Copy & Export Options

Scratch provides flexible export options through the Copy & Export menu, accessible via Cmd+Shift+C or the toolbar button. The Copy & Export menu offers four formats:

Markdown - Raw Markdown source with all formatting
Plain Text - Stripped formatting for pasting into emails or plain text apps
HTML - Rendered HTML for pasting into rich text editors
PDF - Printable PDF via your browser’s print dialog

The menu also includes a Download Markdown option to save the current note as a standalone .md file.

Copy as Markdown

What It Does

Copies the current note’s raw Markdown source to your clipboard.

Example Output

# Meeting Notes - Q1 Planning

## Attendees
- Alice (Product)
- Bob (Engineering)
- Carol (Design)

## Action Items
- [ ] Draft project timeline
- [ ] Review design mockups
- [ ] Schedule follow-up

## Notes
**Key decision:** We'll use Figma for prototypes.

> "Let's keep this simple and iterate quickly." - Alice

Next meeting: [[2024-03-10]]

Use Cases

Paste into another Markdown editor (Obsidian, Typora, VS Code)
Share notes via Slack/Discord (with Markdown support)
Archive notes in version control (Git, GitHub)
Convert to other formats using Pandoc

How to Use

Open Copy & Export Menu

Press Cmd+Shift+C or click the Share button (↗) in the editor toolbar.

Select 'Copy as Markdown'

Click the Markdown option (📝 icon).

Paste Anywhere

Press Cmd+V to paste the Markdown source.

Scratch cleans up non-breaking spaces ( ) and HTML entities that TipTap inserts (especially in table cells) before copying.

Copy as Plain Text

What It Does

Strips all Markdown formatting and copies plain text only to your clipboard.

Example Output

From the same note:

Meeting Notes - Q1 Planning

Attendees
Alice (Product)
Bob (Engineering)
Carol (Design)

Action Items
Draft project timeline
Review design mockups
Schedule follow-up

Notes
Key decision: We'll use Figma for prototypes.

"Let's keep this simple and iterate quickly." - Alice

Next meeting: 2024-03-10

What Gets Stripped

Headings - # markers removed, text remains
Bold/Italic - **bold**, *italic* → plain text
Links - [text](url) → text (URL discarded)
Wikilinks - [[Note]] → Note
Images - ![alt](url) → alt text
Code - Backticks removed, code text remains
Lists - Bullets and numbers removed, items remain
Tables - Converted to plain text (pipe separators removed)
Blockquotes - > prefix removed

Use Cases

Paste into emails (no formatting clutter)
Copy to non-Markdown apps (Apple Notes, Evernote)
Plain text backups (for archival or search)
Word count tools (formatting doesn’t interfere)

How to Use

Open Copy & Export Menu

Press Cmd+Shift+C.

Select 'Copy as Plain Text'

Click the Plain Text option (📄 icon).

Paste Anywhere

Press Cmd+V - all formatting is gone.

Plain text export uses a custom Markdown stripper that preserves paragraph breaks and list structure while removing all syntax.

Copy as HTML

What It Does

Copies rendered HTML of the current note to your clipboard.

Example Output

<h1>Meeting Notes - Q1 Planning</h1>
<h2>Attendees</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Alice (Product)</li>
  <li>Bob (Engineering)</li>
  <li>Carol (Design)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Action Items</h2>
<ul class="task-list">
  <li><input type="checkbox" disabled> Draft project timeline</li>
  <li><input type="checkbox" disabled> Review design mockups</li>
  <li><input type="checkbox" disabled> Schedule follow-up</li>
</ul>
<h2>Notes</h2>
<p><strong>Key decision:</strong> We'll use Figma for prototypes.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>"Let's keep this simple and iterate quickly." - Alice</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Next meeting: <a href="#">2024-03-10</a></p>

Use Cases

Paste into rich text editors (Google Docs, Microsoft Word)
Embed in websites (WordPress, Notion)
Email newsletters (formatted content)
Convert to other formats (HTML → DOCX via Pandoc)

How to Use

Open Copy & Export Menu

Press Cmd+Shift+C.

Select 'Copy as HTML'

Click the HTML option (🌐 icon).

Paste into Rich Text Editor

Press Cmd+V in Google Docs, Word, or your email client.

HTML export includes TipTap’s editor classes. You may want to clean them up with an HTML sanitizer for production use.

Export as PDF

What It Does

Opens your browser’s print dialog with the note pre-formatted for printing or saving as PDF.

Features

Clean layout - Optimized for print (no sidebar, toolbar, or UI)
Typography - Uses your editor font settings
Page breaks - Intelligent breaks for headings
Filename - Defaults to note title

How to Use

Open Copy & Export Menu

Press Cmd+Shift+C.

Select 'Export as PDF'

Click the PDF option (📥 icon).

Configure Print Settings

In the print dialog:

Destination: Save as PDF
Layout: Portrait
Margins: Default or Custom

Save PDF

Click Save and choose a location.

Print Dialog Options

Setting	Recommendation
Destination	Save as PDF (not “Print”)
Pages	All (or select range)
Layout	Portrait (or Landscape for tables)
Margins	Default (1 inch)
Background graphics	Off (cleaner output)

For professional PDFs, adjust your editor font settings first (Settings → Appearance → Editor Typography). Serif fonts work well for print.

PDF Styling

The PDF uses browser print media queries for clean output:

No UI elements - Sidebar, toolbar, and buttons are hidden
Optimized typography - Readable line height and font size
Print-friendly colors - High contrast for black-and-white printing

Limitations

No custom headers/footers - Use browser print settings to add page numbers
No watermarks - Add them in post-processing (Adobe Acrobat, Preview)
Images require network - If images are hosted remotely, they must be accessible during print

PDF export relies on the browser’s print engine. Layout may vary between browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox). Test with your preferred browser.

Download as Markdown

What It Does

Saves the current note as a standalone .md file to your Downloads folder.

How to Use

Open Copy & Export Menu

Press Cmd+Shift+C.

Select 'Download Markdown'

Click the Download option (💾 icon).

Choose Location

A file picker opens. Select a folder and filename.

Save

Click Save - the file is written to disk.

Use Cases

Share individual notes (email attachment, Slack upload)
Archive snapshots (before major edits)
Migrate to another app (export all notes as .md files)
Offline backups (keep local copies outside the notes folder)

Downloaded files are not linked to your notes folder. Edits to the downloaded file don’t affect the original note.

Keyboard Shortcuts

All export options are accessible via keyboard:

Action	Shortcut
Open Copy & Export Menu	`Cmd+Shift+C`
Copy as Markdown	(Select from menu)
Copy as Plain Text	(Select from menu)
Copy as HTML	(Select from menu)
Export as PDF	(Select from menu)
Download Markdown	(Select from menu)

On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl+Shift+C instead of Cmd+Shift+C.

Clipboard Integration

Scratch uses Tauri’s clipboard-manager plugin for reliable clipboard access:

Platform-Specific Behavior

macOS: Uses NSPasteboard API
Windows: Uses Windows Clipboard API
Linux: Uses X11 or Wayland clipboard (requires clipboard manager)

Clipboard Formats

Export Option	Clipboard Format
Markdown	`text/plain`
Plain Text	`text/plain`
HTML	`text/html` (rich text)

HTML export uses both text/plain and text/html clipboard formats. Apps that support rich text (Google Docs, Word) use HTML; others fall back to plain text.

Advanced: Custom Export Scripts

For custom export workflows, access notes directly from the file system:

Example: Export All Notes to PDF

#!/bin/bash
# export-all-pdf.sh - Convert all notes to PDF using Pandoc

NOTES_DIR="$HOME/Documents/Notes"
OUTPUT_DIR="$HOME/Documents/Notes-PDF"

mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

find "$NOTES_DIR" -name "*.md" -type f | while read -r note; do
  filename=$(basename "$note" .md)
  pandoc "$note" -o "$OUTPUT_DIR/$filename.pdf" \
    --pdf-engine=xelatex \
    --variable geometry:margin=1in
  echo "Exported: $filename.pdf"
done

Example: Export to DOCX

# Convert a note to DOCX
pandoc "Meeting Notes.md" -o "Meeting Notes.docx"

Example: Export to HTML (Standalone)

# Convert a note to standalone HTML with CSS
pandoc "Project Ideas.md" -o "Project Ideas.html" \
  --standalone \
  --css=style.css

Pandoc supports 40+ formats including EPUB, LaTeX, RTF, and AsciiDoc. Use it for advanced conversions.

Batch Export

Scratch doesn’t have a built-in “Export All” feature, but you can use Git or file sync:

Via Git

Your notes folder is already a backup if you use Git:

cd ~/Documents/Notes
git archive --format=zip --output=notes-backup.zip HEAD

Via Zip

Create a zip archive of your notes folder:

zip -r notes-backup.zip ~/Documents/Notes -x "*.git*" "*.scratch*"

Via Cloud Sync

Move your notes folder to Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or Google Drive for automatic cloud backups.

Troubleshooting

”Failed to copy” Error

Cause: Clipboard access denied (Linux). Fix: Install a clipboard manager (xclip, xsel, wl-clipboard).

PDF Export Shows Blank Page

Cause: Images failed to load during print. Fix: Ensure images are local (in assets/ folder) or accessible online.

HTML Paste Loses Formatting

Cause: Target app doesn’t support rich text. Fix: Use “Copy as Markdown” and paste into a Markdown-aware app.

Downloaded Markdown File Is Corrupted

Cause: Special characters in filename. Fix: Rename the note with a simpler title before downloading.

Best Practices

Export before major edits - Download a Markdown snapshot as a backup
Use Markdown for portability - Markdown files work everywhere
Use HTML for presentation - Google Docs, Notion, WordPress
Use PDF for archival - Print-friendly, preserves formatting
Automate with scripts - Use Pandoc for batch conversions

Exported files are static snapshots. If you edit the original note in Scratch, the exported version is not updated.

External Editors - Edit notes outside Scratch
Multi-Device Sync - Use Git to sync notes across devices
Organizing Notes - File structure and naming conventions

Get Started

Core Features

Advanced

Guides

​Copy & Export Menu

​Copy as Markdown

​What It Does

​Example Output

​Use Cases

​How to Use

​Copy as Plain Text

​What It Does

​Example Output

​What Gets Stripped

​Use Cases

​How to Use

​Copy as HTML

​What It Does

​Example Output

​Use Cases

​How to Use

​Export as PDF

​What It Does

​Features

​How to Use

​Print Dialog Options

​PDF Styling

​Limitations

​Download as Markdown

​What It Does

​How to Use

​Use Cases

​Keyboard Shortcuts

​Clipboard Integration

​Platform-Specific Behavior

​Clipboard Formats

​Advanced: Custom Export Scripts

​Example: Export All Notes to PDF

​Example: Export to DOCX

​Example: Export to HTML (Standalone)

​Batch Export

​Via Git

​Via Zip

​Via Cloud Sync

​Troubleshooting

​”Failed to copy” Error

​PDF Export Shows Blank Page

​HTML Paste Loses Formatting

​Downloaded Markdown File Is Corrupted

​Best Practices

​Related Features

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Copy & Export Menu

Copy as Markdown

What It Does

Example Output

Use Cases

How to Use

Copy as Plain Text

What It Does

Example Output

What Gets Stripped

Use Cases

How to Use

Copy as HTML

What It Does

Example Output

Use Cases

How to Use

Export as PDF

What It Does

Features

How to Use

Print Dialog Options

PDF Styling

Limitations

Download as Markdown

What It Does

How to Use

Use Cases

Keyboard Shortcuts

Clipboard Integration

Platform-Specific Behavior

Clipboard Formats

Advanced: Custom Export Scripts

Example: Export All Notes to PDF

Example: Export to DOCX

Example: Export to HTML (Standalone)

Batch Export

Via Git

Via Zip

Via Cloud Sync

Troubleshooting

”Failed to copy” Error

PDF Export Shows Blank Page

HTML Paste Loses Formatting

Downloaded Markdown File Is Corrupted

Best Practices

Related Features