Google’s help describes Chrome’s side panel as the place for your reading list, bookmarks, history, Google Lens and more; it does not describe a place for your own notes. With LB TAB Layers 2.9.0 you can keep card-style notes and to-do checklists in the side panel: press Notes in the view bar, choose Take a note… or New list, and start typing. Notes save as you type and are free to use. They are kept on this computer rather than as bookmarks, so copy or download the ones that matter.
Some notes belong right next to the page you are reading: the three things to check before you buy, the questions for this afternoon’s call, the steps you have already tried. Switching to another app or another tab to write them down breaks your train of thought, and the note ends up somewhere you won’t look again.
What Chrome offers out of the box
Chrome’s side panel is a good place for reference material. According to Google’s help page, it can show your reading list, bookmarks, history, Google Lens and more, and you can pin panels such as Reading mode. The reading list is handy for pages you want to read later, but it stores pages, not your own words.
So most people keep notes elsewhere: a notes app in another window, a document in another tab, or a paper notebook. They all work. They just live away from the page.
Where to find notes in LB TAB Layers
Version 2.9.0 adds a notes board to the panel. There are two ways in:
- Notes in the view bar (above your group list) shows your notes at full height. The bar appears while the mode at the top of the panel is Tabs.
- The Notes tab at the bottom of the panel, next to Solo Tabs and Today’s History. In the Combined layout this puts your groups on top and your notes underneath, so you can open the pages for a task and tick them off in the same panel.
The same notes are there when you open the panel in a standalone window or a browser tab, which is useful for meeting notes on a second monitor.
The first time you open it, a checklist called Quick Note is waiting with one empty item. The board keeps at least one note.
Make a checklist
- Click New list at the top of the board. A new checklist appears at the top with the cursor in the first item.
- Type the first item and press Enter. A new item appears right below it, so you can keep typing. (If you type with an input method such as Japanese or Chinese, the Enter that confirms a conversion does not add an item.)
- Press Backspace on an empty item to remove it and jump back to the end of the previous one.
- To add an item at the end later, click List item… at the bottom of the list.
- Tick an item when it is done. It moves to N completed item(s) at the bottom of the card, struck through and greyed out. Click that heading to fold or unfold it; untick an item to bring it back.
- To delete an item, hover over it and click × (Delete item).
Give the card a name in Note title at the top, for example “Before Friday’s launch”.
Write a text note
Click Take a note… for a plain text note. It opens at the top of the board, ready for typing: “Type your notes here… (Auto-saved)”. Use it for meeting notes, a draft reply or anything that is not a list.
The tools on each card
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pin note (top right) | Pinned notes gather under PINNED at the top; the rest are listed under OTHERS. |
| Toggle checkboxes | Turns a text note into a checklist (one line becomes one item) or a checklist back into text. |
| Change color | Eight colors: the theme’s default and seven soft tints. Handy for telling work, personal and errands apart. |
| Copy | Copies the note as text: the title as ### Title, list items as - [ ] item and - [x] item. Text notes are copied as you wrote them. |
| Download (.txt) | Saves the same text as a .txt file named after the note’s title. Where it goes follows your Chrome download settings. |
| Delete this note | Asks for confirmation, then deletes the note. There is no trash or undo. |
A few details worth knowing:
- Converting text to a list drops blank lines. Lines that start with ☑, ✓, ✔ or - [x] come in ticked, and markers such as ☐, - [ ] or * are removed.
- Converting a list back to text keeps the words but not the ticks. If you switch back again, the items start unticked.
- Order: new notes go on top, and pinning is the way to keep one in view. Cards are not reordered by dragging.
- Deleting your last remaining note clears its title and contents instead of removing the card.
Where your notes are saved
Notes save themselves: the text a moment after you stop typing, and ticks, pins and colors straight away. A small ✓ Auto-saved appears briefly after you type.
They are kept in the extension’s storage in Chrome on this computer. If you have LB TAB Layers open in more than one place in the same Chrome profile (a side panel in another window, a standalone window, a tab view), they all show the same notes. If you edit in two of them at the same moment, the later save wins.
Please read: notes are not bookmarks. They do not sync to your other computers, they are not included in Export (JSON) or the Google Sheets export, and they are removed if you uninstall the extension. Keep anything important with Copy or Download (.txt). Tabs you save into groups are different: they are Chrome bookmarks and stay in Chrome.
The notes feature does not send your notes to Liquid Block or to an AI service. The panel’s search box looks through your tabs and groups, not your notes.
Notes cards vs. notes on a saved tab
LB TAB Layers also lets you attach a short note to a saved tab, to remember why you kept it. That note belongs to one tab. The notes board is for everything else: to-do lists, meeting notes, ideas.
Three ways to use it
- Research checklist. In the Combined layout, open a project group on top and keep a “to check” list in the Notes tab below. Tick each page off as you go.
- Call notes on a second monitor. Open the panel in a standalone window, switch to Notes, and type during the call. Afterwards, use Copy and paste the notes into your team chat (a checklist comes out as a Markdown to-do list).
- Today’s list, pinned. Pin one checklist for today and give it a color, so it stays at the top while other notes come and go.
The cards look and feel similar to Google Keep, but LB TAB Layers is not connected to Google Keep and is not a Google product.
Chrome’s official help
Frequently asked questions
Q. Can I take notes in Chrome’s side panel?
Google’s help describes the side panel for your reading list, bookmarks, history, Google Lens and more, but not for writing your own notes. An extension can add a place for them: in LB TAB Layers, press Notes in the view bar or open the Notes tab at the bottom of the panel to write notes and checklists.
Q. Do the notes sync to my other computers?
No. Notes are kept in the extension’s storage in Chrome on this computer. Views of LB TAB Layers open in the same Chrome profile stay in step, but other computers do not receive them. Use Copy or Download (.txt) to move a note elsewhere.
Q. Is the notes feature free?
Yes. Notes and checklists, colors, pins, copy and download all work in the free version of LB TAB Layers.
Q. What happens to my notes if I remove the extension?
They are removed together with the extension’s data, so copy or download the ones you want to keep first. Tabs you saved into groups are Chrome bookmarks and stay in Chrome.
▶ See it in action
Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)
Notes beside your tabs.
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