# How to put sticky notes on your Mac desktop

> **TL;DR** To put a sticky note on the Mac desktop, open Apple's Stickies, which ships with macOS, and choose File > New Note; drag the note by its title bar to where you want it. Apple's notes only show while the Stickies app is open. For a note that lives on the desktop itself, add a Notes widget (Control-click the wallpaper, choose Edit Widgets). Stickies by Coduo, a separate menu-bar app that is not released yet, makes a new pinned sticky from any app with Command-Shift-N and shows it on every desktop Space.

The quickest way to put a sticky note on your Mac desktop is Apple's Stickies app, which comes with macOS: open it, choose File > New Note, and drag the note where you want it. The catch is that Apple's notes only show while that app is open, so the note leaves the desktop whenever the app is closed.

This guide covers Apple's two built-in routes first, Apple's Stickies and a Notes widget, then how Stickies by Coduo does it. Stickies by Coduo is a separate menu-bar app from Apple's Stickies, made by Coduo. It does not read or change Apple's notes, and it is not released yet.

## How do you put a sticky note on the Mac desktop with Apple's Stickies?

Open Apple's Stickies and choose File > New Note. Apple's steps, from its Stickies guide:

1. Open the Stickies app. On the Mac used for this guide, running macOS 26.6.2, it sits in `/System/Applications`, so it is part of macOS.
2. Choose File > New Note.
3. Type. Apple says your content is saved automatically, and the note's first line becomes its title when you collapse it.
4. Drag the note by its title bar to place it on the desktop. Drag an edge to resize it.
5. To keep the note in front of other windows, choose Window > Float on Top. The [guide to keeping sticky notes on top](https://www.coduo.co/stickies/guides/keep-sticky-notes-on-top-mac) covers that setting in more detail.

Apple's Stickies holds more than text. A note takes pictures and PDFs dragged into it, fonts from Font > Show Fonts, a colour from the Color menu, and lists started with Option-Tab.

## Why do sticky notes disappear from the Mac desktop?

Apple's sticky notes disappear because the Stickies app is closed. Apple's guide says so directly: when Stickies is closed, notes don't appear on your desktop. The notes are not deleted. Open the Stickies app again and they show again.

If you quit apps often, or restart and forget to open Stickies, this is the behaviour you will keep running into. The notes are files on disk the whole time; the [guide to where Apple's Stickies are stored](https://www.coduo.co/stickies/guides/where-are-stickies-stored-mac) shows the folder and how to back it up.

## Can you put a note on the desktop as a widget?

Yes. Apple Notes has widgets that sit on the desktop itself and show a note or a folder. Apple's steps:

1. Control-click the wallpaper and choose Edit Widgets.
2. Search for Notes in the widget gallery.
3. Click the widget to place it automatically, or drag it to a spot on the desktop.
4. Click Done.

You can add more than one Notes widget, and Control-click any widget to change what it shows or its size. The trade-off is where it sits. A widget is on the desktop, under your windows, and Apple's own tip for widgets hidden by other windows is to click the wallpaper, which moves the open windows away.

For a note that stays over your other windows while you write, Apple Notes has Quick Note instead. Press and hold the Fn or Globe key, then press Q, or move the pointer to the bottom-right corner of the screen. Apple says a Quick Note stays visible on the screen while it is open.

## How do you keep a note on every desktop?

Apple's Stickies guide does not cover Spaces, the separate desktops a Mac can have, so this guide makes no claim about whether Apple's notes follow you from one desktop to the next. Apple's widget guide does not say either.

In Stickies by Coduo, a pinned sticky's window is set to join all Spaces and to appear over full-screen apps, so it is meant to come with you when you switch desktops.

## How does Stickies by Coduo put a sticky on the desktop?

Press Command-Shift-N in any app. Stickies by Coduo saves a new sticky with its placement set to pinned and opens its window straight away, so there is no app to switch to and no menu to open. Pinned is one of the two places a sticky can be: pinned on the desktop as its own window, or stashed at the right edge of the screen as a thin strip.

What happens after that, from the code:

- **The window remembers where you put it.** Every move writes the window's position to the sticky, and the sticky reopens there. Every sticky is 264 points wide and 300 tall.
- **You drag it by its background.** The window is borderless, with no macOS title bar, and is set to move when you drag its background.
- **It has no close button.** A pinned sticky leaves the desktop when you click its pin to stash it, or when you choose Delete from its menu. The [guide to hiding sticky notes](https://www.coduo.co/stickies/guides/hide-stickies-on-mac) covers the stash.
- **Typing saves itself.** The editor writes the text 250 milliseconds after you stop typing, into one file on your Mac.

You can also write a sticky from the menu-bar panel. It saves to the stash by default; turn on the panel's pin before saving and it opens on the desktop instead.

## What are the trade-offs with Stickies by Coduo?

Stickies by Coduo has four limits to know before you choose it, all visible in the current code.


- **Pinned windows do not come back on their own after you quit.** The sticky, its text and its window position are all saved, but the app does not reopen pinned windows when it launches. You open them again from the row of recent stickies in the menu-bar panel. Launch at Login in Settings starts the app when you log in, but it does not bring the windows back either.
- **The shortcut is fixed.** Command-Shift-N cannot be changed yet; the code notes that rebinding is for the future. Finder uses the same keys for New Folder, and this guide did not test which one wins while Stickies by Coduo is running.
- **Plain text with three styles.** A sticky's body takes bold, italic and strikethrough. Pictures, PDFs, fonts and lists are things Apple's Stickies does and Stickies by Coduo does not.

## Which way fits you?

| You want | Use |
| --- | --- |
| A note on the desktop right now, free | Apple's Stickies, File > New Note |
| A note that is part of the desktop itself | A Notes widget |
| One note over your work while you write | Apple Notes Quick Note |
| A new sticky from any app with one shortcut, on every Space | Stickies by Coduo (not released yet; see the [plans page](https://www.coduo.co/stickies#pricing)) |

If Apple's Stickies does what you need and you keep it open, it is already on your Mac and costs nothing. Stickies by Coduo is for the person who wants a note on screen without switching apps first, and who wants the ones they are not using out of the way at the screen edge.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I put a sticky note on my Mac desktop?

Open Apple's Stickies, which is built into macOS, and choose File > New Note. Type your note; Apple says the content is saved automatically. Drag the note by its title bar to place it, and drag an edge to resize it.

### Why did my sticky notes disappear from the Mac desktop?

Apple's Stickies only shows notes while the app is open. Apple's guide says that when Stickies is closed, notes don't appear on the desktop, so open the Stickies app again and they come back.

### Can I put an Apple Notes note on the desktop as a widget?

Yes. Control-click the wallpaper, choose Edit Widgets, search for Notes, and click or drag the widget onto the desktop. A Notes widget shows a note or a folder, and you can add more than one.

### Does Stickies by Coduo show a sticky on every desktop?

That is what the code sets up. A pinned sticky in Stickies by Coduo is a window set to join every Space and to sit over full-screen apps. Stickies by Coduo is a separate app from Apple's Stickies and is not released yet.

### Do Stickies by Coduo's pinned stickies come back after I quit the app?

Not by themselves in the current build. Stickies by Coduo keeps every sticky and its window position, but it does not reopen pinned windows at launch; you open them again from the recent stickies row in its menu-bar panel.