WIP Notes: a clean three-panel writing app for macOS. Organize with Notebooks, write with rich formatting, and export to any format — all stored locally on your Mac.
WIP stands for Work In Progress — a dedicated workspace for everything you're actively building: notes, ideas, images, and references organized by project, stored only on your Mac.
Most note apps are designed for information you want to keep forever. WIP Notes is different — it's built for the work you're actively doing.
Each project gets its own Notebook. Inside it: the notes you're taking, the ideas you're testing, the images you keep coming back to, the decisions you've logged, the research you need close at hand. Everything for that project, in one place, ready the moment you open the app. Notes inside a Notebook can be organized into Note Groups — named sections that keep related notes together so your workspace stays structured as projects grow.
It's not a journal. Not a knowledge base. Not a general inbox. It's the scratchpad, the draft, the running log — a dedicated workspace for every project you have in flight. When a project ships, export it and move on. Until then, WIP Notes is where that work lives.
WIP Notes is deliberately focused. A fast, clean writing environment with just the right tools.
Notebooks on the left, notes in the middle, editor on the right. Collapse any panel to focus. Resize to your liking — widths are saved between sessions.
Headings, bold, italic, code blocks, blockquotes, bullet & numbered lists, checklists, inline code, text color, highlights, alignment, tables, and images.
Paste from Excel and WIP Notes creates a fully editable table. Resize columns by dragging, select individual cells or ranges, and add or remove rows without leaving the editor.
Tag Notebooks and individual notes with seven colors. Sort by label to instantly group by project, priority, or status across your entire library.
Bring in plain text, Markdown, RTF, Word, HTML, PDF, Fountain, JSON, and YAML. Batch import an entire folder and it becomes a new Notebook automatically.
Export individual notes, grouped notes by color label, or entire Notebooks. Output to PDF, Word, HTML, Markdown, RTF, plain text, or JSON.
Toggle Page Mode for a paginated letter-size canvas with visible page boundaries. Insert page breaks, then print or export to a clean, properly-paginated PDF.
Insert a task list with one click. Check items off as you go — completed items get a strikethrough and stay in place. Exports as standard [ ] / [x] task syntax.
Seven sort modes per Notebook — manual drag, date modified, date created, A→Z, Z→A, and label ascending or descending. Group related notes into named Note Groups. Each Notebook remembers its own sort independently.
Three resizable panels, each with their own sort order. Collapse what you don't need. Your layout is saved and restored every time you open the app.
WIP Notes opens and exports more file types than you'll probably ever need. Move your existing notes in, and get your writing out in exactly the format you want.
The editor saves automatically as you type — no Cmd+S required, ever. Switch notes freely; your work is always persisted. The status bar shows live word and character counts.
monospace or full code blocks
Seven label colors — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Gray — can be applied to any Notebook or individual note. They're the same seven colors everywhere, so your system works consistently. They also match the standard macOS Finder labels, so your color system carries across your entire project workflow.
WIP Notes ships with an MCP server that connects your notes to the AI tools you already use — Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, and Gemini CLI. Ask questions, create notes, and reorganize your workspace without leaving your AI assistant.
Found 3 notes in Client Work:
Still open: timeline. They pushed back on the 6-week estimate — no resolution logged yet.
Attorney-client privilege depends on confidentiality. Keep client matter notes, case strategy, and privileged communications in an app that can't expose them — no cloud account to subpoena, no sync logs, no third-party servers.
Sensitive, nondisclosed materials — unreleased product plans, M&A notes, board materials, and competitive intelligence — belong on your machine, not in a cloud service governed by someone else's terms. WIP Notes works on air-gapped networks and locked-down corporate environments with no setup.
Sensitive environments and classified networks prohibit cloud-connected apps by policy. WIP Notes makes no outbound connections — it runs entirely offline, installs from a single .dmg, and requires no authentication, account, or internet access at any point.
Every Mac notes app makes a different trade-off on price, privacy, and structure. Here's where WIP Notes fits — honestly, including where it doesn't win.
The fastest scratchpad on the Mac — great for notes that don't need to last past today.
Compare →A beautifully crafted markdown editor with real cross-device sync — if you actually need it.
Compare →Already on your Mac and synced through iCloud — simple, but not built for structured project work.
Compare →The original cloud notebook — a 2025 plan overhaul pushed full-featured pricing close to $250 a year.
Compare →Local-first like WIP Notes, but built for linked knowledge graphs — not day-to-day project work.
Compare →These are the ones we hear about most. If you're weighing WIP Notes against something else, email us — we'll give you a straight answer.
Ask us →No subscription. No renewal. No seat fees. Pay once and WIP Notes is yours for life.
Try WIP Notes free for 30 days — no account, no credit card. Buy once and it's yours forever.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · One-time purchase, no subscription