Getting started

Install the extension, find the dock, and leave your first note.

Pagenail attaches notes to web pages. You write a note on a page; the next time you open that page — tomorrow, next month, in a different window — the note is already there.

Install it

  1. Open the Chrome Web Store listing.
  2. Click Add to Chrome, then Add extension when Chrome asks.

Chrome doesn’t put new extensions on the toolbar — it files them behind a puzzle-piece icon, which is where most people lose sight of Pagenail. To pin it:

  1. Click the puzzle piece at the right-hand end of the address bar.
  2. Find Pagenail in the list that drops down.
  3. Click the pin beside it.

The icon moves onto the toolbar and stays there. You don’t need it to take notes — the dock is on the page itself — but it’s how you reach your account and the dashboard.

TODO — link the real listing once it’s live. The URL lives in one place, src/consts.ts, and every install button on the site reads it from there.

There’s no account and no setup. Pagenail is live on every tab as soon as it finishes installing.

Find the dock

You don’t need to click the toolbar icon to start writing. Pagenail adds a narrow vertical strip — the dock — to the right edge of every page you visit. It’s about 30 pixels wide and holds six small controls.

The toolbar icon does something different: it holds your account and a button that opens the dashboard. You can ignore it for now.

If you can’t see the dock, the page is one Pagenail can’t run on. See Troubleshooting.

Leave your first note

Open a page you read often — documentation, an article, a dashboard.

  1. Click the article icon in the dock to open the note panel.
  2. Type your note in the box.
  3. Press Enter.

The note joins a thread — a running list of everything you’ve written on this page, oldest first. Press Shift + Enter instead if you want a line break rather than saving.

Check that it stuck

Reload the page and open the panel again. Your note should be waiting.

If it isn’t, the page’s address probably changed between visits. Pagenail matches notes on the address, and addresses shift more often than people expect — see How pages are matched.

Where to go next

  • The dock — what each control does
  • Stickies — notes that float on the page instead of in a list
  • The dashboard — everything you’ve written, in one place