CowSync Guide › Documents & records
Notepad
Notes that save as you type, with checklists, tags, templates, voice dictation, sketches and AI that tidies up, summarizes or turns notes into tasks.
Notepad is for everything you would scribble on the back of a feed ticket: vet visit notes, a daily ranch log, a breeding plan, a calving checklist. To open it, click Workspace in the menu, then Notepad. Notes save as you type. The little word beside the title reads Saving… and then Saved.
Simple or Advanced
The Simple / Advanced switch at the top right picks how much you see. Simple is just a place to write. Advanced adds AI, voice, drawing, the full formatting toolbar, tags, color labels and filters. You can change it any time, and nothing you have written is lost.
Make a note
- Click New note for a blank note.
- Click the small arrow beside it for Templates: Blank note, Daily ranch log, Vet visit, Meeting notes, Breeding plan, Calving season checklist, Sale prep and Brainstorm.
- Type a title in Untitled note, then write underneath.
Find a note
The left list has Search … notes, which searches titles, text, tags and animals. In Advanced mode there are also quick filters (All, Pinned, Drawings and your most-used #tags), a sort box (Recently edited, Recently created, Title A–Z) and colored dots that filter by color label. Pinned notes always stay at the top.
Right-click a note in the list for Open, Pin to top / Unpin, Duplicate, Share link…, Copy text, Export Markdown and Delete. With no notes yet, the list reads “No notes yet — create one or record a voice note.”
Tags, animals and colors
Under the title, type in Add tag and press Enter (up to 12 tags per note). Click Link animal to tie the note to an animal, tag or group, and Unlink to remove it. Pick a color dot to label the note. See Labels & tags for how tags work across CowSync.
Formatting
The toolbar has undo and redo, a text style menu (text and headings), bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text color, highlight, bullet list, numbered list, checklist, quote, divider, table, image, link, alignment and clear formatting. Hover over a button to see its keyboard shortcut, such as Ctrl B for bold or Ctrl ⇧ 9 for a checklist. Ctrl S saves straight away.
In Advanced mode, type / at the start of a line for commands: headings, lists, checklist, quote, code block, divider, table, drawing, image, today’s date, current time, dictate, Ask AI…, AI clean up and AI keep writing.
Talk instead of type
- Dictate (Ctrl ⇧ M) types what you say, live, into the note. Live dictation needs Chrome or Edge.
- Record opens the voice recorder for a longer voice note, up to 20 minutes, such as a vet visit or a pasture walk. When you stop, choose Insert transcript (the words as spoken), Clean up (tidied text) or AI notes (a summary with action items). Re-record starts over. Tick Save the audio to Drive › Voice notes to keep the recording in Drive.
If the microphone is blocked, allow it in your browser’s site settings.
Draw
Draw (Paint mode, Ctrl ⇧ D) opens a sketch pad for a pasture layout or a quick diagram. The drawing is saved into the note. Click a photo in a note for Draw on this image, Download image or Remove image.
AI help
Open the AI assistant (Ctrl J) and pick a quick action: Clean up, Summarize, Meeting notes, Action items → Calendar, Make a checklist, Bullet points, Extract a table, Expand, Shorten, Professional tone, Friendly tone, Keep writing or Explain / add context. You can also translate into Spanish, English, Japanese, Portuguese or French, or type your own request in Ask AI to do something…. You see the result first, then choose Replace or Insert.
Action items → Calendar (also Send action items to calendar in the ⋯ menu) finds the to-dos in your note and lets you add the ones you pick to your calendar.
Share, export and print
The ⋯ menu has Share link… (a view-only web link that works like the Drive share link: pick when it expires, then copy, email or text it), Export Markdown (.md) (a plain text file other note apps can open), Export text (.txt), Export web page (.html), Print / save as PDF, Copy as text, Duplicate, Read aloud and Delete note. The expand button gives you focus mode, a full-screen page with nothing else on it.