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Simple Text Editor Right in Your Browser

What do you do with those little ideas that sometimes light up in your head but you have no notepad ready to jot them down? Well, you just open a new tab on your web browser and type:

data:text/html, <html contenteditable>

And there you go! You just transformed your web browser (most modern browsers with HTML5 should do it) into a notepad. Well, not really, but kinda. You actually just took advantage of the Data URI scheme (defined in RFC 2397) that allows to include data in-line in web pages.

Wanna Shave the File?

The most basic way of using this feature would be for quick ideas or links or other types of notes you do not intent to save. But if save you must, go ahead and Ctrl (or command) + S the web page, which will then be save as a… well, web page, not a text document. Oh, I also meant “save” the file, not shave. You know what I mean!

Where Does It Work?

Since you are still here reading all this, you probably are wondering already if this will work in your browser. We tested the feature in Chrome Version 50.0.2661.94 (64-bit), Safari Version 9.1, and Firefox 45.0.2. Everyone worked just fine. Please see screenshot for proof.

data text html contenteditable