← All articles · Updated October 29, 2026

Notepad Alternative That Shows Multiple Notes at Once (No Tabs)

If you keep a lot of small notes open, a classic text editor can feel awkward: every note is a tab, and you can only read one of them at a time. This article compares the common ways to work with several text notes and explains when a tiled, multi-note view is the better choice.

Three ways editors show many notes

Tabs. Editors such as Notepad++ and the Notepad app in current versions of Windows 11 open each file in its own tab. Tabs save space and are great when you work on one file at a time, but you must click to see anything else.
Separate windows. Every note gets its own window that you can place anywhere. This shows several notes at once, but arranging, resizing and finding the right window gets tiring beyond three or four notes.
A tiled board. All notes sit in a grid on one screen, all visible, all editable. This is how AllInNote works. It is best for short notes you want to scan and compare, such as a daily board, meeting notes, snippets or research fragments.

When tabs are still the better tool

A tiled board is not a replacement for everything. If you edit a handful of long files, need syntax highlighting for many languages, or work with files that are tens of thousands of lines long, a full code or text editor with tabs is the right tool. A grid works best when notes are short enough to fit in a panel and you value seeing them together.

When a multi-note board helps

Daily planning. Inbox, today, this week, waiting and ideas side by side.
Meetings. Several meeting notes plus a pinned template on one screen.
Reference. Frequently used snippets, links and checklists that you copy from all day.
Research. Quotes and observations from different sources, compared visually.
Drafting. Several versions of the same paragraph to choose from.

What AllInNote adds to the idea

Up to 100 notes in one grid. Pick a layout by dragging over a 10 × 10 board.
Every note is a real .txt file in a folder you choose, saved automatically as you type.
Color coding, pinning, duplicating, drag-to-reorder and resizable borders.
Find a word across all notes at once; matching notes get a red outline.
Runs in the browser, free, with no account. See the FAQ for details.

Honest limits

AllInNote edits plain text; the formatting you apply is a display setting and is not stored inside the file. Automatic saving to a folder needs a desktop Chromium browser such as Chrome or Edge. It has no cloud sync of its own, although you can place your notes folder inside a folder synced by a cloud drive service. If these limits matter, combine it with the tools you already use rather than replacing them.