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Windows 7 Sticky Notes 03In this guide, we show you a bunch of tips and tricks for Sticky Notes, which has received an update for Windows 7. Specifically, we’ll What versions?cover the following:

  • What versions of Windows 7 have Sticky Notes?
  • How do I open Sticky Notes?
  • How do I create a new note?
  • How do I change the color of notes?
  • How do I resize notes?
  • How do I delete a note?
  • How do I change the fonts of a note?
  • How can I backup my notes?
  • How do I format text within my notes?
  • How do I save my notes for later?

If you know of a trick that we missed, please let us know in the comments.

What Versions of Windows 7 have Sticky Notes?

Sticky Notes is available only in the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7.

Source

So, if you have Windows 7 Starter edition, you wont have access to Sticky Notes — sorry.

How Do I Open Sticky Notes?

To open Sticky Notes, click the Start button, type notes and click Sticky Notes.

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 01

How Do I Create a New Note?

Either: click the plus sign on a previously-existing note:

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 02

Or: Right click the notes icon in the taskbar and click New Note.

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 03

How Do I Change the Color of Notes?

Right click a note and choose a new color:

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 04

How Do I Resize Notes?

Notes will resize as you add content to them:

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 05

Alternatively, you can grab the bottom right corner of a note to resize it. You can also overlay notes if you like that kind of thing :)

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 06

How Do I Delete a Note?

On a note you’d like to delete, click the X in the top tight corner.

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 07

You’ll be asked to confirm deletion and can check a box (Don’t display this message again) to remove the confirmation dialog.

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 08

Advanced tip: If you want to be prompted again (I closed a note with the fonts examples after taking about five minutes preparing it):

Not sure how to use the Registry to make edits? Learn here: Working with the Windows Registry.

1. Open the registry and navigate the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\StickyNotes

2. Change the value of PROMPT_ON_DELETE to 1.

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 11

How do I Format Text Within my Notes?

You can format text in your notes with the following shortcuts:

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 12

More shortcuts:

Alan Wade shares the following shortcuts–thanks Alan:

  • Ctrl+Scroll Wheel Increase/Decrease text size
  • Ctrl+1 Single-space lines
  • Ctrl+2 Double-space lines
  • Ctrl+5 Set 1.5-line spacing
  • Ctrl+= Subscript
  • Ctrl+Shift++ Superscript
  • Ctrl+Z Undo
  • Ctrl+Y Redo
  • Ctrl+X Cut
  • Ctrl+C Copy
  • Ctrl+V Paste
  • Ctrl+N New sticky note

How do I Change the Fonts of a Note?

The only way I could find to change the fonts in a note is to first format the font in a program like Microsoft Word and then copy and paste the formatted text:

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 09

How Can I Backup My Notes?

To backup your notes, you’ll first need to show hidden files and folders.

Now open My Computer and enter %appdata%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes\ in the address bar:

Windows 7 Sticky Notes 10

Copy StickyNotes.snt to a backup location of your choice. You can also copy this file to another PC running Windows 7 to view your notes there.

How do I Save My Notes for Later?

If you’d like to close Sticky Notes but not lose your current notes (i.e. avoid clicking the X to delete a note), you’ll need to do the following:

Right click the Sticky Notes icon in the taskbar and click Close. This will save your notes for next time.

What Did We Miss?

If you know of a trick that we missed, please let us know in the comments.



About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

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Comments

22 thoughts on “The Complete Guide to Windows 7 Sticky Notes”

  1. Alan Wade says:

    You can add these to the list of shortcuts:

    Ctrl+Scroll Wheel Increase/Decrease text size
    Ctrl+1 Single-space lines
    Ctrl+2 Double-space lines
    Ctrl+5 Set 1.5-line spacing
    Ctrl+= Subscript
    Ctrl+Shift++ Superscript
    Ctrl+Z Undo
    Ctrl+Y Redo
    Ctrl+X Cut
    Ctrl+C Copy
    Ctrl+V Paste
    Ctrl+N New sticky note

    1. Rich says:

      Thanks Alan, I’ve added them to the guide.

  2. Robert4267 says:

    how do you print your notes to take with you?

  3. Guest says:

    Ok, so, here’s my question…
    Is there a way to change the _default_ color options for sticky notes?
    I’d like to change yellow to orange and green to black, but I can’t find a way to do so.

  4. Rich says:

    I don’t know of a way, but they may know how in the forums: http://forum.mintywhite.com

  5. Itzmejacky says:

    is there a way so I can also have sticky notes on starter?

  6. 2dmartin says:

    Something happened to my sticky notes such that the background is always white, the frame colour only changes.  The frame is everything outside the text box.  Has anyone an idea on how to reset this ?  

  7. G. Calamita says:

    Your useful guide lacks one thing only: how to merge two sticky notes files coming from two computer; I mean an old windows 7 installation and a new one.

  8. MISSRCURTIS says:

    HOW DOI PRINT THE NOTES?

    1. Rich says:

      I believe you’d have to select the text, copy it (CTRL+C), and paste it (CTRL+V) into either Word or Notepad. Then press CTRL+P to bring up the normal print dialogue.

  9. Rich says:

    –Dennis. I do not know of any way to do this. If you do find a solution, please share it with us.

  10. Justine Doctolero says:

    How can I put the Notes infront of all tabs while using them without the notes going to the back of the tab?

  11. jeremy sordjo says:

    How do you insert a link to a folder?

  12. Alexander Tjintjelaar says:

    Hi,
    Great How – to – sticky youre notes.
    I am missing 1 thing, maybe you know, how can you scroll down with the wheel mouse?

    Using the scroll bar is delaying my work speed.

    Thanks in advance.

    Greetings.

    1. Shreya says:

      Hold the sticky note with left click of mouse + press Alt key .
      This will enable the scroll from mouse wheel

      1. Rich says:

        Thanks. For me, I just tapped ALT and the scroll wheel is enabled

  13. Giorgia says:

    Hi,
    I’m not able to open my Sticky Notes file. My laptop died and I recovered the file from the hard disk but when I tried to open it, the other laptop (with windows 7) does not recognize it!! I don’t know what else I can do to see my notes.

    Thanks in advance.

  14. Manny says:

    how do you remove the white background, it appears all sticky notes have a white background no matter what color is selected.

  15. Melinda Engel says:

    So how can I make my sticky notes always open on my desktop in Windows 8? When I search for an answer, it says open tools …. I cannot find tools.

  16. HackanHacker says:

    When whe do Ctrl+Shift+a the keyboard is lock to Uppercase

  17. Toby says:

    How do you insert a picture? I know you can copy picture off of Google, but how do you put a picture on your sticky notes from your own computer?

  18. Robert R. Reid says:

    how does one launch sticky notes from a hyperlink embedded in MS Word?

Comments are closed.


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