A Visual Studio Code extension for quickly jotting down notes and thoughts without leaving your editor.
Features
Dedicated Note Explorer: Access and manage your notes easily through a dedicated view in the Activity Bar.
Note Operations:
Create new notes (supports configurable default file extensions).
Create new subdirectories to organize your notes.
Rename notes and directories.
Delete notes and directories.
Journaling:
Quickly create or open today's journal note (YYYY_MM_DD format) in a dedicated journal sub-folder using the "Simple Note: New Journal Note (Today)" command or the calendar icon.
Template-Based Note Creation:
Quickly create new notes from predefined templates.
Optional Default Template: Configure a default template to be used automatically when creating a new note via "Simple Note: New Note".
Optional Journal Template: Configure a specific template for journal notes. Falls back to the default template or a blank note if not set.
Easily create new templates from existing notes or new content.
Powerful Search:
Find notes by their file names.
Search for text within the content of all your notes.
Intuitive Interface:
Refresh the Note Explorer to reflect external changes.
Most actions are available via context menus within the Note Explorer.
Dedicated icons for common actions in the Note Explorer's title bar.
Usage
Configure your notes directory:
Set the simpleNote.notesPath to the absolute path where you want to store your notes (e.g., /YOUR_NOTE_PATH.
(Optional) Configure your templates directory:
If you plan to use templates, set simpleNote.templatesPath to the absolute path of your templates folder.
Access the Note Explorer:
Click on the "Simple Note" icon in the Activity Bar (it looks like a document or a custom icon if resources/icon.svg is used).
If you don't see the icon, you might need to open the view via the command palette: View: Show Simple Note.
Using the Explorer:
View Title Bar Actions:
Refresh: Updates the list of notes and directories.
New Note: Creates a new note in the root of your notesPath or selected directory.
New Directory: Creates a new subdirectory in the root of your notesPath or selected directory.
New Note From Template: Prompts you to select a template to create a new note.
Create New Template: Helps you create a new template.
Find Note by Name: Searches for notes by filename.
Search Content: Searches for text within your notes.
Context Menu (Right-click on an item or empty space):
On a directory: New Note, New Directory, New Note From Template, Rename, Delete.
On a file: Rename, Delete.
In an empty area of the explorer: New Note, New Directory, New Note From Template.
Commands:
All features are also available via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P). Search for "Simple Note:" to see all available commands.
Extension Settings
This extension contributes the following settings (configurable in User or Workspace settings):
simpleNote.notesPath (string):
Description: The absolute path to your notes directory.
Default: "" (User must configure this for the extension to work properly)
simpleNote.defaultExtension (string):
Description: The default file extension for new notes (e.g., md, txt). Do not include the leading dot.
Default: "md"
simpleNote.templatesPath (string):
Description: The absolute path to your notes templates directory. Leave empty to disable template functionality or if you don't use templates.
Default: ""
simpleNote.defaultTemplatePath (string):
Description: The absolute path to your default note template. If set, this template will be used when creating a new note (using the "Simple Note: New Note" command) without explicitly selecting a template. Placeholders like {title}, {date}, {time}, {uuid}, etc., will be replaced. Leave empty to create a blank new note.
Default: ""
simpleNote.journalTemplatePath (string):
Description: The absolute path to your dedicated journal note template. If set, this template will be used when creating a new journal note via the "Simple Note: New Journal Note (Today)" command. If not set, it will fall back to using the simpleNote.defaultTemplatePath. If neither is set, a blank journal note is created. Supports the same placeholders.