text from another tool, but that does not make TSNotes a shared online document editor. Per-note encryption needs its own passphrase. Keep that passphrase outside the note you are encrypting. A purchase key unlocks the app; it does not decrypt a note whose passphrase was lost. When requesting help in d/tomsparknotes, share the platform, version and error without your note contents, license or encryption passphrase. --- Updated September 14, 2026. Website guide. Please keep keys and personal data out of public replies.