Two More Scratchpads for the Linux Desktop
20 August, 2024
A while back, I wrote about a pair of applications that let you quickly scribble something down for later use. I put those applications to the back of my mind, mainly because I didn’t have a lot of use for them at the time.
Recently, though, I stumbled across a pair of new (well, new to me) little scratchpad tools for the Linux desktop. I decided to give them a test drive as a receptacle for notes for an online course I was doing at the time. The idea was to have a little note taking window sitting on top of my web browser. That would be, I thought, less obtrusive and less disruptive to my flow than having to flip between a browser window and either a text editor or QOwnNotes.
With that in mind, let’s take a quick peek at those two apps: Mini Text and Buffer.
Mini Text
Mini Text is described as being ephemeral (more on this in a moment). It might be ephemeral, but it’s also minimalist. Mini Text has a very simple interface, as you can see here:
It’s little more than a text area in which you can write, paste and copy text, or delete what’s in that text area. You can also increase or decrease the size of the font. That said, you can’t change the font — Mini Text uses the font for interface text configured in your desktop’s settings.
So what does all that look like? Here’s Mini Text holding some URLs that I collected:
Remember when I said that Mini Text is ephemeral? I meant just that. When you close Mini Text, whatever you put into it is no more. Make sure that you copy and paste your text somewhere else before closing application. Assuming that you want to save the text, of course.
Buffer
Buffer is slightly, but noticeably, different from Mini Text. The main area of difference is the screen. You get a blank editing area, nothing more:
To use Buffer, you copy and paste or type into the editing area. Yes, that’s pretty much all it does, as you can see below.
As you might have guessed from the images above, Buffer’s window is a bit large compared to Mini Text. It also sits at the centre of your screen. You can’t resize or move it.
However, you can click the hamburger menu in the application’s header to change a few settings, including:
- Whether or not to use a monospace font.
- Limit the length of lines and show line numbers.
- Check spelling.
- Save what are called emergency recovery files. If you enable this option, Buffer saves the text from your last 10 sessions in a hidden folder in /home directory. You can pull them up when you need to.
Like Mini Text, Buffer is ephemeral. So unless you have the emergency recovery files option enabled, remember to move what you put into Buffer somewhere else before you close the application’s window.
Final Thoughts
I found Mini Text to be a bit more effective than Buffer for use as a scratchpad. That said, using Mini Text and Buffer forced me to be a bit more mindful about my transient note taking. While using them, I had to make sure that I shifted what I’d jotted down elsewhere before closing each application.
But what about the use case I mentioned at the top of this post? I didn’t stick with Mini Text or Buffer. I decided to use Nanonote as my scratchpad for my online course. There were a few reasons for that, which aren’t important.
However, if you’re looking for a scratchpad application, give Mini Text and Buffer a close peek. One of them might be what you need if you’re in the market for a temporary dumping ground for some of the bits of information that come your way.