The menu-bar scratchpad
Some sums don’t deserve a note: what’s 18% of this bill, how many hours is 90 minutes, what does that come to in euros. The scratchpad is a small panel you can open over any app, do the sum, and close again.
Turn it on
Settings › General › Menu bar has Show Varlig in the menu bar, which puts a
plus.forwardslash.minus icon up beside the clock. Click it to open the scratchpad; click again to
put it away. View › Show Scratchpad opens it from the main window.
Each line is a calculation and its answer appears to the right, exactly as in a note:
12 × 4.5 gives 5490 min in hours gives 1.5 hoursClick an answer to copy it. The footer confirms with Copied, and ⇧⌘C copies the answer on the line your caret is on.
Keep what’s worth keeping
Save to Note turns the scratchpad into a new note with your lines in a calculation block, titled with the date and time. Save to Note and Clear does the same and gives you an empty pad.
Clear (⌘K) empties it, and Edit › Undo brings it back while the panel is open.
The scratchpad’s text lives in your library, so it’s there when you come back to it. It isn’t part of a backup, and it isn’t synced.
Open it from anywhere
⌃Space opens it from any app. Settings › General › Keyboard shortcuts changes or clears that shortcut for Show scratchpad, and records two more for Open Varlig and Create a new note; every one you record has to include ⌘ or ⌃.
macOS also uses ⌃Space, to switch input sources, and while that shortcut is on it gets the keys first. Settings tells you when that is so: turn off Select the previous input source in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Input Sources, or record another shortcut.
open -g varlig://scratchpad opens it from Terminal or a launcher.
Running without a Dock icon
With the menu-bar item on, Show Dock icon can be turned off, and Varlig keeps running in the menu bar alone. The change takes effect immediately. The Dock icon can’t be hidden without the menu-bar item, so there’s always a way back.