As someone who constantly has a million browser tabs open (I'm working on this), I was in need of a simple notepad that opened everytime I open a new tab. So, I decided to build a simple Chrome extension to take notes and sync these notes across all open tabs.
Yes, I’ve used Dan Eden’s plugin (Lucid) before writing my own but somehow (probably due to my organisational settings on my Macbook) Chrome complained about it not being supported anymore so I wanted to fill that gap and learn to create a plugin for myself. It is heavily inspired by iA Writer. I even used their typeface iA Writer Mono that is served through Fontsource.
The extension gives me a basic notepad within the browser, where I can quickly jot down and update my notes.
After enabling the plugin, the notepad reveals itself in every tab you open. Obviously it doesn’t move the input-focus to the notepad since I don’t want to hinder the logical flow of typing an URL (that would be the primary goal of opening a new tab).
Once you update a note in one tab, it automatically syncs to all other tabs (that have the extension active). It uses Chrome’s chrome.storage.sync to save and load the notes across the browser.
Using chrome.storage.onChanged, any update in one tab is reflected instantly in all others, so no need to refresh (and in my case, no need to find the tab that had my notes).
Ohw yes and it also does Dark mode 🌚!
I’m happy to think along about new features. Please let me know :)