How to keep sticky notes above fullscreen apps on Mac
Stickies and ordinary windows disappear the moment a Mac app enters fullscreen. Oh My Notes Pro pins a sticky note above fullscreen apps and keeps it there across Spaces, fading to your chosen opacity (40–100%) when you click away. Notes stay as plain Markdown files in a folder on your Mac — no account, no subscription.
Why Stickies fail in fullscreen
When you put Xcode, Keynote or a browser into fullscreen, macOS moves it to its own Space — and every normal window, Apple Stickies included, is left behind on the desktop Space. Switch back to the note and you leave the fullscreen app; swipe to your work and the note is gone from view. Apple Stickies does have a floating option, but it does not follow you across Spaces, so in practice your notes are invisible whenever an app goes fullscreen. It is the most common complaint about sticky notes on Mac — and exactly the gap Oh My Notes Pro fills.
What “above fullscreen” means on macOS
macOS organises windows into Spaces. A fullscreen app lives in its own Space, so an ordinary “always on top” window can only float above windows in your current Space — it cannot follow you into another app’s fullscreen Space. A note that is genuinely above fullscreen is shown inside that fullscreen Space, on top of the app. That is a stronger guarantee than plain float-on-top, and in Oh My Notes it is the Pro capability we call “float above fullscreen & across Spaces”. Floating on top does not change how clicks work: you click the note to use it, and when you click anywhere else the note fades to your unfocused opacity.
Five steps to pin a note above fullscreen
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Install Oh My Notes
Download OhMyNotes-0.2.0.dmg, drag Oh My Notes to Applications and open it. The free tier works on macOS 13+ and needs no account.
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Write today’s note
Capture what matters today in the Today layer: quick to-dos, a reminder, one pinned note for the thing you cannot afford to forget. Everything is saved as plain .md files.
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Pin the note above fullscreen (Pro)
Enable float-above-fullscreen & across Spaces for the note. From then on it stays visible even when Xcode, Keynote or a fullscreen browser takes over the screen. This is the part of the float feature included in Pro; the free tier covers the edge dock and an ordinary always-on-top float.
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Set the unfocused opacity
Choose how transparent the note becomes when you click away — anywhere from 40% to 100%. At 40% it fades back and stops covering the app behind it; click the note and it is fully solid again.
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Optional: capture from anywhere
Turn on the global quick-capture hotkey and a new note opens from any app — jot, close, keep working, without leaving the fullscreen app.
Free vs Pro, in one table
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Edge dock / ordinary always-on-top float | ✓ | ✓ |
| Float above fullscreen & across Spaces | — | ✓ |
| Unfocused opacity (40–100%) | ✓ | ✓ |
Pro is $9.99 one-time (early bird $7.99). No subscription. Details: Free vs Pro pricing.
Other ways to do it
- Apple Stickies — free, built into macOS, zero setup; but notes hide in fullscreen and nothing is saved as Markdown.
- Noticky — floats above fullscreen apps, with reminders and Apple Reminders sync; $9.99 on the Mac App Store, also on Setapp.
- Flotnote — a ⌘. scratchpad that keeps plain .md files and can point at an Obsidian vault; $4.99 one-time launch price (regular $9.99), 7-day trial.
- SideNotes — a notes panel that slides out from the screen edge, with folders and Markdown; $19.99.
Quick answers
How transparent can an unfocused note be?
Anywhere from 40% to 100%. When you click elsewhere the note fades to the level you chose; click the note and it returns to full strength.
Where do the notes live?
In plain .md files in a folder on your Mac — by default ~/Documents/OhMyNotes. Choosing a custom notes folder or multiple vaults is part of Pro.
Can I point it at my Obsidian vault?
Yes — Pro can point Oh My Notes at any folder, including an Obsidian vault, and notes stay plain .md files you can open anywhere.
Make today’s note impossible to lose
Free to try. Pro is a one-time purchase — early bird $7.99 (regular $9.99). macOS 13+.
How we researched this
This guide was written in October 2026, based on Oh My Notes v0.2.0 and on each competitor’s public website, App Store listing or docs at the time of research. Competitor details change often — please check their sites for current information. The full comparison tables live in the homepage’s “How it stacks up” section.