Settings

Every setting, by pane.

Opening Settings

Access settings via:

  • Menu bar → NoteDrop → Settings…
  • Keyboard shortcut ⌘,
  • The "Open NoteDrop Settings" action in Shortcuts

Settings has five panes: General, Filing, Note Panel, Document and Shortcuts. The window can be made taller. Below, settings are named as Pane › Section.

General

Startup, the global shortcut and updates.

Startup

  • Launch at login: Start NoteDrop automatically when you log in. If macOS needs your approval, the pane says so and Open System Settings takes you to Login Items.
  • Show in Dock: Display the NoteDrop icon in the Dock; clicking it opens the folder picker. NoteDrop always stays in the menu bar.

Keyboard Shortcut

Shows the global New File Note shortcut, which starts a note from any app, and warns if another app is using it. Change Shortcut… takes you to the Shortcuts pane, which also lists the note panel's own shortcuts.

Updates

  • Check for updates automatically: Periodically check for new versions, with the time of the last check. Check Now checks straight away. A dot on the menu bar icon shows when an update is available.

Filing

How matters are recognised, where notes go, and how NoteDrop connects to Finder and Spotlight. See Industry Profiles and Folder Structure.

Industry Profile

Legal, Medical, Real Estate, Accounting, Generic or Simple. The profile sets the labels in your notes, the folder-name pattern, the default subfolders and the note types shown. The pane shows an example of a folder name in your profile's pattern ("Folder names look like"). Switching profile asks first, because it replaces your folder detection, save location and subfolder settings with the new profile's defaults.

Matter Folders

(Named after your profile — Patient Folders, Property Folders, and so on.) Not shown for the Simple profile, which doesn't read folder names.

  • Recognise a matter folder by:
    • Name starts with a number (default) — folders whose names start with a number, such as 013456.
    • Name matches my profile's pattern — folders named in your profile's pattern, whatever the reference looks like.
    • Use the folder I start from — the folder you start a note from, without looking in parent folders.
    An example under the picker shows what each choice matches. With the first two, starting a note inside a matter folder or any of its subfolders finds the matter.
  • Read details from folder names: Fills in the reference number and name (e.g. Matter No. and Client) from the folder's name. When off, notes are named after the folder.
  • Test a Folder…: Pick (or drop) a folder and see what NoteDrop reads from it.

Save Location

  • Where notes go: Save into a subfolder (e.g. Correspondence) or Save directly in the matter folder.
  • Subfolders to look for: A comma-separated list. The first subfolder that exists is used; if none does, the note goes in the matter folder.
  • Subfolder when the list is empty: A single fallback folder name (Correspondence by default). It only appears, and is only used, when the list above is empty.

Matters Folder

(Patients Folder, Properties Folder… for other profiles.) Your top-level matters folder: where the folder picker starts, what matter search (in the picker, Shortcuts and Siri) looks through, and which folders notedrop:// links may open. The pane shows whether it's ready, missing or read-only. NoteDrop isn't sandboxed, so it doesn't need this to save.

Finder

  • Finder extension: Shows whether macOS reports the extension as on. Turn On… opens the system's own Finder extensions list. See Finder Extension.
  • Finder Automation: Shows whether NoteDrop may control Finder, which lets the keyboard shortcut and menu bar file into the Finder folder you're working in. Allow… asks for access, or Open System Settings takes you to Privacy & Security › Automation if you declined earlier. Without it, NoteDrop asks you to choose a folder.
  • Show "New File" in Finder's right-click menu: Creates an empty text, Markdown or RTF file and selects it so you can rename it. Off for new installs. Choose which file types appear below it.

Spotlight

Index notes in Spotlight makes saved notes and recent matters searchable in Spotlight, Shortcuts and Siri. Turning it off removes NoteDrop's entries; turning it back on re-indexes your recent notes. See Spotlight.

Note Panel

Note types, snippets, time recording and the panel's other options.

Note Types

  • Default note type: Pre-selected when a note opens.
  • Show or hide: Choose which types appear in the panel; the order here is the ⌘1–⌘9 order. Until you change this, switching profile shows that profile's types; Use <profile> Defaults puts them back.
  • Templates: Text a new note of a given type opens with. The available tokens are listed in the template editor.

Custom Types

Add Custom Type… adds your own type; custom types can be reordered, given templates and deleted.

Snippets

Reusable text for the panel's Insert Snippet menu (Add Snippet…). Snippets can use the same tokens as templates. See Templates and Snippets.

Time Recording

Billing unit: Off, 6, 15 or 30 minutes. Durations on any note type round up to the next unit — e.g. 19 minutes is recorded as 24 with 6-minute units.

Date and Time

  • Date format: Medium (e.g. "8 Jan 2026 at 2:30 pm"), Long (e.g. "8 January 2026 at 2:30 pm") or ISO 8601 (e.g. "2026-01-08T14:30:00"). An example of the current choice appears below.
  • Time format: System, 12-hour or 24-hour — used in notes, inserted timestamps and Recent Notes.

Participants

Attendees heading and Call with heading rename the headings for who attended a meeting and who a call was with. Leave one blank to leave that row out of documents.

Apple Intelligence and Dictation

  • Use Apple Intelligence in the note panel: Shows the sparkles menu (Suggest Description & Type ⌥⌘S, Tidy Up Text, Expand Points into Note), with the current availability and a button to System Settings when it isn't available.
  • Run requests (macOS 27): On this Mac only, Prefer this Mac (default) or Prefer Private Cloud Compute.
  • Fill in an empty Description when saving: Off by default.
  • Offer to tidy dictated text: Shows a Tidy button after dictation.

The microphone button in the panel dictates at the cursor; NoteDrop asks for microphone access the first time. See Apple Intelligence & Dictation, including what Private Cloud Compute means for confidentiality.

Document

Output format and how saved notes look.

Format

Save notes as:

  • PDF
  • Markdown, with a metadata header.
  • Both: a PDF and a Markdown file with the same name.

You can also change the format for one note from the panel's action bar (⌥⌘F).

Letterhead

  • Firm name: Optional, shown in the PDF header below the logo.
  • Author: Shown as author in notes and in "Amended … by …" stamps.
  • Logo: Optional image for the PDF header above your firm name (PNG, JPEG or TIFF; around 200×60 px works well).

Page

  • Paper size: US Letter or A4. New installs outside the US start on A4.
  • Margins: Narrow, Standard or Wide — described in millimetres, or in inches in the US.

Header Preview

A preview of the note header. Its labels come from your industry profile (Filing › Industry Profile); date and time formats are set in Note Panel › Date and Time.

Shortcuts

  • Global Shortcut: The New File Note shortcut, which works from any app. Click to record a new one; Reset to Default restores ⌃⌥⌘N; Turn Off sets it to None. If another app already uses the combination, it says so.
  • Panel Shortcuts: A list of every shortcut in the note panel.

See Keyboard Shortcuts for the full reference.