A Lightweight, "Drag-First" Desktop Note-Taking App for Windows.
Drag2Note-Lite is a minimal productivity tool designed to capture information quickly. By dragging text, images, or files onto a floating drop zone, you can turn thoughts into structured, searchable notes.
Unlike complex cloud-based note apps, Drag2Note-Lite focuses on:
- Speed: Fast startup and quick capture via global hotkeys.
- Privacy: 100% Request-free. Your data lives on your disk.
- UI: A clean WPF UI designed for Windows.
- Lightweight: Optimized for performance with minimal footprint.
Drag content to the floating ball to capture.
Features include:
- Card Reordering: Built with native WPF drag-and-drop events for a lightweight and smooth interaction.
- Tag Management: Custom native implementation allow you to drag tags within draggable cards without conflicts.
- File Capture: Drag any file onto the floating ball to create a note. Images are auto-previewed; text files are parsed.
- Auto-Date Tags: Automatically tags new notes with
YYYY-MM-DD. - Drag-to-Sort: Reorder tags just like you reorder notes.
- Inline Editing: Double-click any tag to rename it.
- Dark Mode: The UI adapts to your system theme.
- Interface:
- Capsule Toggles: Smooth transitions between "Notes/Todo" and "Edit/Preview".
- Controls: Custom
ControlTemplatesfor consistent visual feedback.
- Clean MVVM: Built on
CommunityToolkit.Mvvmfor a separation of concerns. - Local-First JSON: Data is stored in a human-readable
metadata.jsonand standard Markdown files. - Build It Yourself: No proprietary magic. Requires .NET 8.0 SDK.
- Go to the Releases page.
- Download
Drag2Note-Lite_Setup.exe. - Run the application.
- Global Hotkey: Press
Ctrl + Alt + Kto toggle the main dashboard. - Capture: Drag a file onto the floating ball (bottom right of screen).
- Edit: Click a card to enter "Editor Mode".
- Preview: Toggle the "Eye" icon to render Markdown.
This project uses the following open-source technologies:
| Category | Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Core | .NET 8.0 (C# 12) | High-performance runtime. |
| UI Framework | WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) | Hardware-accelerated desktop UI. |
| Architecture | MVVM (CommunityToolkit) | Clean code structure and binding. |
| Drag & Drop | Native WPF Events | Lightweight interactions. |
| Input | NHotkey.Wpf | Global keyboard hooks. |
| System | Hardcodet.NotifyIcon | System tray integration. |
For a detailed breakdown of the codebase, please refer to our Code Map (CODEMAP.md).
Drag2Note/
├── Views/ # XAML UI Definitions
├── ViewModels/ # Application Logic
├── Models/ # Data Structures
├── Services/ # File I/O & Business Logic
└── UserData/ # Your Notes (Local Storage)
Contributions are welcome!
- Fork the repository.
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature). - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add amazing feature'). - Push to the branch.
- Open a Pull Request.
Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.md for more information.
- Microsoft for the modern .NET ecosystem.
- Icons8 for the visual assets.