Support

Commonplace has two parts: the Chrome extension, and Commonplace Helper, a small Mac app that lets the extension reach Apple Notes.

1. Download Commonplace Helper, open the disk image and drag Commonplace Helper to Applications.
2. Open Commonplace Helper and allow the items it lists (see Permissions). When all four have a green check, click Done.
3. Add Commonplace to Chrome from the Chrome Web Store. To keep it handy, click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome's toolbar and pin Commonplace.
4. Quit and reopen Chrome, so it finds the helper.

A Mac with macOS 13 or later and Apple Notes, and Google Chrome or another Chromium browser: Brave, Microsoft Edge, Arc, Vivaldi or Chromium. Commonplace Helper connects itself to every one of these it finds when you open it.

No. Commonplace needs Apple Notes on a Mac. The entries it saves are ordinary notes, though, so they sync to your iPhone and iPad like the rest of your notes.

Yes, and open source under the MIT license: github.com/victor-shammas/commonplace. There are no ads and no account. If Commonplace is useful to you, consider buying me a coffee.

• Notes (Automation): to list your notes and folders, and open the note you pick.
• System Events (Automation) and Accessibility: to paste the entry at the end of the note. macOS only lets apps with Accessibility access send the paste keystroke.

Commonplace pastes because Apple Notes' scripting interface loses links and images when a note's text is rewritten, and pasting keeps every earlier entry intact. Your clipboard is put back right after.

macOS asks about Commonplace Helper, not Chrome: Chrome doesn't take responsibility for the helpers it starts.

macOS doesn't ask twice. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, then:

• Automation: under Commonplace Helper, switch on Notes and System Events.
• Accessibility: switch on Commonplace Helper.

Opening Commonplace Helper shows which items are still missing, with buttons that open the right settings. To start over, run tccutil reset All com.victorshammas.commonplace.helper in Terminal and open the helper again.

Each save adds four lines to the end of the note: the page title as a link, the page address, the date and time, and your comment, if you wrote one, in square brackets. A blank line separates entries. It's ordinary note text, so you can edit, move or search it in Notes.

Yes. Select the text on the page first, then click Commonplace's icon: the selection is filled into the quick note. Return adds a line break; ⌘↩ saves.

It removes known tracking tags such as utm_source, fbclid and gclid from the saved address, and leaves everything else, so links like YouTube's ?v= keep working. Untick it to save the address exactly as it is.

The helper opens the note and pastes the entry at its end, then switches you back to your browser. It takes about a second.

The list shows straight away from the last time and then refreshes from Notes; click ↻ to refresh it yourself. Folders without notes, and Recently Deleted, aren't listed. Subfolders appear as “Parent / Child”.

Chrome can't find the helper. Install it (see How do I install Commonplace?), open it once so it connects to your browsers, then quit and reopen Chrome. If the popup says the helper needs updating, download the latest version and open it once.

A permission is missing. See I clicked “Don't Allow”.

Commonplace can't add to locked notes. Pick another note, or unlock it in Notes first.

Notes didn't register a change. Open Notes, check the note isn't in the middle of syncing or showing a dialog, and try again. Your clipboard is restored either way.

Entries go into your notes. The list of note names, your last-used note and your settings are kept in Chrome's local storage for the extension. Nothing leaves your Mac: Commonplace makes no network requests and has no server. See the privacy policy.

1. Remove the extension: right-click its toolbar icon and choose Remove from Chrome.
2. Drag Commonplace Helper from Applications to the Trash.
3. Optionally, remove its browser registrations and permissions in Terminal:
   find ~/Library/Application\ Support -path '*NativeMessagingHosts/com.victorshammas.commonplace.json' -delete
tccutil reset All com.victorshammas.commonplace.helper

The entries you saved stay in your notes until you delete them.