Windows tray scratchpad
Five slates. One keystroke.
The fastest place to put a thought down without opening, naming, or saving a thing.
The problem
Quick capture shouldn't mean opening an app.
Every option adds a step — an account, a file to name, a folder to open. By the time you've caught the thought, you've lost your place or lost the thought.
QuinSlate is five slates in the same place, every time. One keystroke to open, one to send it away. The text stays. Nothing else does.
How it works
Call it up
Ctrl+Shift+Q from anywhere, or a click on the tray icon. The panel appears over whatever you're doing.
Type
You land on your last slate — switch to another if you need it. Words save the moment you stop; nothing to name, nothing to save.
Send it away
The same key hides the panel and you're back to work. Your words wait exactly where you left them — through reboots, crashes, and updates.
Why it works
Fast & simple
No file to name. No note to create. No save button. Press the key, type, and it's down before you've left what you were doing.
Five slates
Five. Not four, not fifty. Enough to keep work, life, and that one running list apart. Few enough that you always know what's in each. Name them, add an emoji, and they're yours.
Always here
Lives in the system tray, one hotkey from anywhere. Your browser, your call, your spreadsheet. Hover the icon to read the first line of each slate without opening a thing.
Inline calculator
Type 28 + 14 = and the answer appears right where you typed it. No switching to a calculator app, no losing your place. Quick math while you're on a call, or while the thought's still in front of you.
All local
Five plain text files, sitting on your machine. No account, no cloud, no sync to break. Your words never leave your computer. And you could open them in Notepad if you ever wanted to.
%AppData%\QuinSlate\
├─ slate-1.txt
├─ slate-2.txt
├─ slate-3.txt
├─ slate-4.txt
├─ slate-5.txt
└─ settings.jsonThe fastest place to put a thought down
No opening, no naming, no saving.
Just five slates, one keystroke away.
FAQ
Because a limit you can't outgrow is the point. Five is enough to keep separate things separate, few enough that you always know what's in each. If you need fifty, you need folders, search, and names. You need a different tool, and QuinSlate is deliberately not that tool.
No, and that's by design, not a missing feature. Every one of those turns a scratchpad back into something you have to manage. The moment you're organizing, you've stopped capturing. QuinSlate keeps the surface flat so there's nothing to maintain.
Nothing leaves your machine. Each slate is a plain .txt file on your computer, with no account, no server, no sync. You don't even have to go hunting for them: the About window shows exactly where your data lives, with an "Open folder" button one click away.
It's free, with no tiers, no license keys, no trial.
Windows 10 or 11. That's the whole list. QuinSlate is a small tray app, not a background service, so it's not running when you're not using it and it won't slow your machine down. No account setup, no configuration. Download it and press the key.