Stickies , those small Post - It - type notes you’re able to forget on your Mac ’s screen background , have advance a lot of functionality over the years . you may dress up notes with multiple fonts and colors , append images , and make notes float over all other practical program window ( Option - Command - F ) . Notes can appear translucent ( Option - Command - T ) and even take hold QuickTime movies . But the one thing you still ca n’t do is scroll through a long note . If you have a mess of text you desire to keep handy , you have to use the keyboard ( arrow and Page Up / Down keys ) to sail the note ’s contents .
Thankfully , there ’s a simple solution , as long as you have Apple ’s Developer Tools ( also live as Xcode tools ) installed . Even those of us who are just users can take advantage of these applications to bestow feature the programmers allow for out . In this case , we ’ll be using a program address Interface Builder ( /Developer / Applications ) to tot scrollbars to our Stickies .
Please note that this hint isnota comprehensive introduction to modifying program with Interface Builder . If you ’d really like to learn more about Xcode , or Interface Builder in particular , you’re able to start by reading Apple’sXcode User ’s Guide . But be forwarned , it ’s written by and for programmers , and as such , it ’s not the easiest read .
But back to today ’s conjuration . bear you ’ve got the Xcode shaft installed , this should n’t take more than a dyad minutes . First , check that Stickies is n’t running , and then make a support of the program — Option - drag it to another leaflet or push back to make a copy . Interface Builder will mechanically make a relief of the data file we ’re going to modify , so this step is n’t technically necessary . in person , however , I favour to have a full championship of the program , as it ’s sometimes promiscuous to just replace the entire bad version with a safe backup .
If you have a lot of crucial information in your real Stickies note , you may desire to back up them up as well , though nothing we ’re going to do will touch your data filing cabinet . ( Your notes are stored in a file called StickiesDatabase , located in your user ’s Library booklet . If you keep a lot of of import info in your Stickies , you should be backing this file up regularly ! )
Now control - clack on the Stickies applications programme and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual bill of fare . In the new window that opens , sail to Contents / Resources / English.lproj . ( If you ’re not using an English version of OS X , replace English.lproj with your chosen language . )
Inside this folder , you ’ll see a act of files . Double - tap StickiesDocument.nib , and Interface Builder should establish and start the file . Interface Builder displays three windows when it opens—StickiesDocument.nib , Stickies , and Cocoa - Menus , as seen here :
The windowpane you ’re interested in is the big empty white one entitle Stickies . fall into place within the lily-white area on the window itself . When you do , the windowpane will come to the foreground , and you should see a selection rectangle ( with smaller rectangles at various points ) around the blank sphere , indicating that this is the selected fortune of the window — it ’s seeable as the fleeceable outline in the above screenshot .
Once this plane section of the windowpane is dynamic , blue-ribbon Tools : Show Inspector , or just come to Shift - Command - I. The NSTextView Inspector appear . verify the top pappa - up is adjust to Attributes — it should be by default . You ’ll see a lot of options here , but you ’re only interested in two : Show Scroller and Automatically blot out Scroller . Select the Show Scroller choice and the Automatically Hide Scroller option look . Select it as well . The window should expect like this when you ’re done :
Once you ’ve checked those two boxful , you ’re done . Hit Command - S to save the single file , and then depart Interface Builder . Relaunch Stickies , resize a note , and wonder at the mechanically appear - and - disappear scrollbars .
Now why did n’t Apple simply give Stickies scrollbars from the outset ? Who screw ; perhaps they feel the scrollbars were worthless , or mayhap there ’s some deep - sit down hemipterous insect that may crop up in sure spot . I have n’t run across any bug yet and I ’ve been using a modified interpretation of Stickies for a year . But please proceed at your own risk and back up your crucial data !
